Are Dems using the Public Defender’s office to field anti-police candidates?

By Rubashov

We have been keeping track of the local politics in a handful of “bellweather” towns across New Jersey. These towns are representative in some way of a segment or idea about New Jersey and are a good indicator of trends. One such town is Ringwood, in Passaic County.

On Thursday, we reported that a certain candidate for borough council, Jessica Kitzman, was running for office even though she works in the criminal justice system as a public defender. Her LinkedIn page and the state’s attorneys website all indicate this, as do numerous other public documents.

A press release, issued by the New Jersey Attorney General’s office on July 23, 2021, notes that Kitzman – an “Assistant Deputy Public Defender” – was the defense attorney on a case involving a man who attempted “to lure a 14-year-old girl he met on social media for a sexual encounter. The ‘girl’ in reality was an undercover detective participating in ‘Operation Home Alone,’ a multi-agency undercover operation… that targeted individuals who allegedly were using social media to lure underage girls and boys for sex.”

We wondered how any self-respecting system of justice could allow the politicization of prosecutors and public defenders. So, we Googled can public defenders run for office in new jersey, and came up with this:

(a) All State officers and employees within the Office of the Public Defender are prohibited from becoming candidates for election to any elective public office and from accepting appointment to same (e.g. to fulfill the unexpired term of an elected public official).

According to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, Jessica Kitzman has been a candidate for borough council since March 18, 2021. So, we asked: “Is there anybody out there who can clear this up? Can a public defender run for public office? Please let us know.”

The local Democrat chairman answered our question and posted that Kitzman had received a “waiver” from the state and is allowed to run as an openly partisan Democrat for borough council. While this might be the case, Kitzman and the Democrats are certainly not advertising this on their campaign material. A recent mailer described her as a “public interest attorney with government experience.”

Why not just tell the truth? You are an Assistant Deputy Public Defender.

Heck, "public interest attorney" sounds like a lobbyist or someone pushing a policy agenda. And indeed, Kitzman does have an agenda as her statements and actions make clear, but there is a much larger question the New Jersey legal establishment and the taxpayers who pay the bills should be asking themselves: Is it really a good idea to turn the public defender’s office into a patronage holding area for Democrat candidates? Is that what it’s for?

A partisan candidacy for local office is only the first notch in climbing the greasy poll of elected office. A successful candidate for local office will naturally consider or be considered by party insiders for higher office. Do we want those partisan political considerations to get in the way of finding the truth through the justice system?

Would a prosecutor be inclined to go harder on someone whose politics he or she disagrees with? Conversely, would he let someone else walk? Careerism has already produced prosecutors who think primarily in terms of win/loss records and not of justice. Finding out what really happened comes second to “making a case.” And the consequences of that can be terrible for both the reputation of the process, as well as for the poor souls involved.

So too, with a public defender, looking to embellish a political career. Will he or she hold back on zealously defending someone the voting public loathes? Will he or she favor the cases that elevate standing with targeted political constituencies at the expense of justice? Ever aware of changing fashions, public defenders now routinely paint the police with a broad brush – can a political public defender be expected to pay less attention to partisan opinion?

And what is the ethos of the Public Defender’s office? What are the policies that its leadership has pursued? Just what do you get when you elect someone from that institution? Well, let’s start at the top, with Jessica Kitzman’s boss. This is from his public biography on his office’s website…

“He has become an influential stakeholder in the NJ’s justice system on many issues, having spearheaded NJ’s pretrial release reform that eliminated monetary bail, advocated for sentencing reform on NJ.s Sentencing Commission, and directed the filing of three successful Orders to Show Cause in the Supreme Court for release of jail and prison inmates during the pandemic.

…handled numerous death penalty cases until the abolition of the death penalty in December 2007. He served on the Death Penalty Study Commission as a strong advocate for its abolition.”

Okay, that is a clear policy direction.

In September of last year, Kitzman’s boss wrote an opinion piece in the Star-Ledger (NJ.com) which was unambiguous as to the ideology it embraced and in the policy direction it advocated:

“Social awareness and protests are important but not enough. People in positions of power must adopt policies and enact laws that take concrete steps designed to eradicate systemic racism. It is time to act.”

“The main culprit is the so-called drug-free school zone law that requires mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug offenses committed within 1,000 feet of school property. We have long known that it is a discriminatory law.”

