Why Does Phil Murphy hate average Americans?

Unable to embrace his neighbor, he embraces the world.

The sneering contempt that many in the American "elite" have for average working Americans has been extensively documented.  It comes, quite naturally from the lips of say, a Chelsea Handler, when she says that incest doesn't happen among people like her but only in places like the South and among the working class. 

Of course, this is in marked contrast to the excuses the same "elites" make for violent criminals, cop-killers, terrorists, totalitarians like Stalin, Mao, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and Pol Pot.  Excuses, excuses... some even make excuses for Sharia law and for its advocates -- like Women's March co-chair Linda Sarsour.

It was Linda Sarsour who called for "jihad" against the government of the United States of America.  She did so in a speech in which she praised Siraj Wahaj, a controversial New York imam who federal prosecutors alleged was a possible "co-conspirator" in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.  You can catch her act here:

Did candidate Phil Murphy distance himself from Linda Sarsour and her organization?  No he did not.  He did not criticize her at all.

When Linda Sarsour made some horrible remarks about a Black woman, a victim of genital mutilation, and noted reformer in the Muslim world, did candidate Phil Murphy say a word about it?  No he did not.  He continues to support Sarsour, her organization, and its goals.

In contrast, candidate Phil Murphy has been quick to play holier-than-thou over a band banner and the word "bitch" used in a private conversation that was illicitly recorded.  Apparently these are worth endless commentary but calling for Islamic "holy war" against the elected government of the United States -- while we have American military men and women in the field -- is not worth candidate Phil Murphy batting an eyelash over.  Apparently, candidate Phil Murphy has no opinion on whether or not Linda Sarsour was out of line when she told a female victim of genital mutilation that she "wanted to take her vagina away."  Maybe Murphy thought that was "cute"?

Now candidate Phil Murphy is complaining because average working Americans can't understand why he would further erode their standard of living in New Jersey.  He and his allies in the establishment media have taken to calling these average working Americans names like "racist" because they don't agree with Murphy's plans to make New Jersey a "sanctuary state" for illegal aliens. 

Former Mayor Steve Lonegan explained what making New Jersey a "sanctuary state" would do to average working Americans living in New Jersey:

Lonegan quoted from a recent letter as to what the Democrats' "sanctuary state" policy would mean to the average taxpayer:

"A 'sanctuary state' will mean a huge influx of people who will need the social services safety net more than average.  The Democrat gubernatorial ticket has promised to impose a so-called 'millionaire's tax' that will chase away those who currently fund the state's social safety net.  Those who are left... the middle class who can't leave because of a job, or because they can't sell their home for what they paid for it, or because their child wants to finish school -- they will have to make up for the shortfall in higher taxes.

That won't be easy, because at 26.1% of income, the cost of living in New Jersey is, according to Bloomberg, by far the most expensive in the nation.  Meanwhile, state household income is nearly seven percent lower than it was in 2008 and has only grown by a little more than one percent since then. 

Those coming to the new 'Sanctuary State' of New Jersey will enter the workforce of the gray economy, where the minimum wage doesn't apply.  But for everyone else it does -- which will leave trade union workers, manufacturing, medical care and health workers, service industry workers, and mothers with part-time jobs all at a disadvantage when competing for a job.  It will be bad news for people trying to pay their mortgage, their property taxes, those hoping to avoid foreclosure. 

And just where will all these newcomers to the 'Sanctuary State of New Jersey' reside?  Why in subsidized sanctuary housing -- courtesy of COAH and its plan to build tens of thousands of new subsidized no-questions-asked units throughout New Jersey. 

This will require massive infrastructure investment by taxpayers -- and an increase in property tax collections.  To pay for it, the Democrats intend to scrap the 2-percent cap on local government spending.  Under the Democrats property taxes rose an average of 6.1 percent a year -- triple the rate of inflation.  Since the cap, property taxes have gone up an average of just 2.1 percent a year."

"If the Democrats are successful with their idea, they will have to build a wall to keep taxpayers in," Lonegan said.  True enough.  But it still doesn't explain what candidate Phil Murphy has against average working Americans and why he is so determined to make the lives of those living in New Jersey more difficult.

