Pro-Murphy candidate runs as Republican in Sussex/Warren/Morris

By Sussex Watchdog

Dan Cruz was invited to discuss his views with conservatives in the state – leaders from the Second Amendment Society, the Pro-Life movement, Steve Lonegan, and groups concerned about illegal immigration. Cruz ignored them and instead asked a blog run by Democrats to publish a public relations profile of him. The owner of the blog was outed by no less than Wikileaks for his connections to Hillary Clinton’s fundraising operation in New Jersey.

So, it appears that the Democrats – after having been resoundingly crushed by Sussex County Republicans year after year – have simply given up on finding a candidate to run under their own party label against Sussex County’s top local Republican on the ballot this year. That’s right, the April 5th filing deadline came and went, but no Democrat filed against Sussex County’s Republican Senator, Steve Oroho (LD24) this year.

Instead, the Democrats are lavishing their attention on Dan Cruz – formerly a loyal Democrat primary voter – and are using their social media presence to push him on blogs like the one that did the public relations piece. In that piece, Cruz played loyal wingman to Democrat Governor Phil Murphy, defending his record on COVID just one day after Sussex County residents gathered for a prayer-vigil to remember the victims of Murphy’s Executive Order 103 – which hit Sussex County particularly hard and killed over 8,000 loved ones statewide.

Governor Murphy isn’t stupid. He knows that this election is about him – not Donald Trump. The last time he was on a ballot in Sussex County, in 2017, Phil Murphy received 36 percent of the vote, buoyed by an anti-Trump backlash. Bob Menendez got just 33 percent of the vote in Sussex County in 2018 – in midst of the Trump era. Murphy is also aware of just how low it can go if you can’t make it about Trump. In 2013, Democrat gubernatorial candidate Barbara Buono scraped together a mere 25 percent of the vote.

In 2019, at the last legislative election, Republican Assemblymen Parker Space and Hal Wirths got 69 percent of the vote. Republican Sheriff Mike Strada received 94 percent – and the Republican Freeholder candidates had the same 94 percent.

Governor Murphy knows Steve Oroho’s record as a candidate and knows that it’s formidable. As an outsider, Oroho defeated an incumbent Freeholder Director and an incumbent Legislator supported by the entire Trenton machine to get where he is. Against Democrats he has won with excess of 70 percent of the vote. At his last primary, in 2017, Oroho won re-election by 49 percentage points – 74 percent to 25 percent.

Before Steve Oroho became Sussex County’s Senator, county Democrats could console themselves with victories on the municipal and county levels. They could elect a Freeholder or a Mayor. But not under Steve Oroho. They haven’t held a single county seat while he’s been Senator – and the only mayors they can win hide their party registration and run as fiscal conservatives in non-partisan elections.

Murphy is concerned about Oroho’s ability to power turnout in Sussex County – hence, no Democrat opponent – but at the same time Murphy needs friendly “Republicans” to speak up for him and help cut the margin. This is where Cruz comes in.

George Will or Pee-wee Herman?

Results??? Cruz is running against the only Republican legislator to make the NJ media’s list of most effective legislators.  Senator Oroho's tax cuts were praised by conservative groups like Americans for Tax Reform and conservative publications like Forbes, which called his tax cuts “one of the 5 best state and local tax policy changes in 2016 nationwide.”  Of course, Cruz is still learning his lines in his new role as "conservative Republican".  We can’t expect him to know all this.   
 
Cruz’ connections to the Paterson Democrat machine and its allies is reinforced by yesterday’s public relations piece.  He is trying to present himself in ways that he imagines a conservative Republican would, but it comes off as a cross between George Will and Pee-wee Herman.  In preparation for his post-primary role as Murphy apologist, Cruz is adopting the kind of cringeworthy, defensive phrases that corporate Democrats find so acceptable in “Republicans” – like they did “The Lincoln Project”.
 
For example, the Democrats’ public relations piece about Cruz, notes that he wants “to ‘break the stigma’ associated with the Republican party before they lost their grasp.  He acknowledged that some of that came from President Donald Trump’s term in the White House… ‘We cannot just serve one side, we have to serve everyone and bring everyone together to make decisions on a collaborative effort.  Many people disliked the party because of President Trump’s message and what he stood for, but that doesn’t mean all of us are like that.’”
 
