Chief Political Writer
of the
The Trentonian
A PULITZER PRIZE WINNING NEWSPAPER
February 28, 1999
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Supreme up arrow for Pete Good things come to those who wait, but at the State House on Friday it was clear that some don't have to wait as long as others. Gov. Whitman announced that she will nominate Attorney General Peter Verniero the New Jersey Supreme Court. If the Senate approves him, he'll be the youngest judge ever to sit on the high bench. Verniero is a top-notch guy and there's no reason he shouldn't be allowed to join the Supremes. But the arrow-pointers worry he could get "Orson Welles Syndrome," which is sometimes brought on by achieving your ultimate goal in life too early. Verniero is only 39 and he can keep the top judgeship until he's 70. Some folks believe Verniero still wants to be governor someday, but right now it's hard to see how he'll work that one in. Now that we've given him an up arrow, the guy's got it all. Sen. Bob Torricelli gets an up arrow, too, and lots of praise from the arrow-pointers for being described on the op-ed page of Friday's Wall Street Journal as "one of Congress' leading tax cutters." Torricelli told WSJ columnist Paul Gigot that "no one is rich enough in this country that the government should be taking 40 percent of anyone's income." The Torch went onto say that a 28-percent income-tax rate for a family making $40,000 a year is "unconscionable." We couldn't agree more. President Clinton has been threatening to veto any tax cuts, but we're betting Torricelli will back him down in a week. While Torricelli has become the great Democratic hope, former governor Jim Florio is turning into the Jersey Democrats' biggest fear. Florio entered the race for Frank Lautenberg's senate seat last week with a vengeance and right now it looks like nobody can stop him. Big Democrats don't want Florio on the ballot because he brings back $2.8 billion dollars worth of bad memories for most New Jersey voters. But so far, nobody has figured out how to convince Florio to continue his political retirement. Florio clearly figures that if wrestlers are doing so well in politics, former boxers should be given another chance. He gets an up arrow from us just for annoying the Democratic power bosses. Assembly Speaker Jack Collins is the state's wittiest Republican so maybe he was joking last week when he said that the gifts that lobbyists give lawmakers don't influence their thinking. Collins took almost $10,000 worth of goodies from the Trenton lobbying crowd including a free trip to Ireland for himself and his wife. We've heard all the excuses about all the work that gets done on these little junkets and we don't believe any of it. Collins and the other legislators who take presents from lobbyists are behaving like cheap trollops. The Speaker gets a down arrow. He should take a cue from Assemblyman Kip Bateman, R-Somerset, who had the decency to pick up his own tab for a trip to a bankers convention in Florida. Toxic waste and high property taxes are pretty scary for New Jerseyans, but nothing threatens the safety and quality of life in the "road rage state" like big trucks. The mega-ton monsters tear up local roads, pollute the air and kill lots of people. Every day a New Jersey paper reports another story of some poor driver who has been squashed to death by a tractor-trailer while the truck driver walks away. Senator Joe Vitale, D-Woodbridge, is taking a big stab at the problem by proposing slower speed limits for trucks. He won't have an easy time. The trucking industry has bought off lots of legislators in Trenton who say, with a straight face, that it's actually safer to have the big trucks traveling at the same speed as cars. We don't know what kind of presents the truckers are handing out, but maybe this up arrow will help Vitale shout those guys down. Sun., Feb. 21, 1999Christie, Frank & Don Win Big Up Arrows Gov. Whitman provided Democrats with a reality check, Senator Frank Lautenberg checks out and Senate President Don DiFrancesco could win big just by being in the right place at the right time. Attorney General Peter Verniero continues to take two steps forward and one step back in his ongoing war of the wills with the State Police, while Assemblyman Leonard Lance, R-Flemington, manages to get a day's worth of statewide news on the most boring topic around -- shared services. Big Democrats spend lots of time belittling the governor. Senate Minority Leader Richard Codey, D-West Orange, has the job of saying something bad about her every day and he takes his work seriously. But when Lautenberg announced he would not run for