2018 Midterm Snapshot: Dems Score at the Polls

Phil Murphy, New Jersey Democratic governor-elect

It's been damp, cool and rainy most of the day here in Hamilton, New Jersey.

Reflective, perhaps, of the fact that almost a year ago the lowest American presidential voter turnout in 20 years elected a man who may well be the most unqualified, unpopular, divisive and ethically-repugnant candidate ever elected to the highest office in the land.

But today is another election day, and this morning I felt a measure of quiet political optimism for perhaps the first time since inauguration day back in January.

As I usually do if I'm in the office and don't have an appointment scheduled or phone calls to make, this morning I started off my day at work listening to The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC.org.

While I was particularly interested to listen to what other New Jersey voters had to say about election day during a segment when Brian fielded calls from Garden State listeners, his overview of the elections in New York and around the country were informative and got me fired up to cast my own vote.

Knowing it was going to rain, I cut out at about 11:20am to drive over and vote at the local senior citizens center that serves as my local polling place - fortunately it's only a three-minute drive from work so I was there, signed in, cast my vote and was back in the office in about eight minutes.

Now obviously I'm eager to see the lackluster, remarkably unproductive, scandal-plagued era of Republican Governor Chris Christie come to a merciful end, but I think Phil Murphy is the best candidate to represent the changes that most New Jerseyeans want to see.

Overall, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kim Guadagno, Christie's lieutenant governor since 2009, ran a fairly unimaginative and uninspiring campaign.

NJ Republican candidate Kim Guadagno 

With the state hovering dangerously close to the border of fiscal crisis with issues like massive infrastructure spending needs and a looming pension crisis that keeps getting kicked down the road (including by Christie...), Guadagno tried to dazzle voters.

Not with innovative ideas, sound fiscal policy or a plan to boost sagging wages, but with vague promises to cut taxes by eliminating unidentified "government waste".

Which is little more than Republican code-speak for cutting state government jobs and gutting social spending programs - the same kind of "Starve the Beast" nonsense that sent the Kansas economy spiraling into fiscal free-fall under Republican anti-tax fetishist Gov. Sam Brownback.

Aside from Guadagno's divisive xenophobic fear-mongering about immigration, Guadagno followed her notoriously short-tempered boss' unsuccessful 2016 presidential campaign tactic and took a hard ideological-right in an attempt to drum up support among the hardcore right-wing conservatives that went for Trump here in New Jersey last November.

Desperate to close the gap between her and Murphy, in the final weeks of the campaign she finally sunk to the level of running bogus attack ads falsely claiming that Murphy's support for making New Jersey a sanctuary state for undocumented immigrants (NJ is one of the most diverse states in America) meant he wanted to shield violent criminals who are in this country illegally.

A simplistic bush-league Republican tactic that's been used by the GOP in campaigns around the country (including by Virginia Republican candidate for governor Ed Gillespie) to try and gin up the irrational conservative paranoia peddled by Trump and his cadre of xenophobic advisers and cabinet members. 

Virginia Democratic governor-elect Ralph Northam
and Republican Ed "Dixie Boy" Gillespie (right)

That same strategy backfired on Gillespie in Virginia tonight too, the former Republican National Committee chairman was soundly beaten by 54% - 45% by Democratic candidate for governor Ralph Northam.

Who, as NBC reported, benefitted from the boost of strong opposition to Republican attempts to destroy healthcare, Trump, and a strong state economy guided by outgoing popular Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe.

Like Guadagno donning the cloak of xenophobia, Gillespie really misread the temperature of Virginia voters.

Especially when he took up a pro-Confederate statue cause in the waning days of the election to try and draw support from Trump voters - as RNC chairman, he was actually fairly moderate and advocated for more inclusiveness.

Frankly I find it remarkable that with all the challenges we face in this country, Trump and his chief of staff John Kelly seem consumed with making a revisionist view of the Civil War and the Confederacy the main domestic focus of a White House trying to pull off a massive tax giveaway to corporations and the wealthiest percentage of Americans by Christmas.

Guadagno never strayed into "Confederate statue territory", but trying to embrace Trump's anti-immigrant hysteria at the last minute backfired for her here in New Jersey too - she won a mere 14% of the Hispanic vote and a paltry 9% of the African-American vote based on today's election results.

There are a healthy amount of Trump voters here in Jersey, but overall Garden State Republicans tend to be more moderate in the mold of my Congressman Chris Smith.

Chris Christie argues with a voter outside a polling
station earlier today

So I think Guadagno resorting to hate and bigotry to boost her sagging poll numbers didn't do much for her image as someone who was going to unify the state and bring something different to the NJ Governor's Mansion.

She's a pretty good communicator with some solid experience as a prosecutor and Monmouth County Sheriff, but regardless of what she did, it was going to be tough for her to get the stench of Christie and Bridgegate off of her.

Did you hear about him getting into a public argument with a NJ voter outside a polling station earlier today?

Believe it or not, Christie is so unpopular (14% approval rate according to one recent poll) that the most unpopular presidential candidate in modern American history is actually has a higher approval rate here in the Garden State.

Aside from the weight of the Christie baggage, Guadagno was also clearly a sounding board for people who might not have been all that excited by Phil Murphy, but hated Trump more and were eager to send a message to the Embarrassment-in-Chief and the Republican Party that tapped him as their candidate.

But the polls are closed in the east and the voters have spoken.

While professional pollsters and analysts will dig deeper into today's election results in the coming days over an election in which strong Democrat turnout led to decisive victories in the New Jersey and Virginia governor's races and the mayoral race in New York City by Bill de Blasio, there's little doubt that the Democratic base is fired up.

From my perspective tonight's results are a clear reflection that a majority of Americans are fed up with Trump and a Republican-majority House and Senate who've yet to pass a single piece of meaningful legislation on behalf of the American people in over nine months.

Next year's midterm elections are a long ways away, and a lot can happen before then, but if today's results are any indication, November 6, 2018 could be a rude awakening for Trump - one he won't be able to shrug off as "fake news" with a tweet.

As I said, I was quietly optimistic this morning, and I'll sleep much more soundly tonight than I did on election night last November.