Kim Guadagno to address crowds in Northwest NJ

The Mountain Folk look forward to their hero!

Memo to Kim Guadagno: Hang Tough!

The dishonesty of Democrat Lacey "Kooky" Rzeszowski

The first thing that strikes you about Lacey Rzeszowski is her kind of attractively kooky intensity.  But then all that saccharine language hits you square in the brain and you remember where it was that you heard this false earnestness before -- it was on television, in those badly acted 1980's soap operas. 

And then there's the lies she tells.

Hold on to your shorts, because here comes a big one...

"Statistics tell us that the states with the weakest gun laws are the ones whose citizens suffer the most from gun violence."  Well, not really.

Here's a tip for Kooky Rzeszowski -- never claim "sanity" when inverting statistics.  Dyslexia maybe, sanity no.

The District of Columbia has the toughest anti-gun laws in America... and the highest murder rate. 

States with pro-Second Amendment gun laws like New Hampshire, Wyoming, West Virginia, and Colorado all have vastly lower murder rates than New Jersey.

There are cultural and socio-economic factors that are far more accurate in predicting the level of gun violence than is the presence of so-called "anti-gun" legislation.  If merely passing laws mattered all that much, then illegal drugs would have been unavailable the whole time Kooky Rzeszowski was growing up and going to college -- as they would be today.  And yet, somehow we suspect that the wealthy enclave in which she resides is not entirely free from the sale of illegal drugs.  Even if Kooky scrapped the Constitution and repealed the Bill of Rights, why would she believe mere laws would make guns any more difficult to buy than narcotics?

What new laws do is send men with guns into new areas of "enforcement."  If Kooky really believes that "Black Lives Matter" or indeed, that any lives matter, she should think long and hard before criminalizing something else.

In his famous article on the subject, conservative columnist George Will argued that "overcriminalization" was responsible for the death of Eric Garner, a sidewalk merchant who was killed in a confrontation with police trying to crack down on sales tax scofflaws.  Will raised the question of how many new laws are created by state legislatures and by Congress in the rush to be seen to be "doing something." 

In other words -- it is not the police who are the problem, it is the politicians who send them.  The cops only go where they are ordered to go.  It's the damnable politicians who give the orders.  And Kooky wants to give more orders, not less.

Will's brilliant column is a must read for folks like Kooky Rzeszowski -- who jump in with a solution even before the reason has yet to be determined.  Legislators preparing to propose their next round of laws that will end up being enforced by men with guns should think before they legislate.  An excerpt from Will's column is printed below:

America might at long last be ready to stare into the abyss of its criminal-justice system.

By history’s frequently brutal dialectic, the good that we call progress often comes spasmodically, in lurches propelled by tragedies caused by callousness, folly, or ignorance. With the grand jury’s as yet inexplicable and probably inexcusable refusal to find criminal culpability in Eric Garner’s death on a Staten Island sidewalk, the nation might have experienced sufficient affronts to its sense of decency. It might at long last be ready to stare into the abyss of its criminal-justice system.

It will stare back, balefully. Furthermore, the radiating ripples from the nation’s overdue reconsideration of present practices may reach beyond matters of crime and punishment, to basic truths about governance.

Garner died at the dangerous intersection of something wise, known as “broken windows” policing, and something worse than foolish: decades of overcriminalization. The policing applies the wisdom that when signs of disorder, such as broken windows, proliferate and persist, there is a general diminution of restraint and good comportment. So, because minor infractions are, cumulatively, not minor, police should not be lackadaisical about offenses such as jumping over subway turnstiles.

Overcriminalization has become a national plague. And when more and more behaviors are criminalized, there are more and more occasions for police, who embody the state’s monopoly on legitimate violence, and who fully participate in humanity’s flaws, to make mistakes.