And this: “As far as Cruz is concerned, Republicans can do better by reaching out to areas that they traditionally have not campaigned in.  Republicans’ failure to try to appreciably make the big tent bigger is detrimental to their long term success.  Regarding the gubernatorial election, he said, ‘My impression is this.  Murphy has the leg.  Right now, he is ahead in the most populous cities—Paterson, Newark, Trenton—he is ahead there.  You don’t have a Republican who can go into these cities and say ‘Vote for me.’  They aren’t going into the inner cities, speaking to the people.’” 
 
“When asked what he thought of Governor Phil Murphy’s performance handling the pandemic, Cruz was candid.  ‘Regarding Governor Murphy there are some things that he could’ve done better, and there are obviously some things he has done that you can say he did OK.  I think with the COVID plan, he did what he thought was the best possible solution in his eyes and administration,’ a seemingly rare instance in the current climate where an opposition party acknowledges the perceived sincerity of another.”
 
Cruz completely avoided mentioned Executive Order 103 or the 8,000 people who died or the fact that the worst hit nursing homes were in the county and district he says he wants to represent.  And the vigil to remember those who died had just been held in the town in which he lives!  Now, that is shilling. 
 
Cruz went on to compare Murphy to Republican governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida.  Cruz said Murphy had done better… “Balancing governmental direction with laissez faire has been a perilous tightrope act for Governor Murphy since the start of the pandemic.  ‘When you read the news and listen to people,’ Cruz said, ‘I believe that New Jerseyans have been extremely responsible during this time.’”
 
But Dan Cruz’ utility for Murphy doesn’t end with protecting his flank with Republicans.  Cruz’ background as a teacher and education activist provides a perspective to launch attacks on attempts by more fiscally responsible Democrats to rein in some of Murphy’s more bewildering excesses.  And so, Cruz has bitterly attacked Senate President Steve Sweeney and the Path to Progress, which is the work of a bi-partisan coalition of Democrat and Republican legislators.
 
Cruz opposes the reduction in education administrators that the consolidation advocated in the Path to Progress would produce.  Fewer individual units delivering education equals a smaller education bureaucracy and fewer administrators.  By coincidence, it just so happens that Cruz’ wife is an education administrator making six-figures and all the benefits.  She works for the New York City school system at a high school with problems not unlike those in New Jersey that the Path to Progress is looking to address: Only 2 percent of students have taken an Advanced Placement Test, just 37 percent are proficient at mathematics, only 32 percent are proficient at reading, and the graduation rate is 29 percent. 
 
Is Steve Sweeney and the Path to Progress right?  Will consolidating bureaucracy help?  While admitting that it would save taxpayers’ money, Cruz doesn’t think so. He’s concerned that local school superintendents and the boards they control would lose too much power – and if that were to happen, what might become of taxpayer-funded positions like he enjoys, and all those perks and benefits that mere legislators can only dream of?
 
Maybe he’d have to fall back on his business – a sideline to top off two taxpayer-funded incomes (with perks and benefits) – called Opulent Creations Events, L.L.C.  The upside is that Cruz would have more time to attend to it and not have the problems he had with the NJ Department of Revenue which, according to them, suspended Cruz’ business (he is listed as COO) from January 16, 2016 to May 15, 2017.  A silver lining?  
 
 

“Nobody goes faster than the legs they have.”

Alberto Caeiro (Fernando Pessoa)

GSI Poll: 44% of New Jersey residents planning to leave. Is NJ the new East Germany?

Yesterday was a voting session in the New Jersey Legislature. Regina Egea of the Garden State Initiative (GSI), a think tank that closely monitors the various home-grown diseases that beset the state’s economy, sent around fresh data from a poll conducted for GSI by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s School of Public & Global Affairs. Ms. Egea had this to report:

According to the survey, 44% of New Jersey residents are planning to leave the state in the not so distant future with more than 1 in 4 (28%) planning to depart the Garden State within 5 years. Unsurprisingly, Property Taxes and the overall Cost of Living were cited as the main drivers. The results also debunk two issues frequently cited in anecdotal accounts of outmigration, weather and public transportation, as they ranked 8th and 10th respectively, out of 11 factors offered.