Don Veto: Christie "Administratively Segregates" Himself From Reality

Christie vetoes himself into oblivion

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was branded politically-damaged goods long before his former deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly and his former Port Authority appointee Bill Baroni were found guilty on multiple counts related to their roles in conspiring to close lanes of the George Washington Bridge back on November 4th.

But it was remarkable how quickly Donald Trump removed Christie from any involvement with the campaign and began treating him like a leper when it came to naming top cabinet positions for the erratic president-elect.

For weeks after the November 8th election Christie withdrew into a political shell like a turtle protecting itself from predators as he sought to avoid unpleasant questions from the media about the guilty verdicts of his two former top-aides in the Bridgegate scandal - and an official misconduct lawsuit filed in court by a retired Teaneck firefighter named Bill Brennan.

But in recent days Christie's name has begun to slip back into national media headlines over reports that he reportedly turned down lesser cabinet positions offered byTrump.

After his rocky stint in the 2015 - 2016 Republican Clown Car as a presidential contender ended with a lackluster primary finish in New Hampshire, and his desire to be named Trump's VP or Attorney General pick were dashed, there's no way a man with an ego the size of Christie's would settle for a position as head of Veteran's Affairs or ambassador to Italy.

Especially not after Trump supposedly nixed his request to be named the next Republican National Committee chair, so sadly (for Christie), his best option is the one he sought to use as a launching pad for his national political ambitions - to remain the governor of NJ.

Christie 0 - Pence 2 

It's a rather mutually disappointing prospect both for him and for the citizens of the Garden State who've watched him spend the bulk of his last three years as governor traipsing around the nation raising money for the Republican party.

First in his former role as the head of the Republican Governor's Association, then as a presidential candidate, then most recently as the head of the Trump transition team - until he was unceremoniously replaced by VP-elect Mike Pence.

Now that Christie is back home and facing what are considered to be the lowest approval ratings for a sitting governor ever tracked (a dismal 19% of New Jersey-folk approved of him in November), it seems as if Christie is determined to spend the remaining year he has in office doing what's he's done best as governor - saying no to stuff that a majority of the people want.

With his latest in a long string of vetoes of legislation overwhelmingly approved with bi-partisan support in the NJ legislature, a decision to veto a legislative measure that would have placed restrictions on the use of solitary confinement in NJ prisons, Christie has edged further into some kind of detached ideological void.

Earlier today Christie earned the ire of the Editorial Board of the New York Times in a scathing op-ed piece that ripped into him for "resorting to euphemisms" to try and justify his decision to defend the use of a practice that justice reform activists, human rights advocates and legal experts alike are trying to curb in local, state and federal prisons and jails across the U.S.

Solitary confinement: 'Cruel & unusual punishment.'

As the Times op-ed noted, Christie had the gall to try and insist that "a form of isolated punishment called "administrative segregation" has replaced solitary confinement and it's horrors."

Administrative segregation?

Does Christie really think calling solitary confinement by another name will reduce the devastating and debilitating psychological impact it has on people?


His veto is a blow to inmate's rights, bi-partisan efforts to begin to dismantle mass incarceration and justice reform in American prisons - so why did Christie do it?

Maybe for the same reason he vetoed a bill back in August that was introduced by NJ State Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg that would have required NJ gun dealers to carry at least one "smart gun" - handguns that use sensors in the handgrip that ensure that only the gun's owner can fire them.

The bill was an effort to try and at least offer some kind of solution to keep handguns out of the wrong hands of people who purchase them illegally, but as PhillyMag.com reported in his veto message Christie took aim at what he called "the relentless campaign by the Democratic legislature to make New Jersey as inhospitable as possible to lawful gun ownership and sales."

Sen. Corey Booker leads an anti-gun violence rally
in Newark in June after the Orlando massacre 

It's not just that Christie whores himself out to the NRA, his defiantly pro-gun stance is totally out of step with the overwhelming majority of NJ citizens who favor sensible gun laws.

This is a governor whose spent so much time in the past three years outside of the state that he was elected to lead, that it's like he's still stuck in some kind of robotic permanent campaign mode.

Seeking to satisfy the extremist wing of the national Republican party, rather than the will of the people of New Jersey.



He's almost like a greyhound racing around the track thinking he can catch the rabbit if he just goes a little faster.

As an article posted on NJ.com earlier today reported, Democratic legislators are hoping that Christie's anemic poll numbers could help persuade Republican lawmakers to override his latest veto of legislation that would have helped ensure equal pay for women in the workplace.

Yes, in a state where women make up over 50% of the population and still make 80 cents to the dollar to men, Christie vetoed the latest legislative effort to close the gender pay gap.

Why? He called the bill "nonsensical" and "business unfriendly".

The only thing nonsensical is Christie's continual vetoing of legislation that people and politicians from both parties support - as if he's a little kid on the political playground still trying to prove he's conservative enough to play with the big boys.

As our governor enters his final year in office, he's increasingly politically removed from the mainstream; and administratively segregated from reality.

Deafening Silence & Trump Kool-Aid

"Nothin' to see here folks!" Giuliani on Meet the Press

It's overcast outside and rather gloomy here in central New Jersey today, and with no hint of a breeze to stir the humid air, it seems unusually still; and if you listen there's a deafening silence.

A collective looming silence from the millions of moderate Republicans in this country who are quietly hanging their heads in shame at the man selected to represent their party.



While Hillary Clinton visited the Little Rock A.M.E Zion Church in Charlotte, North Carolina this Sunday morning to offer words of comfort to those still trying to make sense of the unjustified recent shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, Donald Trump is busy sending out more nonsensical Twitter messages and dispatching his two favorite spinmeisters, NJ Governor Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani, out to try and stem the bleeding from the bombshell New York Times article revealing that Trump likely hasn't paid federal taxes in 20 years.

As the examination of a copy of Trump's 1995 tax forms show, he claimed over $915 million in losses on crap-shoot business like his failed Trump Airlines and a long list of sketchy real estate write-offs to basically write himself a free pass from paying any taxes whatsoever on the "billions" he claims to be worth.

