Free Republic

Good morning Free Republic and good morning to the GREAT STATE of NEW JERSEY! Get up and go to you polling place!! VOTE FOR STEVE LONEGAN TODAY!! And with that -- I am off to do my civic duty and to make America proud!! (hope this isn't a repeat thread!)

President Obama is reminding New Jersey voters to vote for Cory Booker in the state’s special Senate election Wednesday. Just one day before the election Obama appeared in a video for the Booker campaign encouraging New Jersey residents to support the popular Democratic Newark mayor. “Voters in New Jersey have the opportunity to vote for a leader with uncommon character, Cory Booker,” Obama said in the video.

A New Jersey judge’s contorted and nonsensical decision that the state is responsible for the federal government’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage highlights the irrationality that permeates the campaign for “marriage equality.” One of the most striking features of the campaign for same-sex marriage has been the prominence of its assault on reasoning itself. The logical relations of legal categories with one another, as those categories represent persons, their interactions, and their rights and duties, are at the heart of all legal decision-making and ideally inform legislative and administrative policymaking as well. But the impulse to redefine marriage so that...

TRENTON, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) – The New Jersey U.S. Senate race was in a fight to the finish Tuesday, a day before voters were set to head to the polls in a special election. As CBS 2’s Christine Sloan reported, Democrat Cory Booker is hitting the Democrat-favoring communities of Belleville, New Brunswick, Hoboken and Newark, where he is mayor. Republican Steve Lonegan is campaigning Tuesday in Basking Ridge, Flemington, Belvidere, Morristown and Middletown — all places where Republicans usually get the most votes. He’s also stopping in Jersey City. Lonegan also received the endorsement of former Jersey City Acting Mayor Joe...

ATLANTIC CITY — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cory Booker once again linked Republican opponent Steve Lonegan to the federal government shutdown today, suggesting some Republicans are playing politics with public safety. Booker, the mayor of Newark, stopped in Atlantic City where 51 firefighters will be laid off at the end of November due to local budget cuts. The city is hoping a federal grant may avert some of those layoffs, but its application is not being processed during the shutdown, according to union officials. “It could mean that some of the people behind me — or who are represented by...

One police officer, who said his name was Officer Martinez, told us that 435 Hawthorne was Booker’s home but property records show that the home is owned by Ife Okocha. Cassandra Dock, a community activist critical of both Mayor Booker and Governor Christie, told us that the home on Hawthorne was actually a police station.

Today’s U.S. Senate primary in New Jersey is – like so many elections these days – a representation of many of the most destructive trends that define modern politics. It is, for instance, a case of politics as a celebrity-driven coronation – one where one candidate’s media- and Twitter-driven celebrity (Cory Booker) is depicted as more important than other candidates’ far more impressive public policy experience. It is also a commentary on how such a celebrified politics tends to intensify when voters are paying the least attention. As the Progressive Change Campaign Committee’s Adam Green notes, this most certainly is...

Steve Lonegan has dedicated his time in public life to fighting for New Jersey taxpayers. When he became mayor of Bogota, NJ in 1996, Lonegan immediately cut municipal spending, eliminated wasteful and duplicative services, privatized some functions and instituted a more cost-efficient, user-friendly government. As a result, Bogota’s municipal spending remained constant for the entire 12 years of Steve’s tenure. He also kept debt and tax increases far below inflation despite massive state mandates and aid reductions to suburban towns like Bogota. Thanks to Steve’s strong, conservative leadership, Republicans kept council control for 11 straight elections, and Steve was reelected...

Filmmaker Joel Gilbert and investigative journalist Charles C. Johnson hit the streets of Newark to discover where Mayor Booker actually lives. His neighbor say he doesn't live there.

VIDEO ad: President Obama: Vote for Cory President Obama looked to shore up last-minute support for Newark Mayor Cory Booker with a new Web ad hailing the Democratic Senate candidate as the antidote to "the shutdown politics we've seen in Washington." The release of the video comes after a new poll showed Booker's lead tightening with just two days to go before the special election to replace deceased Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.). According to a Monmouth University survey, Booker leads Republican Steve Lonegan 52-42 percent, down three points from two weeks ago. The ad also comes after a weekend that...