Harvey Silverglate, a civil-liberties attorney, titled his 2009 book Three Felonies a Day to indicate how easily we can fall afoul of America’s metastasizing body of criminal laws. Professor Douglas Husak of Rutgers University says that approximately 70 percent of American adults have, usually unwittingly, committed a crime for which they could be imprisoned. In his 2008 book, Overcriminalization: The Limits of the Criminal Law, Husak says that more than half of the 3,000 federal crimes — itself a dismaying number — are found not in the Federal Criminal Code but in numerous other statutes. And, by one estimate, at least 300,000 federal regulations can be enforced by agencies wielding criminal punishments. Citing Husak, Professor Stephen L. Carter of the Yale Law School, like a hammer driving a nail head flush to a board, forcefully underscores the moral of this story:

Society needs laws; therefore it needs law enforcement. But “overcriminalization matters” because “making an offense criminal also means that the police will go armed to enforce it.” The job of the police “is to carry out the legislative will.” But today’s political system takes “bizarre delight in creating new crimes” for enforcement. And “every act of enforcement includes the possibility of violence.”

Carter continues:

It’s unlikely that the New York Legislature, in creating the crime of selling untaxed cigarettes, imagined that anyone would die for violating it. But a wise legislator would give the matter some thought before creating a crime. Officials who fail to take into account the obvious fact that the laws they’re so eager to pass will be enforced at the point of a gun cannot fairly be described as public servants.

Garner lived in part by illegally selling single cigarettes untaxed by New York jurisdictions. He lived in a progressive state and city that, being ravenous for revenues and determined to save smokers from themselves, have raised to $5.85 the combined taxes on a pack of cigarettes. To the surprise of no sentient being, this has created a black market in cigarettes that are bought in states that tax them much less. Garner died in a state that has a Cigarette Strike Force.

To continue reading... http://www.nationalreview.com/article/394392/plague-overcriminalization-george-will

George Will is a Pulitzer Prize–winning syndicated columnist at The Washington Post.  The above column was published on December 10, 2014.

Matteson & Trish get their head stuck up Max's bum

On Wednesday, Republican Senator Steve Oroho issued a statement that politely asked Democrat gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy to let voters know where he stands on the corruption case against United States Senator Bob Menendez (Democrat/NJ).  Senator Oroho made his request after an Observer.com report that Murphy was remaining silent on the corruption trial of Senator Menendez, the Observer's Christian Hetrick quoting Murphy that "he hasn't thought about whether a convicted Senator should leave office."

Max Pizarro, formerly of the Observer group but now quarter-backing his own InsiderNJ blog, proceeded to take that story and insert Assemblyman Parker Space into it.  Even though his name doesn't appear anywhere in Senator Oroho's statement.

But it gets weirder. 

The two ANITFA twins -- "Dishonest Kate" Matteson and Gina "pussycat hat" Trish -- jumped at the chance to (in Pizarro's words) put a hook up someone's ass (like they did at Gettysburg or some shit like that).  While acknowledging that their opponent, Parker Space, has done nothing illegal, they still want him to face the same penalties as if he had committed some heinous crime.  Do the ANTIFA twins constitute their own lynch mob?  Good thing these two aren't using their ad-hoc judicial process to hand out death penalties  "We feel you've done something wrong, therefore you must suffer."

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And speaking of suffering, check out the ANTIFA-inspired effort that their campaign is conducting against Space Farms and the Space family.  The Democrats are attempting to destroy a 90-year-old Sussex County institution with bad on-line reviews. harassing telephone calls, threats, liable, slander, and an organized boycott.  As is usual for the Democrats, instead of creating jobs they are trying to destroy them.

Now the kicker is that ANTIFA twin #1 and ANTIFA twin #2 puffed themselves up enough to call on Senator Oroho to "do something about corruption" in New Jersey.  Where have they been, you ask?  Well, you have to take into account that ANTIFA twin #1 only started voting in 2016 and ANTIFA twin #2 ain't much better. 

So we'll excuse them for not knowing that it is their party -- the Democrat Party -- that has held up reform in New Jersey.  That's why their running mate -- Jennifer Hamilton -- doesn't join them when they go ANTIFA.  Hamilton is the thinking Democrat.  The twins... not so much.

Take just this one example.  There are dozens more.  This year, on three separate occasions, the Democrats have blocked efforts by Senator Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) to force a vote on legislation (S-1557) to forfeit the pensions of corrupt public officials.  “Time and again, Senate Democrats have voted to protect the pensions of corrupt public officials,” said Beck. “It’s inexplicable that they would continue to choose convicted officials over the taxpayers they represent.”