Same guy whose only coherent campaign promises, to construct a massive wall across the Mexican border and deport about 11 million undocumented immigrants, is estimated to cost taxpayers in excess of $300 billion.

So essentially he wants American taxpayers to foot the bill for his own delusional schemes.

Presidential? Not so much.

No wonder Christie and Giuliani were up early today trying to shill for this world-class huckster.

As columnist Maureen Dowd observed in a scathing op-ed in the Times on Saturday titled "Girl Talk at Trump Tower": "Trump is surrounded by a bitchy sewing circle of overweight men who are overwrought at the prospect of a distaff Clinton presidency."

(Distaff meaning of, or relating to, or being a woman - I had to look that one up...)

And bitchy is exactly what Christie and Giuliani were on the Sunday morning news programs earlier today.

In a reflection of just how delusional reality looks inside the cozy sphere of the conservative media echo chamber where Trump exists, remarkably Christie actually said the revelations about Trump's tax return was a "very, very good story for Donald Trump." 

A "very, very good story" for Richard Nixon?

Which is kind of like saying the revelations of the Watergate conspiracy, the Nixon tapes and his subsequent resignation was a "very, very good thing for Richard Nixon."

Don't laugh folks, Christie is the governor of the state I live in.

Giuliani tried to sell that Trump Kool-Aid too.

The quasi-delusional former NY mayor said the revelation of Trump's shameless tax-dodging made him an "absolute genius." 

You couldn't make that up.

Now I'm obviously no Nate Silver with the analytical prowess to use mathematics to accurately predict political outcomes, but my gut sense is that on election day next month, to some degree there's going to be a kind of reverse-Tom Bradley effect that takes place at the polls that's going to hurt Trump.

Meaning when many conservatives pull the curtain shut to cast their votes, even though they might have publicly nodded with reluctant approval at the prospect of a Trump presidency around similar-minded family, friends and co-workers, privately they know it would be an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions to put that clown into the White House as Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful nation in the world - so they're going to vote for Hillary but they won't tell anyone.

With Trump still trying to convince people that former Miss Universe Alicia Machado was involved in a murder conspiracy further solidifying the public perception that he's completely unqualified to serve as the president, where are all the Republican Senate and House leaders?

Some members of traditionally conservative media, including the Dallas Morning News, have shown the courage to admit the obvious and publicly declare that Trump simply isn't qualified to be president.

Like the staunchly conservative Arizona Republic which hasn't endorsed a Democrat for president since it was first published in 1890,  published an op-ed from the editorial board endorsing Clinton over Trump .

A decision which, remarkably, drew death threats from some of the more extremist conservatives eager to see a Trump presidency.

That took courage.

So in an effort to try and salvage some shred of the Republican party's tattered image, wouldn't you think it would be logical for Republican politicians to follow suit?

You'd think you'd see more GOP Congressional leaders standing up to publicly repudiate Donald Trump.

After learning that Trump appeared in the opening of a softcore porn video for Playboy six years ago (when Hillary Clinton was being elected as the junior Senator for the state of New York...) even the staunchest conservative politicians would have to say enough is enough.

For the good of the GOP, you'd think Republican Congressional leaders like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would have to stand up and distance themselves from Trump and say that what he represents doesn't reflect the Republican party of Jack Kemp, George Bush Sr., Bob Dole or my Congressman Chris Smith - genuinely principled men who were, and are, decent and show an ability to put their country's needs above self or petty squabbles.

But no, all you hear from leading Republican politicians is a deafening silence.

As if they're just sipping on their Kool-Aid and waiting for it to all be over.

Christie Knows Nothing & Assorted Conservative Bunk

John Bannerman as Sgt. Schultz

During his weekly "Ask the Governor" radio show on NJ 101.5 FM last night, Republican NJ Governor Christie boldly continued to try and maintain the laughable assertion that he "knew nothing" about Bridgegate.

This despite the sworn testimony by former top aides to Christie that he knew all along.

Even though Bridgegate "mastermind" David Wildstein recently testified under oath in court that Christie was in the know about the astonishingly crooked scheme to punish Democratic Ft. Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for not endorsing Christie by intentionally causing a massive traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge, Christie continues to pull a "Sgt. Schultz".

Not to amuse, as the brilliant character actor John Bannerman famously did in his classic role as the gullible German POW camp guard in the 60's television series Hogan's Heroes

did.

His signature punchline, "I know nothing!", uttered during his efforts to turn a blind eye to the zany hijinks of the Allied POW's under his watch, may have fooled his equally clueless commanding officer Colonel Klink, but it never fooled anyone else; and that's kind of what Christie's doubling-down on his denials about knowing about Bridgegate are coming off as.    

It was sad but interesting to listen to the embattled Christie further shred the tattered remnants of his once sterling political reputation Tuesday night by trying to pin Donald Trump's disastrous performance during the widely-watched first 2016 presidential debate on moderator Lester Holt by calling the respected NBC News anchor an "idiot" for challenging Trump's views on the controversial "Stop and Frisk" police policy.

Which strikes me as an interesting insult to use considering that last week during an interview with Bill O'Reilly on Fox, Trump tried to fan the flames of the eternal Republican conspiracy about "liberal media bias" by insisting that NBC is biased against conservatives and then making the unfounded suggestion that the debate was somehow rigged because Holt was a Democrat.


Holt has been a registered Republican since 2003. Idiot indeed...

Of course Christie isn't the only high-profile Republican to make eye-opening public statements that are more characteristic of a bloviating loudmouth dummkopf this week.

Conservative one-trick pony Rudy Giuliani did his best to kick up some positive spin on Trump's debate implosion and clear lack of preparation by calling Hillary Clinton "stupid" and eagerly joining the conservative media clarion call to blame Lester Holt for Trump's epic fail on a nationally televised stage.

Which is hardly surprising, conservative Trump supporters are still miffed that a joint CNN/ORC poll
as well as a joint NBC News / SurveyMonkey poll showed that a majority of respondents thought Hillary won the debate.

Her performance also scored her a nice 4-point bump in the polls by, in part, keeping her cool on the podium Monday night - including her smooth invitation for viewers to visit her Website to read some of Trump's numerous outrageous falsehoods which are carefully listed and fact-checked on the site.