These results should alarm every elected official and policymaker in New Jersey. We have a crisis of confidence in the ability of our leaders to address property taxes and the cost of living whether at the start of their career, in prime earning years, or repositioning for retirement, New Jersey residents see greener pastures in other states. This crisis presents a profound challenge to our state as we are faced with a generation of young residents looking elsewhere to build their careers, establish families and make investments like homeownership.

This out-migration of people should come as no surprise to anyone who has kept track of how and where former New Jersey elected officials spend their retirement. After lifetimes spent raising people’s property taxes, voting for all manner of other taxes and spending – while building up pensions and other benefits for themselves – they move to states less liberal with money, with markedly lower taxes. They escape the taxes they are responsible for, the failing economy they are responsible for. There are actual colonies of former New Jersey elected and appointed officials popping up in states like Florida and North Carolina – all being mailed pension checks from New Jersey!

So how did the New Jersey Legislature spend the voting session on the day the poll was released that showed nearly half the inmates of the garden spot they’re running were planning their escape? In the words of Republican Assemblyman Hal Wirths, the Democrats who control the Legislature decided to make it “criminal appreciation day”.

Yep, the Democrats gave the vote to convicted criminals and also provided them with education funding – just months after they gave millions in education funding to illegal immigrants – while slashing education funding to the children of property tax payers across the state. Of course they did, that’s how they roll.

The Democrats in New Jersey have gone crazy. Everybody can see how this story is going to end. The only thing that can change that ending are Republicans. Elect a Republican as Governor, change the make-up of the Legislature by adding more and more Republicans – and you will give anxious movers-to-be the breathing space to reconsider and give the state a second (or third or fourth) chance.

Democrat Senate President Steve Sweeney has spent a lot of time and energy trying to convince New Jersey’s business community that he is for them. They even backed his guys in District 1 (and lost).

But Sweeney’s promises and plans are not really “bi-partisan” or “pro-business” or “pro-jobs” at all. He showed this when he specifically targeted Republican-voting school districts for his education funding cuts. And again, during the campaign, when he allowed top staffer Mark Magyar’s newspapers to trash even friendly Republicans. And after the campaign, with a $9 million pay-back to abortionist Planned Parenthood for supporting Democrat candidates. And again, when Sweeney proposed S-4204, which will crush working mothers and drive businesses out of the state.

Steve Sweeney always returns to what he is. He is reminiscent of those lines from one of Kipling’s poems:

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

These Democrats – all of them, in one way or another – are a form of slow motion disaster. Post-election, they have merely increased the speed. All the evidence suggests that with these Democrats, in the end, the only good Republican is one who no longer holds office (just as the only good business or good worker is one who pledges fealty to the corrupt machine). Those 44 percent of New Jerseyans who are so desperate for leadership they are willing to move to seek it elsewhere, will not be assuaged by “bi-partisan” cohabitation. More dramatic measures are in order – clear, unambiguous Republican measures.

Murphy Democrats holding up legislation to protect children from sexual assault

We need to hear from Democrat candidates like Lisa Mandelblatt and Stacey Gunderman about this…

The Democrat leadership is holding up legislation designed to protect children from sexual assault at state supervised health care facilities. These are the same politicians who are pouring money into the campaigns of Democrat Assembly candidates Lisa Mandelblatt and Stacey Gunderman in District 21, Lisa Bhimani and Darcy Draeger in District 25, Christine Clarke and Laura Fortgang in District 26, and Deana Lykins in District 24.

The legislation would require psychiatric health care facilities to provide 24-hour-a-day monitoring of children under their supervision and was proposed following documented horrific sex attacks on children. So why is there no action after 18 months?

Why are children being exposed to violent sexual assault by the Democrats?

Because the Murphy administration doesn’t like the bill, that’s why. And the Democrats – dependent on assorted Murphy donors for their campaign cash – do what they’re told.

Would the legislation have a better chance of passing if the vulnerable children who are exposed to rape were to renounce their citizenship and apply for Sanctuary Status? But hey, shouldn’t health care facilities under the supervision of the state be sanctuaries free from fear of violent sexual assault anyway? We are talking children here.