An investigation by the Asbury Park Press last year found at least 40 convicted criminals collecting state pension checks of up to $83,000 per year.

“The APP found a million dollars of taxpayer money going to corrupt public employees, including some found guilty on federal corruption charges,” added Beck. “Those are just the people they found, there are probably dozens more. If you violate the public trust, you don’t deserve a cushy retirement at taxpayer expense. Why is that so hard for Democrats to understand?”

Why indeed?

No surprise Kim Guadagno is down in the polls

By Rev. Greg Quinlan

A recent Monmouth University poll reports that Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno is running 27-points behind Democrat Phil Murphy in the race to be New Jersey's next Governor.  The poll found 53% supporting Murphy and 26% for Guadagno.   Another 6% were planning to vote independent and 14% were undecided.

According to this poll, Murphy has the support of 87% of his party's "registered" voters.  Guadagno has the support of just 69% of Republicans. That is a nearly 20-point deficit.

Laying to one side the fact that establishment polls in New Jersey are often engineered to produce desired results, as in the recent poll from Rutgers-Eagleton on Planned Parenthood funding, it should surprise nobody that a pro-abortion, pro-LGBTQ, pro-RGGI energy tax Republican is turning-off those voters she needs to turn-out in high numbers.

For more on Rutgers' infamous Planned Parenthood poll scam, read:

https://www.jerseyconservative.org/blog/2017/6/29/rutgers-tried-to-spin-legislators-with-planned-parenthood-poll

For anyone whose top issues are funding Planned Parenthood, or funding LGBTQ lobbyists with a state license plate scheme, or funding politically-correct corporate cronies with the job-killing RGGI energy tax, then there is a perfectly fine party that suits your needs.  It is known as the Democratic (in name only) Party.

If, on the other hand, you support traditional values and oppose politically-correct schemes to kill businesses, jobs, and raise taxes, then you should be a Republican and it is the job of Republican Party leaders to present their party's platform in a way that wins that support.  It is not their job to deny their Party's platform or, even worse, to embrace planks of the Democratic Party platform.   If they can't think of a way to present their Party's platform in a reasonable and positive way or if they don't believe in their Party's platform, then they should not be leading the Republican Party. 

The message of the Republican Party, carried in successive party platforms, is a message of electoral success.  Carrying the message of the most conservative platforms in its history, Republicans expanded their congressional majorities, captured an overwhelming number of state houses and legislative chambers, and defeated Hillary Clinton.  

The Platform of the Republican Party is a living document that is debated and voted on every four years by democratically-elected delegates from across America.  If you want to change the Party's platform, that is the time to do it.  If a state party organization wants to "opt-out" then have the guts to stand up and say so at the national convention and then post what you actually stand for on your state party website.  Make sure that it is as detailed as the RNC Platform and point-by-point, plank-by-plank, make your support or objection known.  Then we will at least know who and what you are.

Instead, every four years, New Jersey Republicans elect delegates to the Republican National Convention who write and adopt a platform, only to watch as the state's Republican establishment willfully ignores it and even lies to those who support the Republican Party and what it stands for.  It is time for a little truth in advertising.

The same old lie that has prevented New Jersey Republicans from achieving success is starting to circulate again.  It's the one that claims Republicans can only win with so-called "moderates."  Of course, this ignores the fact that the only Republican to win statewide in the last twenty years ran as a pro-Life, pro-traditional marriage, pro-gun, anti-tax conservative (yes, he used the word... over and over again).  He defeated an incumbent Democratic Governor and was re-elected with over 60% of the vote.  It also ignores the fact that the Republican Governor before him defeated a Democratic incumbent by promising big tax cuts and that the last time Republicans captured the state Legislature was due to a combined backlash on tax hikes and social issues.

It isn't that the average registered Republican lacks the confidence to be a Republican.  It's that the average Republican leader is often too conflicted to be a practicing Republican.  Too many of our Republican leaders get their incomes from sources that are antithetical to the Party's platform.  How many Republican leaders did we see employed as lobbyists advocating same-sex marriage?  How many have lobbied on behalf of Leftists like George Soros?  How many are employed by local and county governments that are controlled by Democrats? 