Not surprisingly Fox News quickly kicked into overdrive in an effort to try and put a new spin on Trump's erratic gaff-prone performance on Monday by unleashing a flood of excuses and nonsensical bunk in an attempt to fight the facts quoted and used so effectively by Clinton during the debate.   

For example as a MediaMatters.org article reported, earlier this evening on On the Record with Brit Hume on Fox News, a panel of three white people agreed that the debunked Birther movement was not racist.

Over on conservative talk radio the consistently tone-deaf Rush Limbaugh actually tried to build on Trump's misogynistic treatment of the then-teenage Miss Universe Alicia Machado by calling her "a porn star" based on some unsupported allegations in a smear article published by The Daily Caller.

Not surprisingly The Daily Caller is a right-wing news Website founded by conservative commentator Tucker Carlson with $3 million in funding from the wealthy Koch-like conservative backer Foster Friess.

Friess is the notoriously Islamophobic multi-millionaire supporter of right-wing Christian causes who blamed the Columbine massacre on liberals; check out ThinkProgress.org's 'Seven Facts Your Need To Know' about this guy.

From Trump's debate performance on Monday, to Christie's denial of his knowledge of Bridgegate, to Fox News and conservative talk media's injection of concocted bunk into the isolated conservative echo-chamber, Republicans have pulled a collective Sgt. Schultz this week:

They know nothing.

Trump: Alt-Right Uber Alles

Jaw-dropping confusion has been just one of the more unsavory hallmarks of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and on that aspect, he's been nothing if not consistent.

After Hillary Clinton stepped in front of a crowd in Reno, Nevada on Thursday, took off the gloves and called Trump out for what he is and has been, a shameless xenophobic bigot willing to pander to racists and white nationalists for votes, Trump has the temerity to respond by calling Clinton a bigot.

Frankly, Trump has no business calling anyone a bigot after more than a year of his toxic hate speech, but that's another blog.

Personally I'm in the camp of those who feel that it was the best speech Hillary has given during the 2016 race because she used eloquence, facts and Trump's own words to enunciate what millions of people around the nation and the world feel about the Republican candidate for president.

She didn't use half-baked innuendo or flat out lies like Trump does habitually, she didn't need to.

A concise list of the numerous examples of Trump's own statements, actions and public reaction to those were all that was necessary.

But given all that, even as Trump flailed about this week hurling baseless off-the-cuff accusations against his opponent, even after his insulting "African-American Outreach" speeches last week, even after making the editor of an openly racist-misogynist media portal like Brietbart.com his campaign manager, who does Trump pick as his new national field director?

Christie's Bridgegate brain trust Bill Stepien & Bridget Kelly 

Bill Stepien, the former chief political strategist for Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

Not only was Stepien one of the architects of the Bridgegate scandal, after Christie initially stopped ducking the press and held a lengthy press conference / mea culpa about the Bridgegate scandal back on January 9, 2014, the NJ governor said that he: 

"was disturbed by the tone, behavior and attitude of callous indifference that was displayed in the emails by my former campaign manager, Bill Stepien."   

Which I guess makes him the perfect political hack for a campaign like Trump's.

The fact that Stepien is willing to put "Trump campaign national field director" on his resume says a lot about him professionally; it also says a lot about how desperate the Trump campaign is to put a guy whose name is about to be splashed across the media when the Bridgeate trial gets underway in September into an important high-profile campaign position with early voting about to start.

Personally, as a resident of New Jersey it's genuinely insulting that the governor of our politically moderate state is actually serving on Trump's campaign as an adviser and transition chair.

Not surprising given that this week he used his power as governor to veto yet another gun control bill passed by the state legislature with bipartisan support that would have helped to keep handguns out of the hands of criminals and those who have no business using a handgun.

When your presidential transition chief uses his power as governor to thwart common sense legislation supported by citizens, Republican and Democratic state politicians and members of law enforcement and make it easier for people to carry concealed handguns, it's a reflection of just how out of touch the campaign itself is with mainstream American people.

But clearly Trump as adopted an Alt-Right Uber Alles philosophy, so he's in touch with exactly who he wants to be.

Ideology Over Principled Leadership

Well my favorite Republican governor was back in the news today, and as has been the case in recent months, that wasn't really a good thing.

For him or the people of New Jersey.

Chris Christie's reputation is now inextricably linked with three different toxic issues that aren't going away anytime soon.

1) The Bridgegate scandal he engineered back in 2013 is about to come back and roost in his life like a vicious vindictive chicken.

2) The critical Transportation Trust Fund that keeps vital infrastructure projects (things like roads and bridges...) in New Jersey financed is now out of money due in large part to Christie's stubborn refusal to budge on his disturbing obsession with cutting taxes - even when it's not in the state's fiscal interest.

3) He's hitched his wagon and political legacy to Donald Trump.

Let's take a quick look at Bridgegate first.

It was just last week when the transcript of a text message between former Christie aide Christina Renna and Pete Sheridan (a former Christie re-election adviser who's currently one of the top officials in New Jersey's Republican party) offered damning proof that not only did Christie and his top officials know about Bridgegate, but that Christie himself lied in a 2013 press conference in which he claimed neither he or his staff were aware of the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.

Former Port Authority official Bill Baroni

Those transcripts were submitted by lawyers for Bill Baroni, the disgraced former deputy executive director of the Port Authority for New York and New Jersey.

Remember him? Back in 2013 he was the guy who told an investigative committee of the NJ legislature while under subpoena that the lane closures were part of "a traffic study."

He'll be in federal court next month to face charges that he used his position at the Port Authority to engineer the lane closures.

It's a pretty good bet that nothing good for Christie is going to come out of that trial as Baroni and his lawyers try to salvage what's left of his shredded reputation by selling Christie up the river.

Oh and Baroni won't be alone in court starting September 12th, Bridget Anne Kelly, the former deputy chief of staff to Christie and author of the now famous "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" text message to ex-Christie adviser David Wildstein, will be there as well facing seven counts including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and deprivation of civil rights.