Republican Assemblyman Hal Wirths (R-24) has championed the victims of the Murphy administration’s lack of action. Wirths was quoted in a New Jersey Herald article:

“This is a parent’s worst nightmare. What this family has had to endure is horrendous. We urgently need to address these facilities’ inadequate supervision policies through legislation by requiring them to properly supervise and protect children who are in their care due to psychiatric crises. More children are put at risk every day that this legislation remains at a standstill.”

In response, the Democrats trotted out Joann Downey, who sounded decidedly less enthused about helping protect children at risk of sexual assault. She told the New Jersey Herald:

“As chair of the Assembly Committee on Human Services, it’s my first priority to make sure that the vulnerable families, children and communities of New Jersey are well cared for and supported in their times of need… I appreciate Assemblyman Wirths’ interest in our state’s psychiatric facilities and look forward to reviewing this legislation as we develop the Committee’s agenda for the coming months.”

In other words… screw you and the kids and their parents. We’ll get around to it when Boss Murphy tells us we can. Real scumbags.

Meanwhile the question remains: How many kids were sexually assaulted over the last 18 months while the Democrats have been waiting for permission to advance the bill? How many more will be raped while their parents wait for action from the Democrats?

Murphy Dems say taxpayers who want answers to school funding cuts “extremist”

The administration of Governor Phil Murphy and the Democrats who control both chambers of the Legislature cut funding to most Sussex County school districts – as well as to many other rural and suburban school districts across the state.  These cuts were made despite the fact that working class families in rural and suburban New Jersey continue to subsidize the property taxes of rich corporations and wealthy professionals in many of New Jersey’s gentrified urban districts.
 
To give just one example, in Vernon, the Murphy Democrats’ education funding cuts resulted in a 10 percent property tax increase.  And this is only year one of a proposed multi-year round of cuts by the Democrats.
 
Republican Assemblymen Parker Space and Hal Wirths have been trying to get the Democrats to agree to hold a special session on property taxes.  Space and Wirths want to address the unfairness of the New Jersey education funding formula – the most inequitable in the entire United States.  To date, the Democrats have tried to change the subject, making excuses on why they don’t have time to address property taxes but do have time to tackle such pressing concerns as transgender curriculum for schools and such.
 
Then there’s the Governor’s screwball Sanctuary State scam that has already released violent sex offenders back into the community.
 
Since July, Assemblymen Space and Wirths have been trying to get someone from the Murphy administration to show up in Sussex County and come before an open public meeting to discuss his Sanctuary State scheme, how he came up with the idea, and whether it was motivated by politics or genuine law enforcement concerns.  The New Jersey Herald covered this in a front page story on July 24th but to date, the Murphy administration has played hide-and-seek, dodging the issue and refusing to show up and talk to the people of Sussex County.
 

https://www.njherald.com/news/20190724/space-wirths-want-attorney-general-to-explain-sanctuary-state-directive

 
So it is a bit disconcerting that when the Governor finally shows up in Sussex county, it isn't at a public meeting, but at a location hidden from the general public; and it isn't to answer questions from the people who pay his salary, but to raise money from big donors for the Democrat Party.
 
Now, to add insult to injury, the Democrats trot out their Antifa-wannabe shill, Chairwoman Katie Rotondi, who labels as “haters” and “extremists” those seeking answers from the Governor whose salary they pay.  Since when is it extreme to ask questions of government? 
 
In fact, before sending out his shill again, we think Governor Murphy needs to take a remedial course in the Constitution of the United States of America – specifically the Bill of Rights.  Last time we checked, in the United States of America – in this country – the right to petition is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which specifically prohibits government or its party shills from abridging "the right of the people...to petition the Government for a redress of grievances".
 
Finally, we think it the height of hypocrisy for a party operative who is notorious for singing about sucking a “bag of d*cks” to be offended by the use of a phrase like “Murphy sucks”.  If you wish to be a puritan, by all means be a puritan, but please be consistent about it.  

