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.

[chimera]

Well, it's true, you have to try. You win some, you lose some, but you keep on fighting. Discouragement and defeatism is a seductive trap and I fall into it myself all too often.

No sense kidding ourselves, though. For states like NJ and others, it will be a tough nut to crack. Sometimes it breaks your way if the opposition fields a particularly weak candidate and you have a strong one. I think the last race for Governor in Maryland played out that way. And the Rats got beat in MA and CA. I guess it can happen, just when the chips seem to be most down.

The concentration of Rat voters in the cities in NJ will be a powerful voting block and the 'Pubs have to find a way of convincing those voters that 'Rat giveaway after 'Rat giveaway isn't the way they're going to break the cycle of impoverishment and crime. But the lure of free money at the expense of "da man" who is "keepin' us dun" (taxpayers) is a powerful narcotic. I believe that the conservative message of self-reliance and individual achievement is the correct one, but often the 'Rats are more effective in appealing to the inherent laziness of the human spirit that says, "somebody owes me something, and they'd better give it to me".

[Moby Grape]

Your rant sounds like typical over-the-top drivel from the LP.

[agrace]

Being from PA, we're used to snow, and lots of it at times. And who needs Walmart anyway? :) It all sounds good to me. And there are certainly worse things than commuting with one's spouse. By the way, your wife is lovely. But of course you know that!

Thanks for the feedback, it is certainly appreciated.

[Huck]

Yeah, but did you scroll down and see my piggycam?

[agrace]

HAHAHA, yes I did. They are quite lovely too.

[dangus]

Let's not forget her political assassination of Schundler... doing the Dem's dirty work for them. What a disgrace.

[dangus]

The only hope for Republicans to win New Jersey is for Bush to make a 180-degree change in his style, and excoriate local country-club RINOs for destorying their party, and make it be known that they are not welcome. He'd probably also be finally able to win some black votes, too.

[staytrue]

My only hope is that McGreevey won't go too crazy spending money and raising taxes

When Jim Florio was governor, there became a phenomenon that Pennsylvania real estate agents called "the Jim Florio Fan Club" who were basically people moving out of NJ.

[PeoplesRep_of_LA]

Awwww, somebody's feelings are hurt. No I'm not a Losertarian, but I, unlike you most likely, know when the GOP made a big mistake. I don't care if you don't see it that way at all, but keep watching, the RINOs will do more harm then good (again)

[laconic]

The first wave will be the doctors who can't pay their insurance costs; they lost big yesterday. On a related point, the defeatism of the Jersey GOP has been around for a long time. Remember when William Cahill, Camden County Rep congressman, was elected governor in the 1970s? His first appointment was former Governor Richard Hughes, a big city liberal Democrat and hack politician, as CHIEF JUSTICE of the NJ Supreme Court! Christie Whitman appointed SIX OF THE SEVEN Supreme Court justices who ignored the law to put Lautenburg on the ballot. i don't know who runs the State party, but they are not very talented, and now the GOP will have no money. Perhaps Schundler can take over and do something to rebuild it.

[ErinsDaddy]

Does NJ have a recall provision?

Sounds like they may need it soon enough.

[only1percent]

The problem isn't RINOs or country club, the problem is that we're playing our junior varsity against the Democrats all-stars.

In far too many places -- places with THOUSANDS of Republican pharma execs, corporate lawyers, investment bankers, and the like, homeowners prominent in their churches and schools, men and women of fine educations and immune, or vitually immune, from the petty temptations of corruption -- the Republican establishment mounts a rag-tag slate of every kind of mediocrity: ambulance chasers, jealous losers of battles over plumb civil service jobs or municipal contracts, acne-ridden fellows living with their mothers who get into politics because they can't get dates, and more.