The trial starts about ten days from when early voting for the 2016 presidential election begins in some states, so the fallout and details from that highly-anticipated trial are going to put a real crimp in Christie's style as Donald Trump struggles to try and right his sinking presidential campaign.

Stephen Bannon

Christie is heading up Trump's White House transition team, but I'm not sure whether he had anything to do with Trump's decision to name the combative hyper-conservative Breitbart News executive  Stephen Bannon to replace Paul Manafort as the new head of Trump's presidential campaign.

Bannon is known less as a "journalist" than as a peddler of quasi-delusional paranoid theories that feed Tea Party insanity who helped bring an even more racist and misogynist tone to Brietbart.


Thought Trump's campaign was a trainwreck before?

Just wait a few days and see what a crass bigot like Bannon who fawns over Sarah Palin and has no experience running a political campaign brings to Trump's rapidly fading presidential hopes; and in turn, Christie's political ambitions.

But probably the saddest aspect of Christie's political and professional devolution is something all too familiar to folks in New Jersey - his consistent unwillingness to put the needs of the people of the state ahead of his own political self interest and his increasingly narrow-minded ideology.

Today's troubling New York Times story about how Christie helped Trump weasel out of paying about $25 million in back taxes owed from the bankruptcies of Trump's failed Atlantic City casinos is just the latest of many examples.

Remember back in March when Christie pushed aside the will of the NJ Attorney General and undercut years of costly litigation efforts to force Exxon to cover cleanup costs related to the pollution of the Arthur Kill and Newark Bay in Bayonne, NJ by revising an $8.9 billion settlement with Exxon and agreeing to accept a paltry $250 million or about 3 cents on the dollar?

The people of New Jersey are once again loosing out with the toxic stalemate over funding of the state's Transportation Trust Fund. Despite years of warnings that the critical source of funding for essential road and bridge repairs would run out of money, last July Christie shut down $3.5 billion slated for hundreds of different projects across the state in order to save what's left in the TTF for emergencies.

Eighth street bridge reconstruction in Passaic - Stalled

Both Republicans and Democratic state Assembly members reached a bipartisan measure to fund the TFF by increasing the state's gas tax by 23 cents a gallon - a measure supported by most people in NJ especially since the gas tax hasn't been raised since 1988 when it was raised by 2.5 cents a gallon.

Can you name a single product that you consume regularly that hasn't gone up in price since 1988?


True to Christie's bizarre allegiance to anti-government conservative tax-cut zealot Grover Norquist's "No new taxes. Ever" pledge signed by hundreds of fiscally-delusional Republican politicians, the Governor would only agree to pass the gas tax increase if the NJ Senate also passed tax cuts.

When revised figures showed that Christie's proposed sales tax cut, plus a retirement income tax exclusion he threw in would actually cost the state $1.9 billion in revenue by 2022, the Senate refused to pass the bill - if Christie would just take out his demand for a retirement income tax exclusion (a tax cut that would overwhelmingly benefit wealthier New Jerseyeans) the bill would pass.

But of course he won't, so hundreds of critical road and bridge repairs across the state sit idle and construction workers and contractors are stuck with no paycheck during the busiest construction period of the year - driving up unemployment rates and pumping less money into the economy.

Work like asphalt paving, which can't be done in cold weather, and costs to restart the projects grow by the day, but Christie is content to blame the Democratic-majority state Senate and use his authority not to get these critical projects funded, but to pander to the fringe ideology of conservative anti-tax zealots in the Republican party - most of whom don't even live in New Jersey.

Again, as I've said many times, I've got nothing personal against Christ Christie; but it's always about him, not the best interests of the people.

I'm just really tired of naked self-interest and rigid, narrow-minded political ideology that's not reflective of the vast majority of New Jersey's citizens masquerading as principled leadership.

The Court of Chris Christie: Day Two At the RNC

Christie plays prosecutor & judge Tuesday night 

I know it's traditional to come up with clever creative ways to energize enthusiastic crowds at political conventions, but it was pretty remarkable to see New Jersey Governor Chris Christie conduct a "mock trial" of Hillary Clinton at last night's RNC event in Cleveland.

As the New York Times reported earlier today, Christie's claims were rife with wild exaggerations, factual inaccuracies and plain old falsehoods.

Was it meant to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek? Sure.

But there was something disturbingly misogynistic about the whole episode that served to reinforce the image of the Republican party as hostile to women in general; particularly when you couple that with nationwide Republican legislative pushes for oppressively restrictive anti-abortion measures and their unprecedented smear campaign against groups like Planned Parenthood that provide critical healthcare services to millions of women.

Recently-concluded lengthy investigations by multiple Congressional committees and the F.B.I. determined that no crimes, intentional or otherwise, were committed because of Clinton's decision to use a private email server.

Yet Christie encouraged the hostile crowd to repeatedly chant "Guilty!" - as if by the mere expression of their hostility towards Clinton they had uncovered some kind of evidence that Congressional staff and federal investigators had somehow missed.

But on another level, it also seemed to not so subtly tap into the undercurrent of irrational anti-government rancor that flows through the Republican party like toxic sludge.

Anti-government zealot Cliven Bundy

The fringe wingnuts who align themselves with the sovereign citizens movement, "patriot" organizations, or groups associated with guys like rancher Cliven Bundy and his son Ammon Bundy who occupy federal lands in defiance of government authority, are drawn to the disturbing "Lock her up!" chants that echoed through the convention hall last night.

Was Christie was intentionally using his "mock trial" to try to tap into the mindset of groups who want to take the law into their own hands, establish their own shadow courts and operate outside the legal system?

Individuals using the cloak of anti-government fervor can come with horrific consequences as in the case of sovereign citizen sympathizer Ryon Lenelle Travis of Detroit.

Christie may have once been a federal prosecutor, but he sunk to a new career low with his episode last night in Cleveland; it's remarkable to see someone who once had such promise as a moderate conservative now reduced to schilling for the Republican party to whip up hostility, fear and anger and cultivate a dangerous mob mindset.

Fear-meister Rudy Giuliani handed the baton to Christie and he ran with it.