Yes, that is her. The Democrat Party chairwoman in all her glory. Katie Rotondi is also notorious for mocking Disabled American Veterans and for comparing Christian belief to “Hitler” – something the Democrat Committee applauded her for – and something the trustees of the Sussex County Community College failed to examine when they caved into her demands to remove one of their own members. As Katie says… “F*ck you, I love you.”

Did you get that, Governor Murphy? Do you approve?

Murphy proposes French-style fuel tax that caused the Yellow-Vests Movement

Wikipedia defines the Yellow Vests Movement as “a populist, grassroots, revolutionary political movement for economic justice that began in France in October 2018.” The movement is motivated by rising fuel prices as well as government and crony-capitalist-induced escalations in the cost of living.

The Yellow Vests Movement holds that a disproportionate burden of government tax “reforms” fall on “non-elites” – the working and middle classes – particularly in rural and suburban areas. In France, the Movement has called for direct democracy through the implementation of citizens' initiative referendums.

The Movement spans the political spectrum, drawing from voters on both the Right and Left who have been pushed to the “periphery” by government policies that support crony capitalism. It gets its name from yellow high-visibility vests, which French government regulation requires all drivers have in their vehicles and to wear during emergencies.

Writers as diverse as Ralph Nadar, Chris Hedges, and Christophe Guilluy have written about a fusion of economically stressed voters on the “periphery” of the new economy coming together to challenge government and crony capitalist elites. It has been noted that the Trump prosperity has temporarily slowed down this evolution, much in the way that Watergate (1974) was simply a bump in the road on the way to a conservative resurgence and the election of Ronald Reagan and a Republican-controlled Senate (1980).

The Yellow Vest Movement started with the imposition of a new “green” fuel tax that was the last straw for working and middle class voters trying to make ends meet. Now it looks like New Jersey is heading down the same road. On Monday, the NJ Spotlight reported:

In what could amount to the most significant regional effort yet to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 12 states have issued a draft policy framework to create a cap-and-trade program to reduce global warming pollution from vehicles.

The proposal, developed by the Transportation & Climate Initiative (TCI), is modeled somewhat after the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a cap-and-trade program that for the past decade has helped clamp down on carbon pollution from power plants.

This draft framework, while sparse in details, proposes to put a cap on emissions from the transportation sector by requiring state fuel suppliers to buy allowances, which would be auctioned off for the right to emit carbon.

The draft does not describe what the level of caps would be, precisely who would be regulated, how much the allowances could cost, or how quickly the caps would go down. The transportation sector has replaced the power industry as the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions. In New Jersey, the sector accounts for roughly 40% of the state’s carbon pollution.

Motorists will likely pay at the pump

In the end, the cost will likely end up being paid for by motorists at the pump, a difficult choice for New Jersey and other states already pursuing new clean-energy solutions that are expected to be reflected in higher energy bills — at least for the short term.

Within the United States, New Jersey has perhaps the clearest elite vs. working class divide with more than half the state’s poor families living in rural and suburban communities subsidizing the property taxes of wealthy professionals and rich corporations nestled in the so-called Abbott Districts. Government directed, taxpayer-subsidized, crony-capitalists in Abbotts like Camden reap profits by husbanding poverty.

How will higher fuel costs go down with voters who are already stretched to the limit? How is this latest Murphy administration scheme going to help a state with a high rate of foreclosure and the highest property taxes in America?

Assemblymen Hal Wirths and Parker Space have proposed legislation to block Governor Murphy’s plans to raise the cost of fuel in New Jersey. A-5042 prohibits New Jersey’s participation in multi-state cap and trade programs like that proposed by the Transportation & Climate Initiative.

This legislation should get bi-partisan support before November 5th and the cold weather months set in. Higher fuel prices are not something anyone wants to see for the holidays.

Wirths and Space block Chinese Communists from gaining foothold in Princeton

America won!  Thanks to Assemblymen Hal Wirths and Parker Space, the Chinese Communists will not be buying a college in Princeton.

Alerted by businessman-philanthropist Mike Hennessy, the Assemblymen got to work generating grassroots opposition to the all but done sale of Westminster Choir College to a Chinese company controlled by the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Navy and the Communist Party of China (CPC).  Westminster is a division of the Westminster College of the Arts, and is part of Rider University.

