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Newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele said he is focused on three races in his effort to rebuild the GOP after it endured worrying losses in November's elections that gave Democrats control of Congress and the White House. Steele, Maryland's former lieutenant governor and the first black to head the RNC, said one of the most critical battles for the GOP is to capture New York's 20th congressional seat -- formerly held by U.S. Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, D-N.Y. "It is the first of a series of races that are coming up that are going to be...

New Jersey's pension fund has lost more than $23 billion this year, dropping to its lowest level since 2003 as a collapsing financial market battered its investments, a state report showed yesterday. The latest losses -- nearly $9 billion in October, and another $3 billion so far this month -- mean the fund is now worth $57.8 billion, or less than half the $118 billion in benefits it is due to pay out over time, state reports show. "I don't think any of us in the division have ever seen anything like it," said Bill Clark, director of the state's...

<p>A New Jersey pension fund run by one of Barack Obama’s earliest and biggest campaign fundraisers has lost $25 billion -- including $9 billion in October, a published report says.  The New Jersey Investment Council, chaired by hedge fund manager Orin Kramer, says that the value of the state pension fund has shrunk from $82 billion in July to $57 billion, Politicker NJ reports.  The report could not be confirmed.</p>

Pack away that "Drill, Baby, Drill" T-shirt with the old disco clothes. While President-elect Barack Obama said in his victory speech Tuesday that some of the changes he promised will take time, New Jersey Democrats expect a lot to happen quickly. Within days of inauguration, the new administration might reverse policies on offshore drilling, chemical plant security, stem-cell research and children’s health care — issues that have bedeviled New Jersey Democrats during the Bush years. Even before the inauguration, change appears to be happening. WHAT NJ WANTSWish list for our sharePresident Bush indicated Wednesday he is open to discussing another...

Being behind bars didn’t bar some Passaic County Jail inmates from voting this week. In what some officials are saying is a first for the county, 22 men and women in the jail’s cell blocks used absentee ballots to vote. "We’ve been encouraging any inmates who are eligible under the law to vote," said Bill Maer, spokesman for the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department, which runs the jail. "This is one of the first times we had a concentrated program to encourage inmates to participate in the election." Nearly all of the eligible inmates who cast a ballot registered to vote...

A family of Barack Obama supporters awakened this morning to find a burned 6-foot cross on the front lawn of their home in northern Warren County, police said. The charred cross was partly wrapped with a homemade congratulatory banner that declared "President Obama Victory '08" and had been stolen from the lawn the night before, police said.

IL, ME, MA, CT, NJ, MD called for Obama by FoxNews.com

Sen. Menendez was just on Fox on Cavuto's show. Cavuto took Menendez to the woodshed regarding Obama's insane plan to raise taxes by over a trillion dollars to pay for the already announced Reid-Pelosi-Obama butchering of the US economy once they're in power. Cavuto noted that Reid-Pelosi have already announced the insane multi-trillion dollar tax increase to pay for their litany of insane leftist programs, including bankrupting politically incorrect businesses, hugely increasing foreign aid to socialist hell holes, destroying the coal and nuclear power industries, and raising taxes on "the rich" (anyone making more than $42K/year). Cavuto then went through...

12:35 PM EST. OPI OPINION RESEARCH JUST CALLED MY UNLISTED PHONE AND ASKED FOR ME BY NAME. WENT THROUGH ALL THE CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT AND MY LOCAL CONGRESS RACE...PLUS ASKED MY OPINION OF CORZINE.....ASKED HOW LIKELY I WAS TO VOTE, EDUCATION LEVEL, INCOME LEVEL, AND RACE.