Republicans could be the party of the new have-nots.  I mean the vast majority of voters who fall outside those 31 urban Abbott districts that absorb most of the state's education money and gives them the highest property taxes in America. This in spite of the fact that half the state's economically disadvantaged children live outside those districts, and that many of those districts have improved economically since the Great Recession, while rural and suburban districts have suffered.  It has become a case of the rural and suburban poor subsidizing an urban elite unwilling to pay to educate the children of their communities, but many Republican leaders remain trapped in a 1980's mentality, viewing places like Hoboken and Jersey City through an antique lens.

Republicans could be the party of real democracy.  With its unelected judiciary, unelected prosecutors, and a Legislature designed to be bullied by bosses, New Jersey is about the least democratic place in America.  That could change and Republicans could be the leaders of that change.  Why not give democracy and good government a chance?  It might just be the "game-changer" the NJGOP keeps looking for.

In embracing these big-picture, broad-based ideas, Republicans should never forget that the average LGBTQ voter will always tend more towards the Left than the Right, so that means the Democratic Party; while the average traditional values voter will always tend more Right than Left, so that means the Republican Party.  It makes no sense to depress and suppress those who want to vote for you, so that you can madly chase after those who have no interest at all in voting for you. 

According to the Monmouth poll Kim Guadagno has already turned off 31% of what should be her Republican vote, while failing to make any serious inroads into her opponents' base.  This is the "moderate" formula for crushing defeat.

Worry about your voters and turn them out, don't worry about their voters.  If someone is such an LGBTQ voter that no measure of reform or democracy or tax fairness interests them, then move on, don't pander.  Besides, with Democratic candidates like Phil Murphy to vote for, they'll be plenty depressed anyway. 

Nothing kills a Leftist's buzz more than having a rich corporate globalist playing a "progressive" in a vain attempt to make voters forget who he hurt as a Wall Streeter.  Get smart and tell your opponent's story so that his potential voters know what kind of dog the Democratic Party bosses expect them to vote for.  But don't pander.  You are looking to turn them off to him, not turn them on to you.

In closing, the French Canadians have a very appropriate motto that Republicans should adopt:  "Je me souviens."  It means, "I remember who I am." 

Rev. Greg Quinlan is President of the Center for Garden State Families.

Better Not Call Slippin’ Johnny Cesaro Until You Check the List

By Scott St. Clair

The “lawyer with baggage” theme is a staple of TV crime dramas. The Law & Order franchise used it as a  plot twist a couple times – here and here – to juice up stories where bogus legal credentials threatened convictions. And the current hit series Better Call Saul has strip mall lawyer protagonist Jimmy McGill aka Slippin’ Jimmy aka Saul Goodman suffering a suspension of his law license for engaging in off-center and dubious shenanigans against his brother.

So it’s hardly surprising that New Jersey politics, always looking to sink to new depths, has gotten into the act with its own slippin’ character, LD-26 Assembly hopeful and current Morris County Freeholder John “Slippin’ Johnny” Cesaro.

You see, it turns out that ol’ Slippin’ Johnny ran afoul of the rules and became “administratively ineligible” to practice law after he failed to comply with state bar association reporting requirements having to do with the Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts program. As one report described it:

Cesaro was listed as administratively ineligible due to non-compliance with the IOLTA program, a non-profit program that helps disabled and low-income people resolve civil legal matters.

Slippin’ Johnny’s name first appeared on the IOLTA Ineligible List on October 21, 2016. According to Mary Waldman, the newly appointed executive director of the IOLTA Fund of the Bar of New Jersey, attorneys in the state are notified of their filing obligations in December, but those who fail to comply don’t have their names placed on the list until October of the following year, 10 months later. He remained on the list for seven months, not rectifying the situation until just recently.

Waldman said there are close to 90,000 attorneys in New Jersey. The most recent IOLTA Ineligible List had approximately 1,300 names, or 1.45 percent of the total, one of which was Slippin’ Johnny’s who was, per the list, originally admitted to practice in 2001.