Frankly Christie has got some real cojones standing up and putting anyone on "trial" considering that Federal Judge Susan Wigenton recently ruled that Bridgegate trials will be staring this fall and he's already put New Jersey tax payers on the hook for more than $10 million in legal fees related to his role in the scandal - fees paid to a law firm with whom the Governor has deep personal ties.

The hypocrisy of Christie criticizing Hillary Clinton for using a private email server as Secretary of State is funny considering the flagrantly deceptive efforts he and his lawyers went through to hide the cell phone he was using as governor when the Bridgegate scandal was unfolding.

It's hard to decide which speaker on the stage of day two of the RNC convention seemed more detached from reality last night, Dr. Ben Carson telling the crowd that Hillary Clinton is an admirer of Satan, or the court of Chris Christie?

The jury is still out on that one.

Aleksandr's Excellent Question

Culturegeist's Friday night DVD

Tonight was going to be a night off from blogging, director Christopher Nolan's 2014 scf-fi epic Interstellar was in my mailbox (from Netflix) when I got home from a long day's work and I was all set to make dinner, prop my feet up and watch it with my trusty cat Buster snoozing at my feet.

But I went to check my blog stats and saw that a reader named Aleksandr Petrov had posted an excellent comment in response to my previous blog in which I suggested that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's "Fairness Formula" isn't really fair.

Aleksandr asked:

"How about fairness to my children from (a) "rich" district? Why (should they) get nothing from state taxes I pay?"

Excellent question Aleksandr, and obviously a complex one, I'll postpone my interstellar adventure to try and answer it.


For those who haven't heard, on Tuesday Governor Christie announced an initiative he calls his "Fairness Formula", which would cap all state funding for New Jersey public schools students at $6,599 per pupil - regardless of the school.

Now Aleksandr's question echoes the feeling of many people in New Jersey, and I respect his concerns and felt compelled to offer an answer. I went to post my answer to to his comment but found I had exceeded the number of words Blogger.com allows in a reply comment; so I decided to just blog my answer.

From the context of Governor Christie's "Fairness Formula", I think a major part of the problem stems from the way that New Jersey's public schools are organized and funded. NJ school districts exist in silos broken up by individual districts, often a stones throw from one another, separated by communities where the tax base is more of a boundary than a physical barrier like a road, a fence or a river.

Inside the Supreme Court 

TopMastersInEducation.com posted an excellent analysis online that explores the impact of how the steady decrease in federal funding of American public schools over the years has put more and more of the financial burden on states and local municipalities and districts to fund their public schools:

The opening of the article points out that a 1973 Supreme Court decision ruled that a formula of public school funding based on local property taxes does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The end result is the situation we currently have here in NJ, and in many other states.

As the Top Masters article observes:

"Such a system has created what many school districts view as an unequal distribution of wealth that amounts to wealth discrimination, as more affluent school districts with more business and higher residential property values have been more able to raise more money from local sources than poor districts for more than 40 years now."

So with all due respect Aleksandr, your children do not get "nothing" from the taxes you pay, by their living in a more affluent district than say, East Orange or Trenton, they are getting a lot more in terms of the quality of the public school education they receive by virtue of your ability to afford to live where you do.

East Orange High School

It's far easier for the public schools in your district to attract more qualified teachers and administrators who want to ply their skills in an educational environment where the schools are adequately funded, are better organized and better managed.

Are all communities the same?

Obviously not.


And no one, including me, is going to fault you or any other hard-working parent who wants the best for their children.

To me, the silos and little fiefdoms in NJ are a waste of both human and physical capital.

Let's look at Mercer County as an example.

I was fortunate enough to graduate from West Windsor-Plainsboro South HS, regarded as one of the top public high schools in the nation for years.

WWPSHS is no more than about 15 minutes from Trenton Central HS; but in terms of the disparities in the quality of education, the management and administration of the school systems and the school facilities; they might as well be on different sides of the moon.

Is that the fault of the students growing up in urban districts with under-performing schools?

President Harry S. Truman

I would argue that it's the responsibility of the administrators and school board members, and their inability to operate more efficiently is partly to blame; like Harry S. Truman I'm a "Buck Stops Here" kinda guy.

I actually agree with some of the arguments Governor Christie used in announcing his "Fairness Formula' initiative.

On average Trenton spends about the 3rd highest in the state per pupil, yet they have one of the lowest graduation rates and one of the worst attendance rates in New Jersey.


The Newark school system was so dysfunctional, the state took it over; not that they did any better, was the state's decision to eliminate attendance counselors and truant officers in 2013 really a smart thing to do?

The state-takeover doesn't mean every administrator and teacher in the Newark public school system was a self-serving individual with no concern for the welfare of students - but decades of poor leadership like that has consequences in terms of attracting additional funding.

Earlier this spring, Trenton laid of 164 public school teachers because they were unable to secure additional state funds to help alleviate a $5.9 million deficit.

But if Christie had his way and cut over 50% of the state funding from Trenton schools (who already lost 164 teachers) where does that leave the children?

Some are migrating to charter schools like the highly respected Foundation Academy, one of the best (if not THE best) school in Trenton, where students adhere to strict dress and behavioral codes and parents are required to play an active role on working with the school to play an essential role as liason between teacher and student. And students excel there.

Chris Christie: Sorry urban public schools

But that's another part of the problem with Christie's "Fairness Formula".

Christie is very much guided by a privatization mindset, so stripping under-performing public schools of resources also serves his goal of channeling more taxpayer funds to charter schools.

So yes, Foundation Academy students are excelling, and that's a good thing.



But remember, these are the same kids from the same communities who'd otherwise be attending more poorly run schools in Trenton that have been marginalized in), charter schools are siphoning off talent (talented teachers, students & administrators) and badly needed taxpayer funds from public schools.

Which brings me back to Mercer County, if Mercer County had a unified school system, more resources would be available to all schools. Just consider what superintendents are making in each of these individual school districts.

A unified Mercer County school system would have more power and influence too.

Instead we rely on a formula where individual districts drive the funding for their schools, creating in effect, public schools which are essentially separate and unequal. Even though they may be only a few miles from one another.

Don't get me wrong, I don't pine for some kind of socialist utopian fantasy, what bothers me is how Americans have sat back and allowed the federal government to absolve itself of responsibility for sufficiently funding public schools; even as We the People fund disastrous wars in the middle east to the tune of TRILLIONS of dollars. Why?