re-election last week, Democrats were quickly reminded of how powerful and popular Whitman is. She is the 800-pound gorilla in the Senate race. If she runs, she clears the Republican field in a nanosecond and only the most blindly loyal Democrat would be willing to say that whomever they put up will beat her. While Whitman is weighing the decision to run, she's continuing to cast a big-time media profile. She's on "Meet the Press" today. She's also added personal support to the trooper battles going on in the Attorney General's office with her usual straight talk and by meeting personally with Rev. Reginald Jackson, who has been very critical of the AG's resistance to a federal investigation of alleged racial profiling by state troopers. Jackson has a long-standing relationship with Whitman and the trust between them will likely assure that he stays focused on the issue at hand. Jackson won't become a tool of the Democrats like Codey who wants to use the trooper troubles against Whitman politically. Lautenberg gets an up arrow for finally deciding to spend his weekends doing something besides hanging out at political receptions. Old politicians who can't let go ultimately end up looking old and stringy-haired. Lautenberg has a great record and stepping down now shows he's a class act. Meanwhile DiFrancesco, the man who will ascend to the governorship if Christie is elected to the Senate, is basking in the possibility of being given a free ticket. DiFrancesco has a tough time not smiling when he points out that Whitman is the best Republican candidate. She's run statewide three times and won twice. Sen. Bill Gormley, R-Mays Landing, and Essex County Executive James Treffinger are political nobodies by comparison. But then, so is DiFrancesco unless Whitman hands him the governor's office for a little on-the-job training before the 2001 campaign. The bad news for both Whitman and DiFrancesco is that New Jersey Republicans can't match the disciplined campaign machine that the Democrats will bring into the Garden State for the Senate race. With a few notable exceptions Jersey's GOP political operatives are small-time hacks. They could be demolished in a split second by the professionals the Democrats who are, quite literally, the best campaigners on the planet. The same people who elected Senator Bob Torricelli put people in office all over the world every day. Attorney General Peter Verniero finally stopped the double talk late last week and pointed out the obvious: he can't go after alleged racial profiling in the State Police until they get some decent data about the race of people that the state troopers actually stop. It will take a while to get that. But Verniero's arrow is sideways because he failed to call for a federal probe himself. His lukewarm response to the feds coming in makes no sense politically (and all arrows are based on politics). A federal investigation takes him out of the line of fire, regardless of what they dig up on the state troopers. As it is now, Verniero is in a lose-lose situation. If he turns up lots of awful evidence regarding racism in the State Police, he'll be criticized. If he turns up nothing, he'll be crucified. His arrow is not pointing down because he's clearly committed to doing the right thing. Finally, Lance gets what is appropriately a "shared up arrow" with Assemblyman Joe Roberts, D-Camden, for their bill providing incentives to towns that try to save taxpayers money by sharing services. This is an idea whose time has come, though the arrow pointers believe there's no chance it will catch on among the locals who run for office so they can give their friends jobs, not cut budgets. But Lance got lots of press for this legislation, which could push taxpayers to put more pressure on big spending municipalities. Sunday February 14, 1999Gov. Christie Whitman
Bill Clinton
Gov. Christie Whitman made the Parade Magazine cut of the top five women in America
who could run for president last week and she beat Senator Frank Lautenberg 50 to 41 in a Democratic predictions regarding the death of the New Jersey GOP seem pre-mature. Former governor Brendan Byrne sometimes jokes about the awful fate of anyone who
crosses Senator Bob Torricelli, but Jersey's junior senator, who was photographed this weekend Such behavior can only mean that Torricelli knows a revenge strategy won't work and
Torricelli only plays to win. The senator seems to be on the winning side now. That's why he's Our favorite Bill Bradley quote is "in politics, the only relevant question is 'compared to
what.'" The tall, New Jerseyan seems to be answering his own question all over the country. He