It’s not like annual registration and IOLTA reporting requirements are rocket science, especially for someone who was admitted to the bar almost an entire generation ago.  So what was it about Slippin’ Johnny that made him…slip?

Media reports appear to have Slippin’ Johnny talking out of both sides of his mouth on whether he did or did not file his paper work in a timely manner. One quoted him as saying he did – “’This was a clerical error on my part,’ said Cesaro. ‘I send my paperwork in every year, and I sent them in this year,’” – while another has him saying he didn’t – “John Cesaro told Parsippany Focus he registers every year but he apparently failed to do so last year.”

How slippin’ is that, Johnny?

There’s enough slip sliddin’ away already in Trenton, so should Slippin’ Johnny slip down the slippery slope to sloppy legislative details? After all, the devil is always in them, and it’s a pretty significant detail that Slippin’ Johnny botched.   

But what exactly does it mean to be “administratively ineligible”? Admittedly, it’s a far cry from being disbarred or even suspended for an infraction of the rules of ethics. But it does make an attorney who’s on that list legally unable to practice law.

“Administratively ineligible” is defined by the state bar as:

“The attorney is not currently eligible to practice law in New Jersey for one or more reasons, including failure to pay the annual attorney assessment to the New Jersey Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection, failure to register with IOLTA or maintain IOLTA accounts, or otherwise failing to meet the requirements of Rule 1:21-1(a).Administrative ineligibility is not the result of discipline, but attorneys who are administratively ineligible are not allowed to practice law in New Jersey.” (emphasis added)

In other words, if you don’t comply with the IOLTA reporting requirements, you may not pass Go, you may not offer legal advice, you may not collect fees, you may not practice law. If you continue to practice law while ineligible for whatever reason, the state bar association can pile on additional sanctions, as it has done to other attorneys in the past.

Ineligible by any other name – disbarred, suspended or administratively -- is still ineligible. Again, this ain’t rocket science. 

Yet for months Slippin’ Johnny did practice law, which arguably also means he violated the legal canons of ethics for the state bar association, which state:

“RPC 5.5 Lawyers Not Admitted to the Bar of This State and the Lawful Practice of Law

(a) A lawyer shall not:

(1) practice law in a jurisdiction where doing so violates the regulation of the legal profession in that jurisdiction…”

And he did so as a prosecutor or public defender for several townships. Elected officials in jurisdictions for which he provided legal services have expressed concerns over the consequences of Slippin’ Johnny’s ineligibility on criminal and other matters he might have handled for them as well as cases that were strictly within his own private law practice. It just gets curiouser and curiouser.

A call to the state’s Office of Attorney Ethics to ascertain the full ethical ramifications of Slippin’ Johnny’s bungling of his paperwork resulting in being placed on the Administratively Ineligible list had not been returned as of late Thursday, June 1.

For someone who promotes himself on the Morris County Freeholder’s website as a strong proponent of transparency, when it comes to his eligibility to practice law it looks like Slippin’ Johnny has been as transparent as mud.

According to reports, Slippin’ Johnny squared himself away with the state bar association so his name was recently removed from the Administratively Ineligible list. That removal, however, is not retroactive – whatever legal work he did between the deadline for filing his paperwork and his removal from the list he did while ineligible to practice law.

Hank Lyon shouldn't talk about debt and taxes

We like Hank Lyon and wish him well.  Hank is an ideological conservative.  But it is his back story -- how he achieved public office, how he has maintained office, and how he seeks to advance himself up the ladder of public office -- that makes us uneasy.

It's a story of debt... and taxes.

Everyone remembers how Hank Lyon won a seat on the Morris County Freeholder Board.  A late infusion of cash from a corporation controlled by his father -- an infusion allowed because of an election law loophole that says if a candidate still lives at home with his parents, their money is treated as if it was the candidate's own money.