In part because of private conservative think tanks funded by people like the Koch brothers, people who literally have begun to endow chairs and departments at major universities to staff them with, and support people who view public education through the same anti-government privatization-mindset as Chris Christie does.

Remember Koch-puppet Gov Scott Walker (who didn't graduate from college...) cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from the University of Wisconsin?

These think tanks have begun the process of placing like-minded "academics" on local school boards throughout the country, in fact the Camden superintendent is one such person; Christie's heavy involvement in the funding of new waterfront development in Camden is no coincidence.

So I hear your concern Aleksandr, and your children have a right to reap the rewards of the taxes you pay, but Christie is self-serving to his own political ambitions and willing to do what he can to allow New Jersey to function as some kind of "conservative socio-economic laboratory" where kooky ideologically-driven right-wing policies are proposed or enacted.

Kansas Gov Sam Brownback

Just take a look at what Republican Governor Sam Brownback has done to the state of Kansas (including it's once highly-regarded public schools) and the absolute disaster it's been for the state.

Christie is clever, and he knows he can use the lingering anger over the 1985 Abbott court decision as a wedge issue to garner support for a plan that would drastically slash state public school funding for urban schools in districts already facing a host of challenges, and magically increase state funding for wealthier districts - not in the interest of education.

But as a transparent Trojan Horse to gift the wealthiest districts in New Jersey with a property tax cut. Christie's proposal serves his own political ambitions, not the interests of public education in New Jersey.


And it reeks of coded racism.

The irony here is thick enough to cut with a knife, conservative think tanks and politicians have slowly and steadily reduced the federal share of public school funding, while allowing a district-funded formula to take root, creating even more inequities based on class and race in the educational system of the greatest nation in the world.

And now a guy like Christie points to those underperforming schools in cities that have seen their tax bases decimated by the disappearance of manufacturing jobs and urban blight, and says, "these schools are getting too much state funding, it's time to strip all these Abbott schools of at least 50% of their state funding, and give it to schools in wealthier districts."

And he calls it a "Fairness Formula"?

Democrats Sit For Gun Control - Christie's "Fairness Formula" Isn't Fair

House Democrats sit in support of gun control laws

If Republican Congressional leaders thought public demands for stronger gun control laws were simply going to go away after Senate Republicans voted down two different Democratic proposals to strengthen background checks on Monday, they were wrong. 

Last week Senator Murray stood up for 15 hours on the Senate floor for gun control.


At about 11:30am earlier today 36 House Democrats shouted down Republican floor leaders with chants of "No bill, no vote!" then promptly sat down before the podium to protest Republican's refusal to allow gun control measures to be debated or voted on.

The Democrats included Georgia Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis (pictured above), who endured severe beatings by Alabama State Troopers, hostile crowds and Klansmen on multiple occasions during marches and Freedom Rides during the 1960's in his role as one of the founding members and former chairman of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

About 100 Democratic Congressional members eventually joined the sit-in, bringing the House to a halt as chickenshit House Republicans ordered the C-Span cameras and mics that usually cover the Congressional floor sessions shut down - but the sit-ins were carried live via video feeds taken by other Democratic members.

How long are tone-deaf Republicans going to stubbornly stand in opposition to the will of the vast majority of the American people? In a presidential election year no less!

Republicans are up to some legislative shenanigans on the local state level too.

Gov Christie introduces his "Fairness Formula"

Here in New Jersey the word of the week is "Fairness Formula."

That's the term that Republican Governor-Trump apostle Chris Christie has given to a bold new conservative initiative to introduce a draconian redistribution of state aid to New Jersey schools that caps all state aid at $6,599 per pupil regardless of where the schools are located.

Christie announced his proposed changes at Hillsborough High School on Tuesday, saying he plans to introduce it as an amendment to the state constitution.

He's calling it a "budget reallocation formula", but what it really represents is a rather transparent attempt to cut the property taxes of wealthy suburban New Jersey communities by exploiting long-simmering divisions in the Garden State on how public schools are funded.

Sadly the debate falls along socio-economic and racial and ethnic lines and stretches back to 1976 when the state Supreme court actually shut down schools until state legislators came up with tax revenue to adequately fund public schools in 31 low-income school districts in accordance with the state's constitution.

This debate stems from the historic state Superior Court court decision in Abbott v Burke, a case brought back in 1981 by the Education Law Center on behalf of 20 public school students from four of New Jersey's poorest districts; Camden, East Orange, Irvington and Jersey City.

Gaps in language arts proficiency in NJ 2005 - 2001

The case challenged the 1975 Public School Education Act in order to address rampant inequities in the quality of public school education in different districts in New Jersey.

The Abbot v Burke case according to the ELC "is recognized as the most important education litigation for poor and minority school children since Brown v Board of Education."




Through changes in public school funding, more state funds were channeled to NJ's "Abbott schools" to try and address the education gap; those changes were highly controversial, particularly among some residents of the state's wealthiest districts whose much higher tax base created inherent advantages for their district's students.

One of Christie's first initiatives when he was elected Governor was to try and use his office to chip away at the funding formula in an effort to dismantle the court-ordered mandates of the Abbott decisions; he even tried to mess with the make-up of the state Supreme Court.

Christie poses with Camden HS students

As a lame-duck Republican Governor with a record low approval rate, it's not hard to figure out Christie's goal in launching this salvo - he's conscious of his legacy and wants to be "the guy who cut taxes."

His "Fairness Formula" would drastically increase state school funding for 75% of New Jersey school districts, allowing those districts to proportionately lower their property taxes.


But conversely it would introduce draconian cuts to per-pupil state aid to the schools in New Jersey's poorest communities; Christie claims to want "fairness", but how is it fair to cut state aid by 78% in Camden?

State aid in 37 districts would be cut by more than 50% - guess where those districts are located?

"Despicable" is how New Jersey Education Association president Wendell Steinhauer described Christie's proposal, saying, "Governor Christie's proposal would result in a huge step backward to the days when poor families in economically challenged communities were left to fend for themselves."