This kind of honesty is to be applauded. The voters know exactly what to expect from the novitiates of such an institution as they pursue political office.

There is a network of non-profits, funded by Democrat party interest groups, that actively recruit and train candidates for public office. Kitzman is a graduate of one such group. They openly talk about building a “bench” from which to groom future county and state leaders. That so many on this bench hold patronage positions on taxpayer-supported payrolls is a good indicator of where the Democrat Party is heading.

When you recruit public defenders, special interest lobbyists, government regulators, and corporate “government affairs” careerists – instead of average property taxpayers, blue collar workers, retirees, and small businesspeople – your party takes a different direction and you get a different kind of government.

The politicization of the Public Defender’s office should be addressed. Trying to balance the scales of justice with the demands of electioneering is a fool’s errand. It is an injustice to everyone involved and a taint on our legal system.

“Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don't believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.”

Coretta Scott King

Big Pharma lobbyist LeRoy Jones defends Big Pharma’s Bob Hugin.

By Rubashov

In a remarkable intervention, the State Democrat Party Chairman came to the aid of his GOP counterpart, after the Republican was criticized for what the Democrat characterized as “attempting to introduce some level of diversity in candidate selection to (the state Republican) party.” On Friday afternoon, Democrat Chairman LeRoy Jones issued a press release defending State Republican Chairman Bob Hugin.

The two do share a degree of commonality. Jones is a Trenton lobbyist who counts Big Pharma among his clients (as well as Dominion Voting Systems). Hugin is a former Big Pharma executive. And, of course, both are members of the Trenton political Establishment.

It should be pointed out that, as a matter of fact, both oppose any real diversity in candidate selection – beyond that of a candidate’s surface appearance. No matter the outer husk of a candidate, you can be sure that both look to select so-called “party loyalists” – candidates who will be obedient to the needs of the Trenton Establishment. This is different than candidates who follow their party’s platform, or who have an ideological or policy benchmark.

If it were otherwise, Jones and Hugin would do away with the “county line” – a truly undemocratic institution, unique to New Jersey, that would be disqualified by the United Nations from use in an election anywhere in the civilized world. Jones’ party also wouldn’t spend enormous sums trying to stamp out reformist elements whenever they pop up.

Jones’ vision of “diversity” means that you can have candidates with a great many shades of skin coloring, or sexual interests, or gender identifications – so long as at their center there is the same corruption – the same, uniform, rot. That is how many different “identities” are managed in a way to ensure the same results: The same insiders making more money. The same taxpayers paying.

Nevertheless, it was a remarkable intervention by one member of the Trenton Establishment, on behalf of another. Jones’ press release reads, in part:

The latest NJ GOP turmoil comes from a highly critical blog post in the influential JerseyConservative.com, which attacks Ciattarelli and Hugin for attempting to introduce some level of diversity in candidate selection to their party. The post reads in part:

One high-ranking party boss in South Jersey said that Bob Hugin told him the NJGOP wants “new” looking candidates… youth, women, “minorities”, anything but old white guys. What’s going on in your head doesn’t matter… issues, policies, ideas, solutions, ethics, integrity, honesty… these things don’t matter. It is all about how you look and how they can market you. Sad, especially because they almost always lose anyway.

“It’s sad to see the Republican Party unable to reckon with a concept as simple as representing and respecting the diversity that makes our state unique, dynamic and powerful,” said NJDSC Chair LeRoy J. Jones, Jr. “If this is what Jack Ciattarelli’s Republican Party is fighting amongst itself about, how can it be counted on to address the issues of systemic racism and inequality that exist in our state and our nation? The answer is that it can’t, and the only party interested in advancing the cause of racial, social and economic justice is the Democratic Party..."

First, the Jersey Conservative post did not attack GOP gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli. It did question the waste of GOP resources – by Bob Hugin and others – in the active pursuit of pointless primary battles. One reason for these primary battles – suggested by Hugin when he targeted an incumbent Mercer County State Committee woman and in the passage quoted by Jones, above – was the pursuit of “diversity.”

Let us, for today, leave aside the fact that LeRoy Jones is partnered in his lobbying business with a longtime member of the Republican Establishment. Jones and this Establishment Republican make money together. Lots of money. This Republican is very close to the Republican operative who recruited Bob Hugin. Some operatives benefit directly from these primary fights within the GOP – generally in the form of monetary commissions, vendor mark-ups, and direct consultancy fees. Others benefit through professional contracts and such.

