Elections Matter

They certainly matter to NJ Governor Chris Christie, who took a special interest in the election for State Senate in the 8th Legislative District, in which Olympic Gold Medalist and Willingboro native Carl Lewis had plans to run as a Democrat.

Now, it is hardly breaking news that the Governor is a petty, vindictive bully. By the time Lewis formally announced his candidacy on April 11, calling Christie a "good friend", Christie's plan to derail Lewis' candidacy was well underway, and the fate of the campaign had been all but sealed.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Christie sent one of his young thugs after Lewis, in a series of "increasingly tense phone calls", marked by attempted intimidation and implied threats:

(H)e received the first of increasingly tense phone calls from Frank Luna, a veteran political operative who performs constituent services for the governor.

Luna asked Walker, executive director of the Carl Lewis Foundation, whether Lewis was running for the Eighth District Senate seat. According to Walker, Luna told him: "The governor is concerned."

The two spoke daily the next two days, and on April 9, Walker said, Luna told him "the governor is very upset and disappointed, and Carl would be embarrassing himself by running."

Walker said that in that April 9 conversation, Luna told him, "How can you expect the governor to work hand-in-hand with Carl when Carl is working against him? You can forget about this program."

Christie and Lewis spoke April 10.

Christie knew that, should Lewis decide to declare anyway, the Republicans would challenge Lewis' NJ residency in court, and if the court punted, he could count on Lt Governor / Secretary of State Kim Guadagno to pull a Katherine Harris and rule against Lewis,

We get the government we deserve. For those Democrats who were disappointed with the Corzine campaign and decided to stay home in November 2009, or worse, voted for Christie thinking "how bad can he be?", consider this: It could have been Loretta Weinberg making the decision on Carl Lewis' eligibility to run in NJ.While we cannot know for sure how a Secretary of State Weinberg would have ruled, we can be reasonably sure that, stateswoman that she is, she would have given careful consideration to the facts of the case and ruled as Secretary of State, not as the Governor's sock puppet.

To paraphrase Bill Clinton: if you don't vote, you are, in fact, voting for the person you don't want. Let's not let that happen again.

Get out and vote today if your school district is holding elections today.

Get out and vote in November. We need a Democratic majority in the Legislature to hold this out-of-control Governor in check.

Remember, elections matter.
 

Go Ahead, Senator Sweeney, Make My Day

Talk about "below the fold".

On Christmas Day, 1:00pm, when most people were not reading the Star Ledger or NJ.com, came the news that Governor Chris Christie and Lt Governor Kim Guadagno are both taking vacation out of state, leaving Senate President Stephen Sweeney as acting governor while both are away. Maybe I missed something, but wasn't the position of Lt. Governor created to provide for continuity in the NJ Executive branch while the Governor was unavailable to discharge his duties? How do they get away with leaving the state at the same time?

While we know that the Governor will be in Disney World in Florida with his family, it has not been released (not to this writer, at least) where Lt Gov. Guadagno will be, other than that she will be out of state. Perhaps she will be in Disney World with the governor, standing behind him, gazing longingly, Nancy-Reagan-like, while Christie hob-nobs with Mickey and watches his kids enjoy the rides.

According to the Star Ledger:
"Theoretically, Sweeney could sign legislation Christie hasn’t acted on or even file nominations Christie would never dream of filing. Sweeney could even re-nominate former state Supreme Court Justice John Wallace Jr. to the bench, whose pass-over by Christie in favor of attorney Anne Patterson angered Sweeney. But he won’t."

Says Sweeney:
“I wouldn’t do that to him. The guy is going on vacation with his family, and I’m not going to ruin it by creating mischief. The governor’s office is something that people shouldn’t think is a toy. It’s a serious responsibility.”

It speaks volumes that the governor has left the State government in hands of Sweeney, with full confidence that there will be no "mischief", where "mischief" may be defined as reinstating Justice John Wallace, or signing the "Back To Work NJ" and the anti-bullying bills.

While we're on the subject of missed opportunities, since this is a time when teachers, and many others, have the week off, this would have been the ideal time for the governor to defer his vacation and hold some "Town Hall" meetings at a time when his audience would include members of his constituency who typically cannot attend such meetings on normal weekdays. After all, if his "Reform" is so urgent, why leave the state now? Certainly a Disney vacation can wait until the next school break in the spring.

So, how about it, Senator Sweeney? You're right, the governor's office is a serious responsibility. So how about some mischief? .