Democrats Now Control N.J. Legislature

Yahoo ^ | 11/5/03 | JOHN P. McALPIN

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

TRENTON, N.J. - After two years of sharing power with Republicans in the state Senate, Democrats won control of the Legislature on Tuesday, ending talk that Gov. James E. McGreevey's unpopularity would sink the party.

Republicans tried to turn Tuesday's elections into a referendum on McGreevey's turbulent two years in office. Instead the GOP lost its leader in the Legislature to a political newcomer while Democrats won control of the Senate and widened their slim margin in the Assembly.

Democrats broke a five-decade tradition where the governor's party has lost seats in the midterm elections.

"It speaks volumes about this misplaced strategy of attacking the governor personally," McGreevey spokesman Micah Rasmussen said.

Republican Senate President John O. Bennett, the subject of a series of newspaper articles questioning his ethics, conceded his race to Democrat Ellen Karcher, ending his two decades in the Senate.

Both parties were seeking to end the unprecedented 20-20 split in the Senate and gain control of the 80-member state Assembly. After a series of defections from the Democratic Party, the Assembly consists of 41 Democrats, 38 Republicans and one Green Party member.

With one Senate race undecided, Democrats led 21 to 18 in the Senate and 47 to 33 in the Assembly.

In recent polls, a record 61 percent of voters said they disapprove of McGreevey's performance. But the Democratic victories could boost his chances for re-election in 2005.

[goldstategop]

Voters may dislike McGreedy but they hate RINOs even more.

[Onelifetogive]

I think New Jersey and the Democrats make a nice couple. They deserve each other...

[laconic]

This is the legacy of Christie Whitman. She appoints Deborah Poritz, a liberal Democrat, as Chief Justice, who then overrrules the law to enable Lautenberg to run for the Senate. Then, ignoring huge Republican legislative majorities to control redrawing the map after the 1990 Census, she accedes to an "independent" reapportionment by a Princeton University professor, an extreme liberal Democrat, who buys the Dem reapportionment plan in its entirety.

[Question_Assumptions]

I honestly wish I could say that I'm sorry to see the Republicans lose but the New Jersey legislature was filled with RINOs and they squandered the decade that they did control everything. My only hope is that McGreevey won't go too crazy spending money and raising taxes, not that the Republicans didn't have their own problems in that regard. Unfortunately, a good economy in 2004 will be good for Bush but good for McGreevey, too, unless the Democrats really mess up the state between now and then.

[goldstategop]

The GOP in NJ is even more corrupt and statist than the Democrats. If voters are given a choice, its no surprise they prefer the real thing over the pretend version.

[Luke21]

They deserve the mess they vote for. Enjoy, Jersey.

[Williams]

"We" who didn't vote for it don't deserve it. Further, New Jersey has been lost to immigration - legal and illegal.

[theDentist]

Democrats Now Control N.J. Legislature

Yahoo! No More Spending Limits! Tax Hikes for Everyone!

[Huck]

We don't all deserve it. Here are the results from my neck of the woods, Sussex County, NJ:

FREEHOLDERS
Susan Zellman (R).......14,794
Glen Vetrano (R).........14,583
Howard Burrell (D).....10,386
Edwin Selby (D)..........7,756

SENATE
Robert Littell (R).........23,016
Jim Morrison (D).........10,748
x - 1 seat

ASSEMBLY
Guy Gregg (R)............24,379
Alison McHose (R).....23,007
Thomas Boyle (D).......11,591


The northwest part of NJ--Sussex and Warren Counties--are reliably conservative. Red zone. Check the county by county red/blue map. It's not our fault we're outnumbered by the idiots in Trenton, Camden, Elizabeth, Newark, and Paterson.

[ambrose]

Truly not a dime's worth of difference between the RINOs and Rats in Joisey.

[Fee]

Unfortunately the gun owners are going to get killed in the state. The Superintendent of the State Police wants to modify the gun magazine law. Under state law, gun mags cannot exceed 15 round capacity. It is legal for high capacity mag owners to put a wood dowel in the mag to limit it to 15 rounds or less. Unfortunately the Superinendent does not accept this legal solution. He wants the fix to be permanently welded in. Furthermore, many Dems want to add more definitions to what is an assualt rifle. Many were appalled that AR-15 are still being sold in NJ after proper cosmetic changes were incorporated to make them legal. I think the Ruger Mini-14, all AR-15's, military semi auto rifles with any pistol grip will be banned and last not least, the 50 cal bolt action "deadly sniper" rifle.

[goldstategop]

Exactly. Give voters credit for understanding the Republicans are better off without Democrats in their midst who sound like Republicans but actually true believers in big government.

[Question_Assumptions]

Further, New Jersey has been lost to immigration - legal and illegal.

...and domestic. Just who do you think all those retired liberal New Yorkers moving into central NJ and the 9/11 refugees moving into the NJ suburbs are voting for? It is probably no coincidence that the ferry to northern Monmouth County has been drawing NYC workers into that area looking for suburban houses. Liberals never learn. Like a plague, they destroy one place and then move on to destroy the next nice place they can descend on en masse. Don't laugh, non-New Jerseyans. These people are fleeing New York and New Jersey and are going much farther west and south these days.

[Timesink]

*shrug* It's mathematically impossible that the GOP can win 100% of all elections anywhere. And as others have already noted, New Jersey's Republican Party is reaping what they sowed after years of offering voters nothing but rampant RINOism. The Democrats deserved to win control there.

[Wallace T.]

It sounds like these two counties would be better off in Pennsylvania. They are marginalized in an increasingly liberal New Jersey. Were they to transfer to Pennsylvania, it might help tip the Keystone State, which has a narrow Republican-Democrat gap, over to the GOP side.

[oceanview]

alot of them go to north carolina too. that's why I'm best off just staying in NY, if enough people are leaving to ruin other states, we might turn around here!

[laconic]

I agree; Sussex and Warren Counties are two of the most beautiful places in the country. Add Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, Monmouth, Ocean, and Burlington and you've got a huge Republican swath. Senate President John Bennett was responsible for the GOP losing the state senate; he knew that with so much sleaze on the record, he was bound to lose in the general election but he refused to step aside for a Republican who would have won. Even with all that, he still got 45% of the vote.

[Huck]

See those red counties in the upper left hand corner of the state? I live in the very tip top part of Sussex County. Very nice place to live. Very good people. As a matter of fact, in 2000, 1,253,791 New Jerseyans voted for GWB, 41% of the state voters. That's more GWB voters than Alabama (943,799), Arizona (715,112), Tennessee (1,056,480) and a lot of other red states. Sure, the red states obviously had a better % of GWB voters, but the fact is in New Jersey there are more Republican voters than in many red states, meaning even more people who "don't deserve it" than people who do in other states. So don't be so glib about it.

More than 33,179 of Sussex County residents, 58%, voted for GWB. There's good people in New Jersey! Send help, not insults!

[stevio]

Damn Nazi Jersey.