Last June, Rider University had signed a purchase and sale agreement with a newly created entity called Kaiwen Education, which is controlled by the Chinese navy and its Communist Party masters.  Assemblymen Wirths and Space were concerned that the sale could give the Chinese government a foothold on the Princeton campus, with all its sensitive research and technology facilities.

Rider had provoked the ire of Hennessy and others, when it banned Chick-Fil-A from opening on campus, despite a majority vote by students asking for a Chick-Fil-A restaurant on campus.  It seems Rider’s administration thought that Chick-Fil-A’s ownership was too Christian and therefore “controversial”.  Apparently Kaiwen, the PLA Navy, and the CPC were just the right amount of communist.

Along with other Rider benefactors, Hennessy organized a grassroots effort to stop the sale, while there were protests by students and faculty, as well as legal challenges. Federal authorities were contacted and had become interested in the matter.  Under this pressure and the pressure from legislators like Wirths and Space, the state attorney general's office delayed the pending sale in March, asking Rider for more information about the deal.

Westminster Choir College is the world’s foremost college of religious music.  A residential college located on a 23-acre campus in the heart of Princeton, it is a four-year music college and graduate school that “prepares men and women for careers as performers and as music leaders in schools, universities, churches and professional and community organizations.”

Rider University announced on Monday that the two sides had mutually agreed to not extend the agreement.  This essentially cancelled the sale, although the money-hungry Rider administration still publicly held out hope for an “alternative relationship” with the Chinese Communists.

Assemblymen Wirths and Space, who introduced a resolution (ACR-222) in opposition to the sale, called the announcement a big win.

"It took many vocal opponents, but our efforts paid off.  Rider University made the right decision to stop the sale," Wirths said. "From the very beginning, the company's interest in the music college for the purpose of academia seemed suspicious."

Kaiwen Education has no experience in higher education.  It was a made-up subsidiary of a government-owned Chinese defense contractor.

"Today's announcement is a big win against the authoritarian Chinese government who we feared might be using the guise of academia to access Princeton's world-class scientists, researchers and institutions for nefarious purposes," Space said.

State Senator Steve Oroho introduced the Senate version of the resolution, SCR-160.  Surprisingly, no Democrats and few Republicans saw it as a battle worth fighting, let alone one that they could win.

“Standing up to one of the world’s most repressive regimes – on the 30th anniversary of Tiananmen Square – wasn’t considered important enough to most of the Legislature,” one grassroots campaigner said.  “While millions of people in Hong Kong are protesting this oppressive regime, the Democrats who run the Legislature were more than happy to turn a campus in Princeton over to them.”   

Another noted:  “Guess it lacked a connection to LGBTQ… that’s all that matters these days.”   

This could have been a real moment of unity in Trenton for Republicans and all but the most craven Democrats.  Instead, the Democrats tried to block legislative action in opposition to the sale, while most Republicans didn’t have the good sense to take a stand.  Thankfully, guys like Hal Wirths and Parker Space did, but where the hell is everybody else’s political radar these days???

No wonder so many members of the Republican base share sentiments like these…

Parker Space backs Sheriff Strada, rips Murphy on “Sanctuary State b.s.”

Assemblyman Parker Space wanted there to be no doubt as to how he and his legislative colleagues feel about Governor Phil Murphy’s attempt to strip Sussex County citizens of the right to vote on the important issue of Sanctuary State status for Sussex County. “It is left-wing b.s. pure and simple.”

“Sheriff Mike Strada is right to stand up to Governor Murphy and the leftists who run his administration.  We support him 100%.”

A plain-spoken farmer and family businessman, Assemblyman Space said to forget what the all the smooth-talking lawyers have to say about this.  “It is a matter of American principles,” Space said.  “The property taxpayers of Sussex County pay for the operations of the Sheriff’s office… they pay for the Sheriff and all his officers… they have the absolute right to instruct him on how they want him to deal with Murphy’s Sanctuary State b.s.”

“The county’s taxpayers have the right to tell the county Sheriff to follow federal law because they pay the county Sheriff.  If Governor Murphy wants to dictate to the Sheriff then let’s send him the bill for the Sheriff and we’ll all enjoy a property tax cut.”