may not look like much on the stump. He's boring and squeaky. But compared to Vice President
Al Gore, he's looking pretty good. He's beating the vice president in national polls and he does
much better than Gore against any GOP presidential candidate in New Jersey. Its a long way until
the election, but Bradley gets an up arrow anyway. Winning the impeachment acquittal should have gotten President Bill Clinton an up arrow,
but the guy showed his true colors again when the news leaked that he has planned to lead a
"revenge campaign" to get the congressmen who brought the charges against him. Arrow pointers
also weren't impressed with his half-hearted final apology, so its a down arrow for the president. Sunday, Feb 7, 1999
The good economy, impeachment politics and the heavy jockeying among all the Democrats and Republicans who want to run for something big next time, like governor, made this year's train ride to Washington the biggest in years. Almost two thousand people showed up. So much happened on the train that it was very difficult to decide who should get this week's coveted arrows. Assemblyman Joe Suliga, D-Elizabeth, came very close. He handed out hotdogs and buttons saying on the train trip which said "Grill Franks" indicating that he may try to elbow out his fellow Democrat, Fanwood Mayor Maryann Connelly, for the right to run against Rep. Bob Franks, R-Union, next year. The Democrats think folks are so mad about impeachment that they'll vote out Republicans everywhere. They've been boasting that they may even take back control of the New Jersey Assembly next year. But Assembly Speaker Jack Collins and his fans say they aren't worried. They passed out buttons too that said, "Democrats who think they're going to win the Assembly don't know Jack!" The arrow pointers liked the button, but it wasn't enough to win this week either.
When the news got back to New Jersey about Whitman's skiing accident at the World Economic Summit in Switzerland, the arrow pointers were very sympathetic. We created a special broken arrow in her honor with best wishes for a speedy recovery. We don't know which way the arrow would be pointing if it weren't broken so we're giving her the benefit of the doubt. However, if she takes off next week, the arrow pointers will need a note from her doctor. Senate President Don DiFrancesco, R-Scotch Plains, took Whitman's place at the Washington dinner and joked with the crowd that Whitman and her husband had decided to stay in Switzerland so he could takeover the governor's office. DiFrancesco greatest wish is to have Whitman become a vice presidential candidate or get elected to the Senate in the year 2000 so he can run for governor in 2001 as an incumbent. DiFrancesco gets an up arrow because it was a good joke. Joe Piscopo was the paid after dinner speaker who was roundly panned by the Jersey crowd. Piscopo himself said it is a sad situation when the "comedians are boring the politicians." Meanwhile, Jim McGreevey, the once and future candidate for governor, gets an up arrow for widening the gap between himself and the gaggle of other Democrats who want to run for governor next time. Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-Paterson, created the biggest buzz on the train trip when he announced he wanted to join the "any Democrat but McGreevey" movement which includes Morris County's former prosecutor, Michael Murphy, Cherry Hill Mayor Susan Bass Levin, political son, Tom Byrne and other sometimes mentioned stars including Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer. While other candidates are trying to gain some traction, McGreevey keeps broadening his base of support and is becoming more unbeatable every day. Its a long way until 2001 but McGreevey's fighting a ground war and he's sticking with his battle plan. Everybody else remains a long shot. Attorney General Peter Verniero served as Acting Governor during the few hours just after legislative leaders split for Washington and just before Whitman made it back to the Garden State. We realize that's not a long time, but we expected Verniero to make some kind of splash. More than a few people consider him a long shot candidate for the top job on the GOP side too. We're giving him a sideways arrow for squandering an opportunity to sign something big. He could have created a new holiday or something. Prunetti's popular too and he's pulled together the hottest swat team working for any Republican in New Jersey including megastar pollster, Kellyanne Fitzpatrick and the media team of Bray, Bender and Cox, who push the message for Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge. They'll make sure that Democrats will be forced