Free Republic

New Jersey has given America a lot of great things: juicy tomatoes every summer, some of the best reality shows known to mankind, and Bruce Springsteen’s beautiful tortured soul. I am personally indebted to the state, having learned how to put eyeliner on the inside of my lower lid from a New Jersey girl. This year, it’s giving us something else: an unexpectedly close U.S. Senate race — yet another exciting little storyline in a year of news cycles that won’t quit. It is not a development that Democrats are happy about. New Jersey’s race pits Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob...

Reelection was supposed to be a cakewalk for veteran Democratic Senator Bob Menendez. But a new poll by Stockton University finds that ethics problems and a relentless campaign of ads highlighting them by his Republican challenger has left Menendez in a fight for his political life. The poll finds Menendez leading Republican challenger Robert Hugin by 2 points—45 percent to 43 percent—which is well within the poll’s margin of error. New Jersey is a blue state, where Democratic voters easily outnumber those registered Republican. And Democrats are looking to New Jersey as a key player in a blue wave that...

The race for a U.S. Senate seat in New Jersey is a statistical dead heat, with incumbent Democrat Bob Menendez leading Republican challenger Bob Hugin by two percentage points, according to a Stockton University poll released today. Menendez leads with 45 percent to Hugin’s 43 percent five weeks before the Nov. 6 election, according to poll numbers of likely voters who say they lean toward one candidate or the other. Libertarian Murray Sabrin pulls 3 percent, while other candidates and undecided voters total 8 percent. Menendez, who was reprimanded by a Senate ethics panel after corruption charges were dismissed following...

You're headed down the road in your car and a kid, on a bike, heads straight for you and pops a wheelie right next to your car, or near a parked car. It's dangerous and it's a fad that just won't die in New Jersey, police say. The stunts are called "swerving" -- or intentionally biking in the path of vehicles while performing tricks. Sometimes, large groups of teens will do this together, just to confound traffic. In response, N.J. towns have taken to local Facebook groups and public forums to air concerns about this dangerous practice, and local police...

A New Jersey man charged in the fatal stabbing of a 16-year-old girl was reportedly in the U.S. illegally at the time of the alleged crime. Bryan Cordero-Castro, 20, was charged with murder, weapons possession and attempted escape in connection with the stabbing death of Madison Wells. Cordero-Castro is a Guatemalan native who was living in the U.S. illegally after overstaying his visa, according to the Asbury Park Press. Friends told WABC that Cordero-Castro and Wells had been dating for about a year before the teen’s death. WATCH: Bryan Cordero-Castro, who is charged with the murder of Madison Wells, 16,...

Lisa Lebowitz was sitting in a delayed NJ Transit train departing Hoboken one recent Monday evening when she overheard an exasperated passenger complain about the frequency of last-minute cancellations. “Don’t worry,” Ms. Lebowitz recalled a crew member telling the passenger. “You should be good tomorrow because we take off Mondays and Fridays.” NJ Transit has been forced to cancel hundreds of trains this summer resulting from shortages of railcars, locomotives and workers. But it has also had to cancel trains because of last-minute calls from train operators saying they are sick or need time off for family or medical reasons,...

New Jersey's gas tax is going up this fall for the second time in two years. And all indications are that it is going to keep going up, an industry expert says. And up. And up. Gas tax collections have fallen behind for two years now, precipitating Gov. Phil Murphy's administration to announce Thursday that it is raising the motor fuel tax 4.3 cents, bringing state taxes on a gallon of gasoline sold in New Jersey to 41.4 cents -- the ninth-highest of any state. This follows a whopping 23-cent-per-gallon increase passed by the state Legislature and signed into law...

A Democratic city councilman for the township of Brick, New Jersey, on Monday endorsed a Republican challenging Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who faced a trial on bribery charges last year. Shorebeat.com reports that Brick councilman James Fozman said Monday at a campaign event for Bob Hugin (R) that he was endorsing Hugin over the incumbent Democratic senator to restore "honesty and integrity" to New Jersey. “I’m endorsing him to restore the honesty and integrity to the office,” said Fozman, who Shorebeat reports previously served at Brick's council president. “We strongly believe in protecting our environment on issues like solar and...

"The convictions of Manafort & Cohen only bolster my belief that the special counsel must be allowed to finish his investigation unimpeded by pressure from the White House, elected officials or the public. I’m the lead sponsor of legislation protecting the Mueller investigation."

New Jersey could have a tight Senate race this fall. A Quinnipiac University Poll released Wednesday put U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez ahead by just six points over former Celgene Corp. executive Bob Hugin, 43 percent to 37 percent, among registered voters. In March, a Quinnipiac poll had Menendez leading by 17 points, 49 percent to 32 percent. "As Sen. Robert Menendez sees his once-dominant lead whittled down to single digits, New Jersey voters are sending a clear message," said Mary Snow, polling analyst for the Quinnipiac poll. "They are troubled by the ethics cloud hanging over him."

