Tonight is a presidential candidate forum and straw poll in Montclair, hosted by Newsweek Senior Editor Jonathan Alter.
A Monmouth University/Gannett poll of likely New Jersey voters shows John McCain taking the lead over Rudy 9ui11iani 29%-24% and Hillary Clinton holding a 12 point lead over Barack Obama, 42%-30%.
No Bid-Gate
The Washington Post says Chris Christie isn't alone in handing out lucrative no-bid contract to political friends like former boss John Ashcroft. "In the past few years, U.S. attorneys in Alabama, New York and Virginia have turned to corporate monitors to keep companies clean, hiring various former prosecutors and SEC officials with ties to President Bush, his father and other Republican luminaries."
Corzine takes the Fiscal Disaster/Budget Powerpoint presentation roadshow to Bergen County. 2 down, 19 to go. Today Tomorrow, he goes to Morris County. Even Doug Forrester thinks we should keep an open mind:
"It seems to me that he is trying to create certain protections against bad financial behavior in the future. I give him credit for trying to tackle a huge problem, and this deserves a fair airing."
Linda Stamato shares her thoughts on how to fix our fiscal mess and she makes some good points.
I don't buy the governor's "either/or" framework for fiscal salvation. We don't either need to increase the income tax by 20 percent or the sales tax by 30, or the gas tax by 12 cents or live with the governor's plan. A combination of approaches makes more sense to me. And, certainly we ought to be putting more on the table for inclusion than has been placed there so far. We need a combination of taxes, a freeze on spending and reductions in costs, to accompany reasonable increases in tolls. An income tax increase should not be summarily dismissed by any means, certainly if equity is a consideration, and, it must be.
Route 17 will be widened from 4 to 6 lanes. Charles Stile says that's another example of the type of pork we'll get from Corzine's plan.
The Bush administration says the solution to congested air travel is to increase fees during peak hours. "The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates five airports in the New York area, has already said it does not believe peak-hour pricing would work."
A judge threw out a developer's challenge to the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act.
5th district Congressional candidate Dennis Shulman raised nearly $190,000 during his campaign's first three and half months and has over $172,000 cash on hand.