into hand to hand political combat throughout Mercer County. Good things come to those who wait, but at the State House on Friday it was clear that some don't have to wait as long as others. Gov. Whitman announced that she will nominate Attorney General Peter Verniero the New Jersey Supreme Court. If the Senate approves him, he'll be the youngest judge ever to sit on the high bench. Verniero is a top-notch guy and there's no reason he shouldn't be allowed to join the Supremes. But the arrow-pointers worry he could get "Orson Welles Syndrome," which is sometimes brought on by achieving your ultimate goal in life too early. Verniero is only 39 and he can keep the top judgeship until he's 70. Some folks believe Verniero still wants to be governor someday, but right now it's hard to see how he'll work that one in. Now that we've given him an up arrow, the guy's got it all. Sen. Bob Torricelli gets an up arrow, too, and lots of praise from the arrow-pointers for being described on the op-ed page of Friday's Wall Street Journal as "one of Congress' leading tax cutters." Torricelli told WSJ columnist Paul Gigot that "no one is rich enough in this country that the government should be taking 40 percent of anyone's income." The Torch went onto say that a 28-percent income-tax rate for a family making $40,000 a year is "unconscionable." We couldn't agree more. President Clinton has been threatening to veto any tax cuts, but we're betting Torricelli will back him down in a week. While Torricelli has become the great Democratic hope, former governor Jim Florio is turning into the Jersey Democrats' biggest fear. Florio entered the race for Frank Lautenberg's senate seat last week with a vengeance and right now it looks like nobody can stop him. Big Democrats don't want Florio on the ballot because he brings back $2.8 billion dollars worth of bad memories for most New Jersey voters. But so far, nobody has figured out how to convince Florio to continue his political retirement. Florio clearly figures that if wrestlers are doing so well in politics, former boxers should be given another chance. He gets an up arrow from us just for annoying the Democratic power bosses. Assembly Speaker Jack Collins is the state's wittiest Republican so maybe he was joking last week when he said that the gifts that lobbyists give lawmakers don't influence their thinking. Collins took almost $10,000 worth of goodies from the Trenton lobbying crowd including a free trip to Ireland for himself and his wife. We've heard all the excuses about all the work that gets done on these little junkets and we don't believe any of it. Collins and the other legislators who take presents from lobbyists are behaving like cheap trollops. The Speaker gets a down arrow. He should take a cue from Assemblyman Kip Bateman, R-Somerset, who had the decency to pick up his own tab for a trip to a bankers convention in Florida. Toxic waste and high property taxes are pretty scary for New Jerseyans, but nothing threatens the safety and quality of life in the "road rage state" like big trucks. The mega-ton monsters tear up local roads, pollute the air and kill lots of people. Every day a New Jersey paper reports another story of some poor driver who has been squashed to death by a tractor-trailer while the truck driver walks away. Senator Joe Vitale, D-Woodbridge, is taking a big stab at the problem by proposing slower speed limits for trucks. He won't have an easy time. The trucking industry has bought off lots of legislators in Trenton who say, with a straight face, that it's actually safer to have the big trucks traveling at the same speed as cars. We don't know what kind of presents the truckers are handing out, but maybe this up arrow will help Vitale shout those guys down. Sun., Feb. 21, 1999Christie, Frank & Don Win Big Up Arrows Gov. Whitman provided Democrats with a reality check, Senator Frank Lautenberg checks out and Senate President Don DiFrancesco could win big just by being in the right place at the right time. Attorney General Peter Verniero continues to take two steps forward and one step back in his ongoing war of the wills with the State Police, while Assemblyman Leonard Lance, R-Flemington, manages to get a day's worth of statewide news on the most boring topic around -- shared services. Big Democrats spend lots of time belittling the governor. Senate Minority Leader Richard Codey, D-West Orange, has the job of saying something bad about her every day and he takes his work seriously. But when Lautenberg announced he would not run for re-election last week, Democrats were quickly reminded of how powerful and popular Whitman is. She is the 800-pound