There is a real battle going on in New Jersey. Governor Chris Christie set an early date of October 16 for a special election to fill the Senate seat of recently deceased Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). The advantage rests with Democratic Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker. The Republican is Steve Lonegan, businessman and former mayor of Bogota, NJ. Christie endorsed Lonegan. Better than nothing, I guess. Booker, who has seen both unemployment and crime skyrocket during his administration, has the left fawning all over him nationwide because he is well-spoken, clean cut and black. Remind you of anyone? He is...

Newark Mayor Cory Booker still holds a double-digit lead over his Republican challenger in the New Jersey Senate race, a new poll shows, but his lead continues to shrink with the election two days away. Booker leads Steve Lonegan by 10 points, 52 percent to 42 percent, among likely voters in a poll out Monday from Monmouth University. Continue Reading A separate poll last week had Booker up by 12, two weeks ago Monmouth had him up by 13 and over the summer by 16. In August, polls had Booker’s lead topping 24 percent. The poll also found Booker’s favorability...

As Cory Booker looks set to win the junior Senate seat in New Jersey Wednesday, his supposed neighbors in Newark say Mayor Booker doesn’t live in the Gateway City. Multiple residents of Newark told The Daily Caller that the longtime mayor doesn’t live at any of the addresses he has claimed as home. The mayor is believed to live in New York even though he is registered to run for New Jersey’s special senate election. Booker, who filed to run for the U.S. Senate from a B.O. Box in Newark, is registered to vote at 435 Hawthorne Avenue but his...

Independent journalist and researcher Charles Johnson recently visited Newark, N.J. to see if he could find out if Mayor Cory Booker actually lives in the city he governs. Independent journalist and researcher Charles Johnson recently visited Newark, N.J. to see if he could find out if Mayor Cory Booker actually lives in the city he governs.

Police from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have arrested six juveniles after an alleged gang assault on a PATH train. … (Port Authority police spokesman Joe) Pentangelo says the six are between 15 and 17 and hail from Newark. They are charged with gang assault and robbery and are being held in the Hudson County juvenile detention facility. …

**SNIP** On Saturday, Palin told a rally at the New Egypt Speedway that Lonegan, a former mayor, would fight against ObamaCare and stand with Tea Party senators including Ted Cruz of Texas. "You have the momentum with Steve's campaign," she said. "The rest of the country knows." The 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate and former Alaska governor told the crowd to vote to defy the "fallacy" that a conservative Tea Party candidate cannot win in a Democratic-leaning New Jersey. Lonegan, who spent the weekend campaigning across the state, wants to repeal ObamaCare and "join those conservatives who stand up for...

Our question for today is: What does next Wednesday’s Senate election in New Jersey mean to those of us who don’t live in New Jersey? Lonegan says that if he wins, President Obama will instantly “fold” on health care reform. Actually if Lonegan wins, President Obama will probably faint. Along with a lot of other people, including every Republican senator who has not been yearning for a new friend who’s even crazier than Ted Cruz. White men of New Jersey, we understand that you’re irked about the way the world is going and that it makes you feel better to...

Immigrant-rights activists say New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie reversed himself Saturday and endorsed giving illegal immigrants in-state college tuition rates, and said he will try to get the issue through his legislature in a lame-duck session. Mr. Christie, who is up for re-election in November, is also seen as eyeing a bid for the GOP’s 2016 presidential nomination, but his support for in-state tuition could complicate that. “We need tuition equality for everyone in New Jersey,” the activists said the governor said in a speech to the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey. Afterward, the activists said, Mr. Christie told...

