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Sun, Nov. 29, 1998
Christie Whitman -
Whitman has already received well-deserved down arrows for her decision to resign from her chairmanship of the Amtrak Reform Commission, but the fallout from that bad choice continues. This week the Commission met without her and the remaining members unanimously told the Washington Post that they're ignoring Whitman's resignation and moving forward.
Whitman is right to press for outside consultants for the
Commission because Amtrak is not likely to change without an outside perspective and a new
approach. Almost all of the country's passenger trains operate at a loss and they've
gotten used to it. But in politics it is almost never a good idea to walk away from the
table, particularly if it means you're going to get
Whitman also made another one of her disappointing appointments
this week in naming James Weinstein to succeed John Haley as the Commissioner of
Transportation. After taxes, no issue is more important to New Jerseyans than
transportation. The state needs the best leadership
Reflecting on his appointment, Weinstein said
"transportation turns me on." But let us be perfectly clear. The up arrow of the once and future Democratic candidate for governor, Jim McGreevey has nothing to do with auto insurance. McGreevey has been outspoken in his condemnation of euthanasia and had a clear response to Dr. Jack Kevorkian's video-taped "doctor-assisted suicide" that appeared on last Sunday's "60 Minutes."
Meanwhile, Assemblyman Nicolas Asselta's up arrow doesn't involve anything so serious. Asselta gets a round of applause from the arrow pointers for predicting exactly what will happen with the new legislative and judicial pay raise study commission that was established last week.
"What are we going to study?" Asselta asked. "The
conclusion is going to be that everyone needs a raise whether its for cost of living or
some other reason." But, as Asselta points out, there has been no problem recruiting people for judgeships or legislative seats because the salaries are low. (Judges make $115,000 a year). Raising legislative pay is an insult to almost twenty-five percent of New Jersey families who actually live on $35,000 a year. Most lawmakers have many other sources of income, often from their legislative connections. As a gesture of the season of thankfulness and giving, state house politicians should kill the pay raise study group first thing tomorrow morning. Another idea they should kill tomorrow morning is the plan from State Sen. Bill Gormley to take $60 million of Whitman's new open space money and give it to folks who lost land twenty years ago when the state preserved the Pinelands. Pinelands landowners may have a case about financial loss, but they need to take it somewhere else. Voters passed the Open Space Referendum so the state could halt sprawl and development. The Pinelands aren't at risk and this scarce money is needed elsewhere. Gormley is a smart guy who should know better than to take such a politically parochial stand. Down arrow.
Then last week, she got a bill out of committee that would require police officers to know how to operate a defebrillator machine, often the critical factor in saving lives during heart attacks.
Sun., Nov. 15, 1998 Teachers don't make the grade
Gov. Christie Whitman
Rep. Bob Franks State Sen. Shirley Turner State Sen. Bob Littell NJ Labor Commissioner Mel Gelade Democrats, Republicans and one commissioner earned arrows this week, but nobody deserves the downward pointer as much as the New Jersey Education Association, which closed schools across the state and took off for their annual conference in Atlantic City. While the teachers were buying cheap T-shirts and playing the slot machines, New Jersey parents frequently must miss work or scramble for child care. If New Jersey teachers care about parents and their kids, they would have their conference in the summer. But they don't care and their annual conference is one more piece of "in your face proof." Meanwhile, Gov. Whitman resigned as chairwoman of the Amtrak Reform Council, an appointment she was given in order to figure out some way to make the nation's train service run at a profit. Whitman left, saying she couldn't do the job because the railroad unions wouldn't allow her to hire outside consultants. Her spokesman, Peter McDonough, said Whitman believed that an outside perspective was critical for change, and she hopes the move will cause Congress to "rethink the brain-dead policy" of limiting consultants to Amtrak insiders. The Democrats have labeled the governor a quitter, and we think they're right. Normally, she'd get a down arrow, but we are placing it sideways because she's getting back on her feet so fast after her appendectomy. But Rep. Robert Franks, R-Union, New Jersey's railroad man on the House Transportation Committee, said he "wasn't happy" about Whitman's move. "I would much prefer to see someone from the Northeast on the Amtrak Reform Council. The next leader may not be an advocate for the issues that are important to us here." Franks gets an up arrow for challenging Whitman. That's always a gutsy thing for a fellow Republican. He also gets points for pushing for some dramatically new faces for the new GOP leadership in Washington. He's backing Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Washington, in the race to succeed Rep. Dick Armey, R-Texas, as majority leader. State Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Mercer, gets an up arrow, too, for achieving something that is almost impossible in the New Jersey Legislature: getting a bill passed that makes common sense. Turner spear-headed