Viewed in context, could this remarkable intervention just be a case of the State Democrat Chairman doing a favor for his Republican business partner? And if so, how should the average Democrat feel about that?

Second, Jersey Conservative in no way represents the “Republican Party” organization in New Jersey. So, this is hardly a case of “fighting amongst itself”. Jersey Conservative takes a skeptical view of the Trenton Establishment. We are contrarian by nature. And while open to pretty much anyone who wishes to publish, it mainly exists to raise uncomfortable questions – to challenge Establishment opinion – much in the same way that someone like Sue Altman does within New Jersey’s Democrat/ liberal circles. Granted, we have yet to be physically assaulted and manhandled the way Altman was, at the direction of her party. Perhaps Chairman Jones might wish to comment on this, to assure us that diversity of opinion within his own party will, in the future, be tolerated?

Finally, the Jersey Conservative post was an appeal for less marketing (celebrity-style branding) and more results-oriented thinking. The post’s punchline reads: “More than branding, the GOP needs thinking. Come up with solutions to the problems voters face and then tell the story of how you are going to do it, so that they believe at least you’ll try.”

“Diversity” is a species of marketing. It is craven and opportunistic in the way that only something obsessed with the outer husk of a thing can be. “Diversity” is the last line of defense for many villains, among them, the very worst – as LeRoy Jones well knows, being a lobbyist for Big Pharma. Look at all the investments in “diversity” made by all those pharmaceutical companies caught killing kids through opioids. “Diversity” is a means to get people to look away from, for example, the fact that for decades you suppressed evidence that your product was giving women uterine cancer: “Don’t worry about that, we’re LGBTQ+ friendly… we are underwriting the PRIDE parade!” It is scumbag behavior.

Don’t believe us? Well, perhaps LeRoy Jones should ask those on the honest Left. There are some in his own party’s reform wing…

LeRoy Jones’ concept of “diversity” looks to be a very narrow one. He concerns himself with surface appearances and “identity” but ignores deeper values – such as religious beliefs, philosophical and political ideas, and economic class – along with human considerations like ethics, morals, honesty, and integrity.

That’s why Jones’ party doesn’t mind running and advancing the careers of convicted criminals. It has no ethics committee. His party has an LGBT caucus – but none representing Roman Catholics, the state’s largest “minority” group. It has a Standing Committee on Affirmative Action, but none on Universal Health Care (even through the pandemic), or the Bill of Rights, or Fair Trade, or (here’s a novelty) Peace (as opposed to Endless War).

Jones claims that “diversity… makes New Jersey “unique” and “dynamic”. It certainly cannot be called dynamic – more like economically stagnant. And as for diversity making it unique, who is he kidding? Diversity is (for the moment at least) everywhere.

Globalism has created new waves of migration that, in the natural course of things will turn “diversity” into a global “melting pot”. What Jones’ idea of “diversity” offers is a coercive segregation of the mind – because only segregation can preserve “diversity”. If you convince people they are different, then you can get them to stay apart from people who they have been taught to perceive as opposed to them. In this way they will maintain “diversity” by segregating themselves. It’s quite unnatural.

Jones’ “diversity” reminds us of those last-gasp European “ethnics” from the 1970s, who – around the time of the Bicentennial – successfully pushed to have ethnic ancestry placed as a question on the U. S. Census for 1980. That’s why we have figures today on the relative numbers of people with Irish or Italian or Polish ancestry in a given state or census tract. For the briefest moment it got people thinking in terms like “Armenian-American” before it all fell apart and evolved into “White”. In fact, even by the time of the 1980 census it had become an act of mere self-identification, the vast majority of Americans by then being of mixed ethnic ancestry. Ultimately, Jones’ “diversity” will be a similar fool’s errand.

Jones suggests there is “systemic racism and inequality” that exists in New Jersey and the nation. There he goes again with those husks – and of course, he would, being more liable than most for the systemic effects of the Establishment of which he is a big part. As a lobbyist, Jones must be aware that just about every reformer on earth points to his profession as the most visible cause of the corruption at the heart of our system of government. The reformers at Represent.US clearly finger Jones and company as the movers and shakers behind the systemic bad shit happening:

The system, of which LeRoy Jones is a part and by which he trousers large gobs of money, led a Princeton University study (Gilens & Page, 2014) to conclude: “The preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”  Maybe we should call it systemic Jonesism?
 