ATLANTIC CITY - If you tried to use your electronic benefits transfer card Saturday, and was having problems, you're not alone. "I feel its going to leave a huge dent in these families because there is people who have 3 or 4 children," the Atlantic City woman said. "I think its horrible that people aren't able to get their food stamps. There are families out there that depends on these things, to feed their families," explains an Atlantic City man. As for store owners like Mohammed Ali of the 7–11 in Atlantic City, he says he has already lost hundreds...

Sarah Palin delivered another one of her great campaign speeches for Steve Lonegan today at his campaign rally. You can watch the full speech below:

Mark Levin gave a great speech today in support of Steve Lonegan who is running for US Senate in New Jersey. You can watch the full speech below:

Governor Sarah Palin to Attend Tea Party Express Rally Sacramento, CA – Tea Party Express, the nation’s largest Tea Party political action committee, is excited to announce that Sarah Palin will be attending the Tea Party rally this Saturday!Rally Details: New Egypt Speedway 720 County Road 539 New Egypt, NJ 08533 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM (Saturday October 12th)Guests: Governor Sarah Palin and U.S. Senate Candidate Steve LoneganTea Party Express Chairman Amy Kremer said, “We are excited to have Governor Sarah Palin join us this Saturday. The momentum for Steve Lonegan continues to grow and Governor Palin’s voice will...

Earlier this week, bad news arrived in mailboxes across New Jersey, as people discovered their health-insurance plans had been wiped out by ObamaCare. Plans that didn’t measure up to the mandates imposed by the Affordable Care Act were being canceled, despite President Obama’s infamous vow that “if you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” How many folks in New Jersey were affected by this latest failure of Obama’s campaign promises? Oh, only about eight hundred thousand or so. The Star-Ledger reports this...

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Lonegan today urged House Republicans "not to capitulate to the president's unreasonable demands. When I win, Obama will fold." Lonegan says his internal polling shows a neck-and-neck race in the U.S. Senate contest and that all the momentum is in his favor. "My victory in this election on Wednesday will send a message to Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi that the American people want an end to Obamacare and the rest of the President's radical agenda." The former three-term Bogota mayor called on Republicans to stop listening to the same consultants and pollsters...

Visit the site, see the poll, 76% to 21% Star Ledger readers think Lonegan won! http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/10/poll_did_booker_or_lonegan_win_second_us_senate_debate.html

A judge on Thursday cleared the way for same-sex marriages to start in New Jersey in two weeks, dismissing the state’s request to prevent the weddings until after an appeal of the court decision allowing them is completed.

The man who died last weekafter being found severely burned on the Mall, was identified Monday night as a 64 year old resident of New Jersey, and D.C. Police said it was "now apparent he had set himself on fire."

The Brayton Point Power Station, the largest coal-fired power plant in New England, is shutting down amid a prolonged slump in energy prices that is forcing power operators nationally to rejigger their budgets and seek out more affordable production strategies. The closure will result in 240 job losses at the Somerset, Mass.-based facility. Its owner, an affiliate of New Jersey-based private equity firm Energy Capital Partners, said in a statement that steps would be taken to mitigate the effects of the job cuts for Brayton Point’s former workers....

CHERRY HILL TWP. — A Wilmington, Del. woman left her baby son behind when she and an accomplice fled after being caught shoplifting at the local Wegmans Food Market, police said.

It’s going to be illuminating to see whether there is any backlash in New Jersey against news that Mayor Bloomberg of New York is scrambling to put an emergency $1 million into the floundering campaign of Mayor Cory Booker to succeed Senator Lautenberg. This news was injected Sunday by Michael Barbaro of the New York Times into a dispatch that ran on page one under the headline “Anxious Allies Aiding Booker In Senate Bid.” Mr. Bloomberg tried something similar in Colorado the other day, and Rocky Mountain voters promptly cashiered his two candidates out of the state’s Senate.