an effort to require that physical education teachers who teach swimming must know how to swim. The only question we have is why did the Legislature have to get involved in legislating something so obvious? Which is not to say that the obvious is always easily perceived by legislators. Take state Sen. Bob Littell, R-Sussex. He gets a down arrow for even suggesting that some of the Open Space funds recently approved by voters be used to refurbish and move the Battleship New Jersey. Lots of legislators had ideas about diverting Open Space funds for their own little parks and local barbecue pits. But Littell's big boat idea was the worst, so he gets the down arrow. Finally, state Labor Commissioner Melvin Gelade makes his debut in winners and losers with some stunning down arrow behavior. Gelade allowed one of his employees, Michael D. Druz, to be transferred from a $58,000-a-year job to a $55,000 one, even after the state ethics commission had directed that he be fired for making false statements regarding his ownership of federally subsidized HUD (Section 8) housing. Some public officials won't be required to follow the rules and they won't be penalized for lying about it, either. Gelade should have made sure he was fired. State House Bureau Chief Dave Neese contributes to Winners and Losers. November 8 Christie Whitman - Sen. Bob Torricelli - Sen. Ray Lesniak, D-Union - Chuck Haytaian - Dick LaRossa - Gov. Christie Whitman is a star again. Sen. Bob Torricelli finds new worlds to conquer and State Sen. Ray Lesniak, D-Elizabeth, moves ahead with a plan for the year 2000. Meanwhile, GOP State Chairman, Chuck Haytaian, weighs in with the bottom line while former State Sen. Dick LaRossa reminds us of the brooding Nixon. For politicians, national elections are the Super Bowl, and Tuesday night most Republicans looked like Green Bay in the fourth quarter. But Wednesday morning, Gov. Christie Whitman was even better off than when she started. Though she was gracious enough not to say "I told you so," Whitman had warned Republicans last summer that they were going to end up getting pounded if they didn't stop pushing candidates who seemed mean and narrow-minded candidates. They didn't listen and look what happened. Now she's back on the GOP presidential short list and Newt Gingrich is thinking about his next job. Whitman's also got a million acres of open space to add to her legacy and it looks like she may be moving forward on HMO reform, which was a big national issue winner for the Democrats. The arrow pointers insist that all adds up to a positive pointer and insist its not just because we enjoy seeing our governor so often on "Hardball." Meanwhile, another New Jersey mega-politician and big-time player, Torricelli, got another big break this week with the changing of the Washington guard. When the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Torricelli was battling with California Sen. Barbara Boxer for a seat on the Finance Committee, we weren't worried for a minute. We knew Our Torch would win that one. But when Sen. Patrick Moynihan, D-New York, resigned, it made it easy. Finance is big. More flash for Torricelli, not to mention an up arrow. On the otherhand, Sen. Ray Lesniak, D-Elizabeth was not gracious enough to restrain himself from saying "I told you so," but he gets an up arrow anyway because we give points for being right. Lesniak was predicting big Democratic victories throughout New Jersey, including the 12th District upset, before anyone else got the drift that the Republicans were in trouble. Lesniak was most pleased by the huge gains in Union County, where he and the two top Republican gubernatorial contenders, Sen. Don DiFrancesco and Rep. Bob Franks, both live. But Lesniak's visions are statewide. He sees Al Gore winning New Jersey in the 2000 presidential reace and Jim McGreevey taking the State House in 2001. His visions will all pan out if the Republicans don't do something different. Of course, there's very little chance of that. State GOP Chairman Chuck Haytaian says big changes are in the offing. For starters, he cautions Democrats not get too cocky about Mike Pappas' defeat in the 12th District, Haytaian says they GOP will get back the seat Pappas lost (it was formally held by Dick Zimmer) and reminds his celebrating counterpart Tom Giblin, the State Democratic Chairman, that the Republicans still control the whole ball of wax in New Jersey. His point was not lost on us. That's why his arrow is sideways. Speaking of that 12th District seat, so far, the following Republicans are said (by somebody) to be thinking about running for it: Sen. John Bennett, Assemblyman Leonard Lance, Somerset Freeholder, Denise Coyle, Bernardsville Mayor Hugh Fenwick, Sen. Joe Kyrillos, Sen. Bill Schluter and Zimmer. Ewing mayoral candidate Dick LaRossa gets a down arrow for dodging the press after his apparent defeat on Tuesday night. LaRossa and apparent winner Al Bridges both have problems with the polling process, but LaRossa is sulking like a bad sport. That's a ten yard penalty and a down arrow. By contrast Pappas gets honorable mention for his "class act" concession speech on Tuesday. The guy was delivered a nail biting shocker, but he took it with style. Impressive. Assemblyman Neil Cohen, D-Roselle Park, also gets a round of applause for calling for a Legislative Task Force to oversee the private takeover of the state's vehicle inspections system by Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group next week. Cohen tried to stop the deal with Parsons and he knows better than to turn his back on them.
November 1, 1998 Christie Whitman -
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