D. Use of Personal FundsUse of a candidate’s personal funds on behalf of his or her campaign must be deposited into the campaign depository and must be reported as either contributions or loans to the campaign in the same manner as all other contributions or loans. If the candidate intends to be reimbursed fully or partially for personal funds used on behalf of his or her campaign, then the funds must be reported both as a loan and as an outstanding obligation to the campaign if still outstanding at the end of the reporting period. Once a candidate’s personal funds are reported as contributions, the funds cannot be later characterized as loans and be repaid to the candidate. There is no limit to the amount of personal funds a candidate may contribute or lend to his or her own campaign (except for publicly funded gubernatorial candidates). See Gubernatorial Public Financing Program Manual for more information.  Also, a corporation, of which one hundred percent of the stock is owned by the candidate, or by the candidate’s spouse, child, parent, or sibling residing in the candidate’s household, may make contributions without limit to a candidate committee established by that candidate, or to a joint candidates committee established by that candidate.

That infusion of cash is improperly reported.  A judge overturns a close election, followed by a lawsuit, and another judge who reinstates the election results. 

Lyon's father was his Freeholder campaign's treasurer and its principal financier.  The lawyer who won the case for him was an alumnus of the Brett Schundler for Governor campaign and a movement conservative.  They tried to screw him:

Lawyer seeks $162,000 from Morris County Freeholder Hank Lyon

Morris County Freeholder William “Hank” Lyon has been accused of owing his former lawyer $162,000 in unpaid legal bills while Lyon also is battling with the state over alleged campaign violations.

“What a worm,”  said attorney Sean Connelly about his former client, Lyon. “We never expected to be in this position. We won precisely how we said we would win.”

Lyon, a Montville resident, did not return several calls for comment and an email to his freeholder address.

Connelly and the law firm of Barry, McTiernan and Wedinger of Edison represented Lyon during a nine-month court battle that ended up with Lyon winning the freeholder seat.

Lyon had won the 2011 Republican primary by four votes over Freeholder Margaret Nordstrom of Washington Township.  Nordstrom sued and won, gaining her seat back.

Lyon appealed the ruling and a state appeals court ruled in his favor in February 2012 and removed Nordstrom from the position. Lyon later won the freeholder post at a special election in November 2012.

Connelly said that after Lyon refused mediation and other offers to settle, the firm finally filed the suiton June 13 in Superior Court in Middlesex County against Lyon and his father, Robert A. Lyon, both of Montville, and their organization, “Lyon for Conservative Freeholder.” Connelly said Lyon has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit.

Connelly said that before the court action, he had told Lyon that the lawsuit would be very costly.

“They said they were going to fund this to the end,” Connelly said.

The legal effort included extensive court representations and $18,000 for transcripts.

“We filed motions upon motions upon motions,” Connelly said. “It tied up my practice for six months.”

Connelly said his firm has offered several discounts on the outstanding legal bills.  “They kept ignoring us,” Connelly said. “We offered them great terms to pay over time.”

Connelly also said he filed the lawsuit in Middlesex County in an effort to limit publicity in Morris County.

“I don’t want to embarrass him,” he said. “I want to get paid.”

Connelly said the freeholder avoided being served with the lawsuit summons, forcing him to hire a professional to serve him at Lyon’s freeholder office.

Connelly said he also named Lyon’s father, Robert, in the lawsuit because the elder Lyon initially had agreed to pay the legal bills.

Connelly said he believes Lyon and his family have significant assets, including real estate holdings and restaurants.

Lyon’s income includes $24,375 a year as a freeholder. He also works with his father in the family’s business, which owns four restaurants, including Qdoba Mexican Grill restaurants and Maggie Moo’s ice cream parlors.

Election Violations

The N.J. Election Law Enforcement Commission also has accused Lyon of four violations of campaign finance laws during the 2011 Republican primary. Each violation could result in a maximum $6,800 fine.

The same alleged violations were cited by Superior Court Assignment Judge Thomas Weisenbeck when he ruled against Lyon and in favor of Nordstrom.

The commission names Lyon and his father who was the campaign treasurer.

One alleged violation involves a $16,000 loan made to the campaign a week before the primary but not reported until July 8. The state says that because the contribution was more than $1,200, it should have been reported within 48 hours.

Another alleged violation occurred when Lyon and his father certified the information on the loan and campaign report was correct but that they changed it in a subsequent report. Initially, Lyons reported that he had made the loan but it was later changed to identify Robert Lyon as the contributor, the state said.