HOBOKEN – Gov. Chris Christie blamed the four-day federal shutdown on a “fundamental failure” of leadership by legislators in Washington D.C. in an address yesterday to hundreds of students at the Stevens Institute of Technology. “Thank you for giving us optimism about the future, as we watch the craziness going on as we speak in Washington D.C.,” Christie said, wrapping up his speech to students and faculty. “It’s a fundamental failure where you are put in charge of running a government, you know, to close it. That’s not in the job description, I can guarantee that.” Christie was only scheduled...

Elizabeth, - Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman and Colonel Rick Fuentes, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, presented badges to New Jersey’s newest state troopers during graduation ceremonies at Elizabeth High School this morning. The 152nd State Police Class is the most racially diverse in the history of the State Police, with 54 percent of the graduates coming from minority groups. “The New Jersey State Police has a well-earned reputation as one of the finest statewide policing organizations in the nation. It got that reputation by selecting and training top-flight trooper candidates, by maintaining a commitment to excellence...

Last May I started a business and I checked on Health Insurance for myself. 1. I live in New Jersey 2. 56 yr male non-tobacco user In May 2013 - Basic & Essential $108.00 per month (Not Bad) In Oct 2013 - Basic & Essential $436.88 per month (Disgusting) Now is fairness I went to the estimation page to check out Federal Subsidies’. Based on a $40,000 a year income the subsidies will lower that down to approx. $223.00 per month. Let's review, A. Federal Government Does Nothing..................My Cost $108.00 B. Federal Government Does Something..............My Cost $436.00 C. Federal Government...

Link

10/3/13 - On Hannity Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) found him self in a vicious debate with Sean Hannity on Fox News Thursday night over exemptions that businesses and members of Congress receive for the Affordable Care Act that individuals do not. Pascrell refused to accept Hannity's premise about the exemptions, fighting back hard against him and Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ). "Regardless of what the folks say, this is going to be successful," Pascrell said of Obamacare. "And they don't want it to be." "I have said I won't take the subsidy," Rep. Salmon said the of the exemption for Congress....

This is the most epic performance by Hannity I’ve seen in a good while. He calls out Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) for saying there is no special deal that Congress gets on Obamacare. Hannity calls him a liar on camera and eventually tells him he’s full of crap.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin slammed Democratic New Jersey Senate candidate Cory Booker while endorsing his Republican rival Steve Lonegan Wednesday night. “During one mayor’s tenure his town’s unemployment nearly doubled, taxes skyrocketed, and violent crime increased; but in fairness, Newark Mayor Cory Booker may not have noticed these facts between his constant tweeting and trips to Hollywood,” Palin said in a statement. “Steve asked for my support, and today I officially endorse his candidacy. I encourage voters in New Jersey to give Steve a look and not believe those in the media who tell us conservatives can’t win in...

TRENTON — Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor, is set to become the latest conservative to endorse Steve Lonegan in New Jersey's special U.S. Senate race, The Star-Ledger has learned.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s political star is losing some luster in the closing weeks of his bid for Senate in New Jersey, prompting the favored Democrat to step up attacks on his long-shot Republican opponent. Two consecutive polls of the race show Booker’s lead in the low double digits — down dramatically from late August and early September surveys that showed him leading former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan by between 25 and 35 points. A survey Tuesday by Monmouth University showed Booker with 53 percent support, compared to Lonegan’s 40 percent support among likely voters. Last week, a Quinnipiac survey...

Internal polling conducted by New Jersey senatorial candidate Steve Lonegan’s campaign and obtained by National Review Online shows Newark mayor Cory Booker’s lead slipping to six points, 48 to 42. A Quinnipiac poll released last week showed Booker leading Lonegan by 12 points, and even that poll was considered a positive sign for the former Bogota mayor, as the earliest tallies showed Booker ahead by over 20 points.

“When we see the craziness we're seeing down in Washington DC today where people who say that they want to be in public life to try to run the government and then their solution to doing that is to not speak to each other, not work with each other, and shut our government down, that's a failure,” Christie said. “That's a failure of people in public life for everyone in this country who's depending upon a government that will get its stuff together.” .... “And I hope in Washington what they figure out is that what we pay them to...