As for inequality, well, here at long last progressives like Brandon McKoy actually have something “white” they can legitimately blame society’s problems on: White-Collar Government.  The bad news for LeRoy Jones is that his party (and Hugin’s) is a major reason we have White-Collar Government.
 
In White-Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making, Duke University Professor Nick Carnes cites studies showing that while a majority of Americans work in blue-collar employment, only 2 percent of Congress were blue-collar workers before being elected and only 3 percent of State Legislators are employed as blue-collar workers.  Carnes and others hold that this disparity reflects the economic decisions and priorities of legislative bodies in America.  So, there’s your inequality – staring back at LeRoy Jones when he looks in the mirror to shave every morning.
 
This lack of blue-collar “diversity” shouldn't surprise anyone looking at the Legislature's agenda.  And it shows why Democrat political leaders in Trenton don't give a damn about New Jersey having the highest property taxes in America.
 
LeRoy Jones – Trenton lobbyist and Democrat State Chairman – argues that “the only party interested in advancing the cause of racial, social and economic justice is the Democratic Party”.  That’s a strange formulation, because justice – being blindfolded – isn’t supposed to be about race or social status or economic class.  If you murder someone or rape a child, that stuff is not supposed to matter.  You get what is coming to you, regardless.  Maybe not in LeRoy Jones’ world, but that’s the ideal.
 
As for his Democrat Party and “justice”, LeRoy Jones could advance the cause if he could get his boss, Governor Phil Murphy, to cooperate with the families of the more than 8,000 residents of nursing and veterans’ homes who died as a result of Murphy’s Executive Order #103.  Have an investigation, get them answers, and don’t make the same mistakes again. 
 
Justice would also be served by addressing the inequality of the state’s school funding formula – which forces poor families in rural and suburban New Jersey to subsidize the property taxes of rich people in wealthy towns like Hoboken and Jersey City.  The poor subsidizing the rich.  Where’s the justice in that?
 
And, in the interest of justice, maybe LeRoy Jones should recognize – and ask his party to recognize – the growing police response times in urban areas, caused by the Defund the Police movement.  Jones and his party should recognize that a single mom has no place to hide with her children if some street thug decides to break in and take their lives.  The police, who were already overstretched, cannot get to her in time.  So, when she applies for a firearm permit, create a process that works, in the interest of justice, so that she can defend her life and her children – so they don’t need to die.  Either that, or have your party pay for a guard and station him outside her front door… forever.  That would work too.
 
We welcome a continuing dialogue with Chairman Jones.  If you wish to write a response to this or anything else, we will happily publish it.  Thank you for taking the time to address us through your press release on Friday.  Please do so again.  
 
 

“If it were 1860, the Democrats would be bragging about their first transgendered slave-owner.”

Jimmy Dore

Friedman rides to the aid of PoliticsNJ pal Raj Mukherji

Earlier today, Matt Friedman, the writer/vendor/lobbyist (for Politico makes money doing all three) came to the defense of his old colleague from PoliticsNJ, Raj Mukherji.  Within hours he was joined by David Wildstein, the former editor of PoliticsNJ who wrote under the name "Wally Edge". 

Back at the old Publius Group -- the outfit that owned and operated PoliticsNJ --  Raj Mukherji was Wildstein's second in command, where he and Friedman hung out with such handjobs as Steve Kornacki and Tom Druce.  Remember him?  Druce killed a homeless guy.  Just ran him over on the street and when the cops came he told them he had hit a deer.  What a wonderful guy!  And at the head of them all was Wildstein, the so-called "mastermind" behind Bridgegate, followed by Raj Mukherji.  Yeah, this guy...

And now these moes are running interference on behalf of Democrat Senator Troy "the man" Singleton.  That's right, the same Troy Singleton who was Speaker Joe Roberts' bagman.  Yep, that Joe Roberts.  The Democrat who, after raising property taxes in New Jersey moved to Republican-controlled Florida to escape high property taxes.  Roberts has his state pension check forwarded there, so he's still screwing us.  Troy was with this guy and now he complains about another legislator's Dukes of Hazard tattoo?  That's some balls you have, Troy, some balls.

And Troy, admit it, as a red-blooded man you used to perk up when Daisy Duke came on the screen... come on Troy... admit it.