Additionally, the state claims the information about the contribution was submitted after the June 27 deadline.

Further, the complaint says that $16,795 in expenditures were listed on July 8 but were due on June 27.

(Editor Phil Garber, December 11, 2013, newjerseyhills.com)

The Lyon family operates a group of interconnected corporate entities out of the same office and same post office box they share with Hank Lyon's political campaign -- Post Office Box 193, 20 Indian Hill Road, Towaco, New Jersey.

We know this because a number of these corporate entities have filed for bankruptcy or have liens or judgments against them or owe taxes.

While serving as an elected Freeholder, at least three corporate entities operating from the same office and post office box as Hank Lyon's political campaign have filed for bankruptcy.  These are 275 Prospect Street Associates, LLC (Case #15-16683); High Prospects, LLC (Case #15-16684); and Zero Barnegat, LLC (Case #16-25213).  The creditors in the first bankruptcy cases included the following:

On the Zero Barnegat bankruptcy, the creditors included:

This is all very troubling for the career of such a young conservative.  And especially because his campaign has only grown more indebted to a corporate entity within this interconnected group.  Hank Lyon's corporate indebtedness jumped between October 15, 2013, and October 15, 2016:

Note the address of Imperial Management Company.  It is 275 Prospect Street in East Orange.  This is the property managed by another Lyon corporate entity, 275 Prospect Street Associates, the company that had to file for bankruptcy and owed debt to taxpayers and residents.  The principalsof this corporate entity are Hank Lyon's parents:

In addition to bankruptcy, 275 Prospect Street Associates, LLC, has only recently emerged from a state suspension:

There are two Lyon family controlled corporations that go by the name "Imperial Management" -- one is a corporation, the other is an LLC.  The corporation -- Imperial Management, Inc. --  is listed as the entity owed the debt by Hank Lyon's campaign.  Unfortunately for Lyon, the family corporation that his campaign is in debt to is currently under suspension by the state.

As for the other Imperial Management Company owned by the Lyon family, it has recently emerged from a suspension by the state:

This is an unholy mess and until Freeholder Lyon can sort it out and extricate his campaign from it, he has no business running for higher office.  Trying to move up the political ladder, with a campaign so deeply in debt to dodgy corporations who are in debt as well, is just crazy.   It is an open invitation to a well-financed Democrat, backed up by a free-spending gubernatorial candidate and super-PACs loaded with cash. 

There is also the matter of ideology to be cleared-up.  How can one claim to be a "conservative" when he is existentially wrapped around such a convoluted mess of debt, bankruptcy, and fiscal irresponsibility?  If you cannot keep from being suspended by the state or fined by NJELEC or having your rents garnished, then how can you hope to address the budget of the State of New Jersey?

Poll: Oroho strong re-elect, Phoebus upside-down

A recent survey of 425 likely Republican Primary election voters in New Jersey's 24th Legislative District throws cold-water on the attempt by certain political insiders to promote the candidacy of Gail Phoebus.  The poll, which was conducted before Phoebus announced that she was challenging incumbent Steve Oroho for the Senate seat, indicates that Oroho is in a strong position to be re-elected, while Phoebus would have work to do to hold on to her Assembly seat.

Here are snapshots taken directly from the poll's "toplines":

Phoebus is under water:

The poll was conducted by Magellan Strategies of Colorado, a nationally recognized polling firm that has conducted thousands of surveys for national and statewide candidates, congressional and legislative candidates, state and national party organizations, and business interest groups.  Legislative District 24 is made up of all of Sussex County, eleven towns in Warren County, and one town in Morris County.  Some of the other details in the survey include:

And in the Sussex County portion of the district, which makes up about 70 percent of the electorate, the survey indicates that the most popular local elected official by far is Sussex County Sheriff Mike Strada.

While the least popular elected official in Sussex County is the outgoing Freeholder Director, George Graham:

Phoebus' supporters -- primarily cabal of lawyers associated with the Morris County Improvement Authority's Sussex solar scam -- will have a difficult time selling her candidacy with numbers like these.  Jersey Conservative will be releasing more data as we receive it.