GALLOWAY TWP.--The clock is ticking away until one of the most historical presidential elections of our time. And in anticipation of Tuesday's Election Day, the Hughes Center at Stockton and the Press of Atlantic City released their latest South Jersey poll. Likely voters in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Congressional Districts of the state were surveyed from October 27th through the 29th. The latest results show, Barack Obama with 51.5% in his favor, over John McCain who is trailing at 38.6%. Compared to a similar poll taken in September, Obama has gained 3.4 percentage points, signaling undecided voters are swayed...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A leading African-American pastor says he can't support Barack Obama because the presidential candidate is out of the mainstream when it comes to abortion. Pastor Clenard Childress, says Obama is favors unlimited abortions and wants to overturn state laws to reduce abortions.Childress, the senior pastor of New Calvary Baptist Deliverance Church in Montclair, New Jersey, says he no longer buys the "lip service" he gets from Democratic presidential candidates."The Democrat Party has for years given lip service to the African-American community. They have talked about prominence without fulfilling the promise," he says. "They patronize without...

In his weekly column last week, Bishop Arthur Serratelli urged Catholics against voting for Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, based on his pro-abortion stance. "Every vote counts. Today, either we choose to respect and protect life, especially the life of the child in the womb of the mother or we sanction the loss of our most basic freedoms," wrote Serratelli in his column that appeared on the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson Web site. Stopping short of mentioning the Illinois senator by name, Serratelli, nevertheless, criticized his legislative voting record on abortion issues. "In 2002, as an Illinois...

With two polls released this morning showing Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. John McCain in the Garden State by between 17 and 23 points, former Gov. Tom Kean acknowledged that winning this state is a long-shot, and that Vice-Presidential Sarah Palin hasn't helped. "I think one of the problems is there hasn't been much of a campaign in New Jersey, if any. That's always a problem. It's uphill for any Republican to win in New Jersey, and the ones who have won are those who have spent a great deal of time here," he told PolitickerNJ.com from California in a...

Today I am releasing an in-depth study of the Sequoia AVC Advantage direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting machine, available at citp.princeton.edu/voting/advantage. I led a team of six computer scientists in a monthlong examination of the source code and hardware of these voting computers, which are used in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and other states.

Even New Jerseyans can't stand living in New Jersey, according to a new poll that said nearly half of adults residing in the Garden State want to pull up stakes. The Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey Poll, released Wednesday, found 49 percent of those polled would rather live somewhere else. (snip) Poll participants cited high property taxes (28 percent), the cost of living (19 percent), state taxes (5 percent) and housing costs (6 percent) as the main reasons they want out. The poll also found that 51 percent of those who expressed a desire to leave planned to do so, with...

Barack Obama is now ahead in every state won by John Kerry four years ago, and New Jersey is no exception. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in New Jersey finds Obama attracting 50% of the vote while McCain earns just 42%.

15. If the election for United States Senate were held today, for whom would you vote, Frank Lautenberg, the Democrat or Dick Zimmer, the Republican? Frank Lautenberg 48% Dick Zimmer 41% Undecided 11%

I am writing on behalf of a group of McCain/Palin volunteers who met yesterday in Ramsey, NJ, in order to try to get out out the vote and garner support for the 2008 Campaign. . . the most important Presidential Campaign in recent memory. We were wondering if any thought has been given to holding a rally at Liberty State Park, in Jersey City, NJ sometime in October? In light of the enormous crowds Sarah Palin has been generating (most recently yesterday in Florida), we thought a perfect venue for a rally would be right on the Hudson at Liberty,...

New Jersey partisans are battling over the impact of Republican presidential candidate John McCain naming a woman as his running mate. The arguments break down along the lines of issues versus the individual. Republicans tout Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a historic, uniquely qualified candidate, while Democrats focus on what a McCain-Palin victory might mean to issues affecting women's rights. Women vote in larger percentages than men. How women react to the first woman on a Republican ticket could affect the election's outcome significantly. And it could upend expectations in Democrat-leaning New Jersey, where the presidential race has tightened since...

15. If the election for United States Senate were held today, for whom would you vote, Frank Lautenberg, the Democrat or Dick Zimmer, the Republican? Frank Lautenberg 47% Dick Zimmer 40% Undecided 13%