gorilla in the Senate race. If she runs, she clears the Republican field in a nanosecond and only the most blindly loyal Democrat would be willing to say that whomever they put up will beat her. While Whitman is weighing the decision to run, she's continuing to cast a big-time media profile. She's on "Meet the Press" today. She's also added personal support to the trooper battles going on in the Attorney General's office with her usual straight talk and by meeting personally with Rev. Reginald Jackson, who has been very critical of the AG's resistance to a federal investigation of alleged racial profiling by state troopers. Jackson has a long-standing relationship with Whitman and the trust between them will likely assure that he stays focused on the issue at hand. Jackson won't become a tool of the Democrats like Codey who wants to use the trooper troubles against Whitman politically. Lautenberg gets an up arrow for finally deciding to spend his weekends doing something besides hanging out at political receptions. Old politicians who can't let go ultimately end up looking old and stringy-haired. Lautenberg has a great record and stepping down now shows he's a class act. Meanwhile DiFrancesco, the man who will ascend to the governorship if Christie is elected to the Senate, is basking in the possibility of being given a free ticket. DiFrancesco has a tough time not smiling when he points out that Whitman is the best Republican candidate. She's run statewide three times and won twice. Sen. Bill Gormley, R-Mays Landing, and Essex County Executive James Treffinger are political nobodies by comparison. But then, so is DiFrancesco unless Whitman hands him the governor's office for a little on-the-job training before the 2001 campaign. The bad news for both Whitman and DiFrancesco is that New Jersey Republicans can't match the disciplined campaign machine that the Democrats will bring into the Garden State for the Senate race. With a few notable exceptions Jersey's GOP political operatives are small-time hacks. They could be demolished in a split second by the professionals the Democrats who are, quite literally, the best campaigners on the planet. The same people who elected Senator Bob Torricelli put people in office all over the world every day. Attorney General Peter Verniero finally stopped the double talk late last week and pointed out the obvious: he can't go after alleged racial profiling in the State Police until they get some decent data about the race of people that the state troopers actually stop. It will take a while to get that. But Verniero's arrow is sideways because he failed to call for a federal probe himself. His lukewarm response to the feds coming in makes no sense politically (and all arrows are based on politics). A federal investigation takes him out of the line of fire, regardless of what they dig up on the state troopers. As it is now, Verniero is in a lose-lose situation. If he turns up lots of awful evidence regarding racism in the State Police, he'll be criticized. If he turns up nothing, he'll be crucified. His arrow is not pointing down because he's clearly committed to doing the right thing. Finally, Lance gets what is appropriately a "shared up arrow" with Assemblyman Joe Roberts, D-Camden, for their bill providing incentives to towns that try to save taxpayers money by sharing services. This is an idea whose time has come, though the arrow pointers believe there's no chance it will catch on among the locals who run for office so they can give their friends jobs, not cut budgets. But Lance got lots of press for this legislation, which could push taxpayers to put more pressure on big spending municipalities. Sunday February 14, 1999Gov. Christie Whitman
Bill Clinton
Gov. Christie Whitman made the Parade Magazine cut of the top five women in America
who could run for president last week and she beat Senator Frank Lautenberg 50 to 41 in a Democratic predictions regarding the death of the New Jersey GOP seem pre-mature. Former governor Brendan Byrne sometimes jokes about the awful fate of anyone who
crosses Senator Bob Torricelli, but Jersey's junior senator, who was photographed this weekend Such behavior can only mean that Torricelli knows a revenge strategy won't work and
Torricelli only plays to win. The senator seems to be on the winning side now. That's why he's Our favorite Bill Bradley quote is "in politics, the only relevant question is 'compared to
what.'" The tall, New Jerseyan seems to be answering his own question all over the country. He
may not look like much on the stump. He's boring and squeaky. But compared to Vice President