Assemblyman Space noted some important facts about the debate over illegal immigration:

(1) In its most recent report on illegal immigration, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates that illegal immigration costs New Jersey taxpayers over $3 billion every year, which is close to 10% of our state’s entire budget.

(2) The State budget which was recently enacted spends $2.1 million for an “Office of Immigrant Protection.”  Assemblyman Space and his colleagues opposed the budget and introduced legislation prohibiting public funding for it (A4033). 

(3) Going even further, Governor Murphy and State Democrat leadership also passed legislation, which we opposed, to give illegals financial aid for college (S699).  And most recently, the Murphy Administration announced that they were looking into providing driver’s licenses to illegal residents.

Assemblyman Space noted that he and his colleagues have introduced the following legislation:

S-305/A-949   Bars companies which hire illegal aliens from public contracts, grants, loans, or tax incentives for seven years.   

S-528/A-172   "New Jersey Jobs Protection Act;" requires E-verification of employment.

S-168/A-497   Requires proof of lawful presence in the United States to obtain certain benefits.

S-2506/A-233    Requires certain contractors to verify work authorization of newly hired employees.   

S-541/A-2640    Prohibits municipal ordinance to create sanctuary city; Establishes State and local employee ethics violation upon noncompliance with federal immigration enforcement request.  

“Clearly, if we are ever to get things back on the right track, we must pass these types of reform measures. It’s important that local, state, and federal law enforcement work together to strictly enforce the immigration laws that are already in place.  If we do not address the problem of illegal immigration, New Jersey will never succeed in getting government spending under control.”

“Finally, we oppose all forms of amnesty for illegal immigrants as well as supporting measures to prevent our state from becoming a destination for terrorists posing as refugees looking to harm our families and neighbors. This is a critical issue and we will not waiver in our beliefs.”

Assemblyman Space shares an office with District 24 colleagues Assemblyman Hal Wirths and Senator Steve Oroho. Space is the Republican State Committeeman for Sussex County.  His wife, Jill Space, was a Delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention supporting Donald Trump.

Do foreign murder rates mean NJ is paying for trouble?

Instead of allocating it for property tax relief, Governor Phil Murphy and the Democrats in the Legislature took $2.1 million and handed it to immigration attorneys to help those illegally in New Jersey and facing deportation to stay.  That’s right, illegal aliens who face court-ordered deportation can now fight it, courtesy of the New Jersey taxpayer.

And the first thing that those immigration attorneys did was to complain that it wasn’t enough!  Hey ingrates… at least give a round of applause to Governor Murphy for doing what he promised to do.  Even if you disagree with him, that’s something.  But he did what you wanted and you still complain.  Why is it that some people are never satisfied?  It’s just bitch… bitch… bitch.

The immigration attorneys being funded by the money that should have gone to property tax relief for… seniors trying to keep out of foreclosure… the working poor… single moms trying their best to keep the kids fed and a roof over their heads… you know, all those folks nobody seems to care about anymore…

Well those immigration attorneys claimed that this money would only cover about 14 percent of what they were fixing to charge.  Can you see these lawyers, all salivating around a pot of taxpayers’ money, thinking about how much they can trouser for “doing good” and “making the world a better place.”  Don’t know how to break it to you, but sainthood is a poor person’s profession.  How many Hoboken townhouses, Jersey City condos, or shore houses did Mother Theresa have?

You know what?  We bet they already have some well-connected lawyer-lobbyist down in Trenton trying to get them even more of your money – the money that should have gone to property tax relief for a state with one of the highest foreclosure rates in America.

As for making the world a better place… well hold on there just a minute.

We’re always told – by groups like NAP, the Million Moe March, Show of the Hands, Gabriel’s BoBo, and the Multi-Rainbow Redaction Caucus – that America has the biggest murder rate of anywhere in the world.  You all buy that, right?

Well the United Nations doesn’t buy it.  No siree. 

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the global international homicide rate is 6.2 per 100,000.  For the United States of America, it is 5.35 per 100,000. 