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is Andrew Cuomo lite. He’s every bit as hostile to civilian firearm ownership and Second Amendment rights, he just lacks the ability of his neighbor to the north to project that anti-gun animus beyond his state’s borders. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t dead set on making Garden State gun owners’ and hunters’ lives more difficult. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday ordered the closure of state lands to black bear hunting this year. The first-year Democratic governor announced the decision with an executive order, but stopped short of unilaterally ending the hunt altogether,...

President Donald Trump's interaction with Russian President Vladimir Putin was a "disaster,"  "detrimental to the country" and the strongest evidence yet that "the president (should) step down."Those are the words of former New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman, a Republican, who penned a blistering op-ed in the Los Angeles Times this weekend calling on fellow GOPers to put country over party and dump Trump."In this election year, opposing Trump is risky for GOP candidates," Whitman wrote. "Invoking the need to choose country over party is an overused trope. But it is essential now." The piece was a reaction to Trump's refusal last week...

BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. -- The dress code for President Trump’s by-invitation meet-and-greet with motorcycle enthusiasts here on Saturday was biker chic -- leather, bandannas and for at least one of the supporters who posed with Trump at the raucous event, sexist and other offensive patches. A bearded man who is part of a New Jersey “Bikers for Trump” group stood with the president as he shook hands inside his posh golf club near here, and again when the group posed for photos outside, engines revving. “I (heart) Guns & Titties,” reads one patch on the unidentified man’s vest. The patch...

The anti-Semitic U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) promotes the “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” (BDS) movement against Israel and, in that connection, has reportedly funneled donations to a Palestinian group with ties to terrorist organizations such as Hamas. Nevertheless, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), one of several Democrat senators contemplating a presidential run in 2020, made the obligatory appearance at the radical Left Netroots Nation’s 2018 conference last week where he managed to provide some cover for USCPR. Senator Booker did so when he smilingly appeared in a photo holding up a sign that declared, “From Palestine to Mexico, all the walls have got to go.” The...

A Jersey City police duty belt -- equipped with a firearm -- was found on a Jersey City street Sunday night, authorities confirmed. The duty belt was found on Winfield Avenue near Kennedy Boulevard at approximately 8:30 p.m. and was turned over to police, Jersey City police spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said. Police refused to release any other information on the incident, citing an internal affairs investigation into the incident. A duty belt is worn by officers and regularly includes handcuffs, a gun holster, a flashlight; and it can also hold chemical irritant or a taser.

Trenton, NJ – Abortionist Vikram Kaji, 82, whose long list of troubles include sex offenses against his patients, has agreed to stop practicing medicine and halt his work as Medical Director for the nefarious abortion chain American Women’s Services pending the filing of a verified complaint against him by the State of New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety Division of Consumer Affairs and the State Board of Medical Examiners. According to a consent agreement dated May 8, 2018, the Board of Medical Examiners was about to file complaint against Kaji after new evidence surfaced that Kaji is “currently...

We all know most liberals are hypocrites, but they can’t help it, not really. After all, hypocrisy is intertwined into the very essence of holding to policy positions so utterly nonsensical on their face that defending them requires pretzel-shaped distortions of reality that would make a circus acrobat shudder. But among a sea of hypocrites, some are more hypocritical than others. Enter Senator Cory Booker, who was recently photographed at Netroots Nation - that gathering of Lenin wannabees, each of whom hoping to top the last one’s efforts to come up with a nuttier way to purge the kulaks for...

FREEHOLD, N.J. – Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., has been the target of a credible threat made against his life by a North Jersey man on social media, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. Dereal Finklin, 43, who is a registered Democrat in East Orange, was charged with making terroristic threats against the congressman on Saturday. Finklin has been held in the Monmouth County Jail in Freehold Township since the weekend. A detention hearing is scheduled for 8 a.m. Wednesday, before state Superior Court Judge James J. McGann, confirmed Christopher Swendeman, a spokesman for the Prosecutor's Office. “Not much we...

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) implored activists this week to call for change by confronting elected members of Congress. Booker, who has been mentioned as a possible 2020 presidential election candidate, was speaking Wednesday at the National Conference on Ending Homelessness in Washington, D.C. He concluded his address by encouraging people not to be passive, and to instead "go to the Hill today." "Please, get up in the face of some congresspeople," he said.

Democrats seem to agree: A job guarantee will be part of the 2020 election debate. What they don't yet agree on is what a "job guarantee" is. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is working on a full blown national bill to enshrine the right to a job. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has a bill that would essentially run a test pilot of Sanders' program. The Congressional Full Employment Caucus has been pushing yet another national job guarantee bill, with some differences from Sanders' plan, for years. Finally, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) just introduced his own bill, which would subsidize more private...