Al Gore, he's looking pretty good. He's beating the vice president in national polls and he does
much better than Gore against any GOP presidential candidate in New Jersey. Its a long way until
the election, but Bradley gets an up arrow anyway. Winning the impeachment acquittal should have gotten President Bill Clinton an up arrow,
but the guy showed his true colors again when the news leaked that he has planned to lead a
"revenge campaign" to get the congressmen who brought the charges against him. Arrow pointers
also weren't impressed with his half-hearted final apology, so its a down arrow for the president. Sunday, Feb 7, 1999
The good economy, impeachment politics and the heavy jockeying among all the Democrats and Republicans who want to run for something big next time, like governor, made this year's train ride to Washington the biggest in years. Almost two thousand people showed up. So much happened on the train that it was very difficult to decide who should get this week's coveted arrows. Assemblyman Joe Suliga, D-Elizabeth, came very close. He handed out hotdogs and buttons saying on the train trip which said "Grill Franks" indicating that he may try to elbow out his fellow Democrat, Fanwood Mayor Maryann Connelly, for the right to run against Rep. Bob Franks, R-Union, next year. The Democrats think folks are so mad about impeachment that they'll vote out Republicans everywhere. They've been boasting that they may even take back control of the New Jersey Assembly next year. But Assembly Speaker Jack Collins and his fans say they aren't worried. They passed out buttons too that said, "Democrats who think they're going to win the Assembly don't know Jack!" The arrow pointers liked the button, but it wasn't enough to win this week either.
When the news got back to New Jersey about Whitman's skiing accident at the World Economic Summit in Switzerland, the arrow pointers were very sympathetic. We created a special broken arrow in her honor with best wishes for a speedy recovery. We don't know which way the arrow would be pointing if it weren't broken so we're giving her the benefit of the doubt. However, if she takes off next week, the arrow pointers will need a note from her doctor. Senate President Don DiFrancesco, R-Scotch Plains, took Whitman's place at the Washington dinner and joked with the crowd that Whitman and her husband had decided to stay in Switzerland so he could takeover the governor's office. DiFrancesco greatest wish is to have Whitman become a vice presidential candidate or get elected to the Senate in the year 2000 so he can run for governor in 2001 as an incumbent. DiFrancesco gets an up arrow because it was a good joke. Joe Piscopo was the paid after dinner speaker who was roundly panned by the Jersey crowd. Piscopo himself said it is a sad situation when the "comedians are boring the politicians." Meanwhile, Jim McGreevey, the once and future candidate for governor, gets an up arrow for widening the gap between himself and the gaggle of other Democrats who want to run for governor next time. Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-Paterson, created the biggest buzz on the train trip when he announced he wanted to join the "any Democrat but McGreevey" movement which includes Morris County's former prosecutor, Michael Murphy, Cherry Hill Mayor Susan Bass Levin, political son, Tom Byrne and other sometimes mentioned stars including Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer. While other candidates are trying to gain some traction, McGreevey keeps broadening his base of support and is becoming more unbeatable every day. Its a long way until 2001 but McGreevey's fighting a ground war and he's sticking with his battle plan. Everybody else remains a long shot. Attorney General Peter Verniero served as Acting Governor during the few hours just after legislative leaders split for Washington and just before Whitman made it back to the Garden State. We realize that's not a long time, but we expected Verniero to make some kind of splash. More than a few people consider him a long shot candidate for the top job on the GOP side too. We're giving him a sideways arrow for squandering an opportunity to sign something big. He could have created a new holiday or something. Prunetti's popular too and he's pulled together the hottest swat team working for any Republican in New Jersey including megastar pollster, Kellyanne Fitzpatrick and the media team of Bray, Bender and Cox, who push the message for Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge. They'll make sure that Democrats will be forced into hand to hand political combat throughout Mercer County.
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