FLORHAM PARK -- Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Cory Booker visited Fairleigh Dickinson University's College at Florham Tuesday to share his plan of affordable education. But first the 44-year-old Newark mayor weighed in on Congress’s failure to pass a budget, a move that forced a federal shutdown. Booker told the standing room only crowd jammed into Lenfell Hall that he stayed up late Monday night to see what would happen. When it became apparent no accord could be reached, he understood why a recent opinion poll showed Americans' approval of Congress fell somewhere "between cockroaches and colonoscopies." "You cannot govern from...

Internal polling conducted by New Jersey senatorial candidate Steve Lonegan’s campaign and obtained by National Review Online shows Newark mayor Cory Booker’s lead slipping to six points, 48 to 42. A Quinnipiac poll released last week had Booker leading Lonegan by 12 points, and even that poll was considered a positive sign for Lonegan, as previous tallies showed Booker well running ahead of the former Bogota mayor by over 20 points. The latest internal numbers for Lonegan also show Booker’s negatives inching up. “Booker is 37-27 net favorable, a major shift from the 42-18 numbers he held two weeks ago,”...

Merck & Co (MRK.N), taking a cue from other drugmakers that have slashed research spending to bolster earnings, on Tuesday said it plans to cut annual operating costs by $2.5 billion by the end of 2015 and eliminate 8,500 jobs. By slimming down, Merck aims to narrow its focus to products with the best chance of winning regulatory approval and achieving substantial sales, while jettisoning research products with less likelihood of success. The planned job cuts, representing more than 10 percent of the company's global workforce of 81,000 employees, would be in addition to previously announced cuts of 7,500 positions.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was accosted by several people on Van Buren Street around 1:30 a.m. this morning, said Thomas Fennelly, the county’s chief assistant prosecutor. The ICE agent was struck with fists and hands by multiple people, he added. The victim drew and discharged his weapon, striking two of the suspects, Fennelly said. Those two suspects were taken to University Hospital, where they’re in stable condition – and under arrest, the prosecutor added.

<p>Gov. Chris Christie today offered a simple plan to solve the budget showdown gripping Congress if he were president: He’d lock Washington’s top leaders in the White House until they emerged with an answer.</p> <p>“I told my staff today: If I were down there, I would say, ‘Listen, we’ve got seven hours to go. Guess where you’re spending the next seven hours? Right here in the Roosevelt Room. We’re not leaving until we get a solution to this problem,’” the Republican governor said during a roundtable discussion on hunger at the Count Basie Theatre. ....</p>

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, a South Jersey Republican, blasted President Obama and his health care law as the federal government hurtled toward a shutdown Monday afternoon. “The president has not acted like an adult,” Smith said after a meeting of House Republicans. He said Obama’s law is “egregiously flawed” and that he has refused any negotiations to improve it. “We’ve had a tone deaf White House that does not want to be reasonable,” Smith said. “President Obama won’t meet with the Republicans. It’s all his way.” Smith, voicing the views of many Republicans pushing for a fight on...

If New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has any chance of securing the Republican presidential nomination, he just might have to thank such darlings of the tea party movement as Rand Paul and Ted Cruz for an unlikely path to victory. As Mr. Paul’s and Mr. Cruz’s recent filibusters on the Senate floor have shown, the 2016 quest for the White House is well underway. A fierce battle among the new small-government, libertarian stars is already raging. That has left a growing number of conservative activists voicing concerns publicly about a scenario that would let a moderate Republican like Mr....

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie continued to press his case for a voter referendum on gay marriage in New Jersey, saying on national television today that “good people of good will have a difference of opinion.”

President Barack Obama famously promised, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” He later got even more specific.“If you are among the hundreds of millions of Americans who already have health insurance through your job, or Medicare, or Medicaid, or the VA, nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have,” Obama said.But as Obamacare’s rollout approaches, we have learned this is not true. Here are the ten states where consumers may like their health care plans, but they won’t be able to...