To get a better sense of how Governor Christie's "Fairness Formula" would impact state funding to New Jersey schools, take a look at the numbers as posted in a chart on the NJ.com Webpage.

Most experts agree Christie's initiative has little chance of passing a Legislature with a Democratic majority, but as an ideological attack, maybe it's a feather in the cap Christie hopes to wear in Washington one day.

From his flipping on issues like gun control and abortion over the course of the 2016 presidential race, to his embrace of Donald Trump, Christie has been steadily trying to remake himself as something far to the right of the man who was twice elected as governor of New Jersey.

With his "Fairness Formula"proposal, which is anything but to students in the states poorest districts, perhaps his political and ideological metamorphosis is complete.

I can't help but wonder, was the popular moderate conservative who was elected governor a Democratic-leaning state an illusion? Or is it the man we see now?

Primary Perspective: Kirk Dumps Trump & Christie Stands By His Man

Well I just got back from casting my primary vote not too long ago and it was fairly busy in the lobby and library of my local polling site for District 54 in the Gershon Senior Citizens Building.

It took a few minutes of me waiting in the "A - K" line while a man in front of me had to straighten out a small issue with a name or address change that required him to step out of the line and fill out some additional paperwork before he could step into the booth and cast his vote.

But aside from that it was a pretty smooth election day experience for me, I was in and out in about seven minutes and I was determined to cast my vote regardless of the decision by the Associated Press last night to announce that Hillary has won enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination.

You may recall my having mentioned the little old guy named Bernie who monitors the two voting booths at the Gershon on the blog last fall on November 15th.

He was seated in his wheelchair in his usual spot between the voting machines today too keeping an eye on things, although he seemed a little grouchier than usual.

I asked him about the day's attendance and Bernie said it was pretty solid for a primary voting day; he felt it was because voters are angry.

I certainly couldn't disagree with Bernie on that one and I nodded in agreement as he took my green receipt as he lamented about the state of the nation.

Fox News commentator Rudy Giuliani 

"It's a shame what's happened to this country." Bernie grumbled as he looked up at me from his chair.

"I wanted to vote for Rudy Giuliani but he screwed up." he confessed as he looked off.

With that I shook my head in silent sympathetic agreement and slipped between the curtains to cast my vote. 

I pegged Bernie as a Fox News watcher long ago, and while we always exchange pleasantries at the booth, I try to avoid topics like one's personal politics at the poll site, so when he mentioned liking Rudy Giuliani as a presidential candidate, it told me two things about Bernie.

One, he's pretty conservative, and that's cool with me - I couldn't tell Bernie that I lived in New York City during the Giuliani mayoral regime, and I happen to think he worsened racial and cultural divisions in the city during his tenure (particularly with the way he ran the NYPD) and he morphed into a total right-wing nut job after his short-lived presidential hopes fizzled.    

Remember Rudy's "Obama doesn't love America." comment? Which he made at an event to raise funds for the equally right-wing nut job Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's presidential campaign back in February, 2015.

Secondly, Bernie's grumbling about Giuliani also told me that he's one of many Republicans who are sickened by Donald Trump's stubborn refusal to back away from his criticism of federal judge Gonzalo Curiel because of his Mexican heritage.

My sense is that Bernie, like many conservative voters,is coming to grips with the unfortunate reality that the GOP is backing Trump as the 2016 candidate.

Bernie is a veteran in his 80's and he's smart enough to know that nothing good is going to come of that for the Republican party.

Watching Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan publicly lecture Trump today like a couple of school principals berating some dimwitted bully harassing kids in the halls in an effort to disassociate the party from Trump's views, I could only shake my head.

The two of them are as responsible for Trump being the nominee as anyone else in the GOP, as their stubborn agreement to use their Congressional leadership positions to oppose any of President Obama's initiatives not only led to the gridlock that angered so many voters, it also set the tone for the unprecedented contempt with which conservatives treated Obama throughout his tenure.

Contempt which served as a green light for the open expression of racism and xenophobia within conservative American circles.  

Republican Illinois Senator Mark Kirk

Now they're watching this disaster unfold, and neither of them has the courage to stand up and say enough is enough.

Republican Illinois Senator Mark Kirk did.

The former veteran, who'd previously broken with his party over their refusal to even consider Judge Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court, stood up and did what I think a lot of  moderate Republicans want to do.


He publicly revoked his support for Donald Trump. In a detailed statement he said in part:

"It is absolutely essential that we are guided by a commander-in-chief  with a responsible and proper temperament, discretion and judgement...After much consideration I have concluded that Donald Trump has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the greatest office in the world."

It's refreshing to see a Republican with some principles (and some cojones) finally stand up and say it, but it's sad that a more prominent member of the party leadership didn't say it first.

Singer Tammy Wynette

We certainly didn't get that kind of politcal and moral courage from our own governor here in New Jersey.

Much like the famous American country singer Tammy Wynette, earlier today, Chris Christie announced that he's gonna "Stand By (His) Man".

Despite a laundry list of offensive public statements by Trump, and virtually the entire Republican leadership denouncing his statements about judge Gonzalo Curiel as racist, Christie told baffled reporters,

"I've said this before, that I know Donald Trump, I've known him for 14 years, and Donald Trump is not a racist."


See no evil, hear no evil I guess, whatever lets you sleep at night and wake up and look at your face in the mirror in the morning.

Christie's denial of Trump's true character is a sad reflection of just how far to the right he's moved politically and morally in order to make himself more palatable to conservatives and pander to the extremists who control the Republican party.

As the media has been quick to observe today, Christie was the one back in 2011 who hit back at conservatives who criticized his decision to appoint Muslim judge Sohail Mohammed, an immigrant from India who became a U.S. citizen, as a State Superior Court Judge in Passaic County.

Christie publicly denounced delusional Republican fear-mongers who expressed "concerns" that Mohammed was a terrorist who would advocate for Sharia Law on the bench.

Apparently the chance for a cabinet position in a 2016 Republican presidency 'Trumps' Christie's own distaste for irrational conservative bigotry.

The righteous indignation Christie once expressed over politician's questioning a qualified judge because of his ethnicity?

That's all in the past.