Yep, we’re in 87th place as far as murder rates go… not #1 like some would have you believe.  We do about the same as Greenland, a bit better than Ukraine and Argentina, not quite as good as Lithuania and Cuba.  Sure, there is a whole lot of room for improvement until we become one of those countries (like Great Britain) where the cops don’t carry guns (although that is changing… fast).

But then look at the where our immigration is coming from and you’ll soon think twice about holding your breath waiting for the day the police go around with only a notepad for protection.  According to the United States Department of Homeland Security, 55% of those residing in America illegally are from Mexico (some of these are pass-throughs from other Central or South American nations).  In second place is El Salvador.  Third place goes to Guatemala.  In fifth place is Honduras.  In tenth place, the Dominican Republic. 

Now here is where it gets scary.  According to the United Nations, El Salvador and Honduras have the highest murder rates in the world – at 82.84 per 100,000 and 56.52 per 100,000 respectively.  Guatemala’s murder rate is 27.26 per 100,000.  Mexico has a murder rate nearly four times that of the United States – at 19.26 per 100,000.  The Dominican Republic has a murder rate of 15.18 per 100,000. 

Would our murder rate be significantly lower without the influx of young males from these high-murder rate countries?  It is certainly something worthy of a thorough government study.

If it turns out, as some studies have suggested, that we are sustaining our murder rate on the basis of outside “talent” then the party or parties responsible should face hell to pay.  Murder, rape, robbery, and violent assault are life altering experiences and we would do well to examine what policies could be negatively impacting the prevention of such crimes.  Even property crimes like burglary cause severe emotion reactions and even mental disorders.  According to the U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were 5.8 million violent victimizations and 17.1 million property victimizations for the latest year surveyed.

Crime and its causes cannot be brushed aside out of ideological convenience.  It is a people issue – the need to feel safe and secure is a basic human need.  Those advocating the headlong rush to prevent every illegal facing deportation from being sent home, just because it falls under the administration of President Donald Trump, would do well to consider the potential outcomes of such policies.

Kudos to Assemblyman Hal Wirths (R-24) for thinking instead of emoting.  In contrast to some cringe-worthy comments made by another Republican, Wirths told the Associated Press that the state’s already impoverished taxpayers couldn’t afford to send the money to lawyers to represent illegal aliens.  Wirth’s has introduced legislation “barring taxpayer dollars from being used to assist (illegal) immigrants.”

We think we have a couple good ideas too.  (1) Use the $2.1 million for property tax relief and have the Democrat State Committee collect the money needed to pay all those immigration lawyers from the fat campaign accounts collecting dust in banks all over the state.  You want to do good… do good… with your own money.  Don’t spend other people’s money and then bask in the reflected glory of it… while they get foreclosed on.  And (2) according to media sources that rich guy we elected governor is worth several hundred million dollars.  Let him put up the $2.1 million… he’d be a hero!

McCann lies again. No he's not pro-second amendment

John McCann tried sweet-talking a speaking spot out of the organizers of yesterday's Pro-Second Amendment rally in Trenton.  The rally, which was hosted by the NRA and its state affiliates, was well-attended and featured a number of prominent speakers with solid Pro-Second Amendment records, including Senator Steve Oroho, NRA National Board member Scott Bach, Assemblyman Parker Space, Assemblyman Hal Wirths, former Mayor Steve Lonegan, and former Assemblywoman Donna Simon.

John McCann did not end up speaking.  According to several sources familiar with the event, McCann was asked to fill out an NRA questionnaire to determine where he stood on the issues and McCann refused to do so.  Like another candidate associated with Passaic County machine boss Peter Murphy, he won't say.

But McCann is a resilient bullshit artist.  His campaign rolled out an often-repeated story claiming that his father had been the victim of a terrorist attack by the Weatherman organization, a radical group of 1960's leftists.  But McCann's story keeps on changing with regards to this incident.  And the official records of law enforcement and the judiciary do not match McCann's claims.  More on this later.

In any case, McCann uses this exaggerated tale to claim that he is Pro-Second Amendment when his actions indicate that he is simply spinning us.  Any man, worthy of the name, should have the balls to tell us where he stands on the issues. 

We suggest that candidate John McCann grow a pair and fill out the questionnaire.  The voters deserve to know who and what they are voting for.