Alex DeCroce

Calling the charges against Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt (R-Ocean Twp.) a “betrayal of the public trust" Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany-Troy Hills) today called on him to resign from the assembly.

 “I am calling on Assemblyman Van Pelt to immediately resign from the General Assembly.  He cannot represent his district effectively with this cloud hanging over his head. The people of the 9th District are entitled to a representative who is above suspicion and beyond reproach. These allegations are disturbing,” he said.  “No betrayal of the public trust can be tolerated. Republicans have long advocated for stronger ethics reforms that hold all public officials accountable for their actions.  These reforms apply to all office holders, regardless of their party affiliation.”

Van Pelt, who was until recently also Mayor of Ocean Township and is the administrator of Lumberton, was arrested today as part of a huge sting that hit religious leaders and elected officials alike.  He allegedly offered to use his influence to help a real estate developer in his legislative district.

One other assemblyman, L. Harvey Smith (D-Jersey City) was arrested today.  Smith, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Jersey City in May, is not seeking reelection.

REPUBLICAN LEADER WARNS TAXPAYERS TO BE ‘AFRAID, VERY AFRAID’ OF ANY OTHER OFFICIAL WHO SHARES GREENWALD’S MENTALITY 

Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce says he is shocked that the Democrat who heads the Assembly Budget Committee and bears much of the responsibility for New Jersey’s oppressive debt, outrageously high taxes and out-of-control spending doesn’t want the recession to end quickly because he is afraid consumers will start borrowing more money.

“If anyone has a right to be afraid, it’s the taxpayers,” asserted DeCroce, R-Morris and Passaic. “They should be afraid, very afraid of Democrats like Lou Greenwald and Jon Corzine, who have already admitted they can’t wait to resume the spending and borrowing binge that has inflicted such heavy damage to the state’s economy.”

DeCroce’s comments came in reaction to new statements by Greenwald, a Camden County Democrat who is chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee and gained notoriety when he once insisted that New Jersey should have the “courage” to spend more of the taxpayers’ money.

Greenwald stunned taxpayers when he said during a live radio interview last week that “if (our economic problem) is solved too quickly, people (will) believe the pain was not real and I think it will be very easy for elected officials to fall into old habits,”

Instead of recanting his remarks, Greenwald defended them in a report posted on the website PolitickerNJ.com and blamed consumer borrowing and spending for creating the recession that has cost too many people their jobs and their homes.

With four months to go before the election, Assembly Democrats have a nearly three-to-one cash advantage over the Republicans.

The Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee has $989,244 on hand to Assembly Republican Victory’s $334,429, according to reports filed yesterday with the Election Law Enforcement Commission.  

Democrats raised more than twice as much as Republicans last quarter, taking in $397,624 to the GOP’s $176,889.  

All 80 assembly seats are up this year, although only a couple districts at most are considered competitive.  The bulk of both parties’ money will likely be spend in District 1, where Democrats Nelson Albano (D-Vineland) and Matt Milam (D-Vineland) are expected to have a tough race against Cape May County Republicans Michael Donohue and John McCann.  

Democrats also have a large monetary advantage in the state Senate, where there is only one special election this year in South Jersey that is not expected to be competitive.  The Senate Democratic Majority has $927,699 on hand to the Republicans’ $442,333.  Democrats took in $132,675 last quarter to Republicans’ $101,468.

Despite a growing chorus of GOP leaders disgusted by racist remarks police said he made, embattled Republican candidate Lee Lucas today refused to back out of his District 3 Assembly race. 

"It's not even a consideration, and I hope I make their blood boil," Lucas told PolitickerNJ.com. "I'm messing with the Republican leadership. I'm not only not going anywhere, I'm having fun. I'm doing the irish jig."

On learning that he used the N-word in 2006, State Republican Party Chairman Jay Webber, Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) and Gloucester County GOP Chairman Bill Fey all asked Lucas to immediately abort his run.

But the commercial cooking equipment repairman who defeated GOP establishment candidates Arthur Marchand and Gibbstown Mayor George Shivery in the June 2nd primary in this 2-1 Democratic district, said there's no way.

"I have a lot of supporters, I get a lot of phone calls of support - of course, they're all scared," Lucas said. "This is a mountainous wave of propaganda."

Former GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan issued an op-ed blast to supporters this morning entitled "The Hollow Men," rebuking campaign operative allies of GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie, State Party Chairman Jay Webber, pro-cap and trade Republican congressmen, and the state party in general for what Lonegan cites as an abandonment of conservative principles.

"Since the Primary Election, loyal Republicans have been baffled by the behavior of the GOP establishment in New Jersey," writes Lonegan in his most pointed criticism of his party since losing the nomination to Christie on June 2nd. "First, operatives in the campaign of our nominee for Governor, Chris Christie, monkeyed around with the social issues page on his website, gaining the attention of the media before resolving what they caused.

"Then, at the meeting of the Republican State Committee – the men and women elected from each county to formulate and advance the party’s principles – the party leadership blocked a move to formally adopt the platform of the national Republican Party, as well as blocking a resolution condemning Governor Corzine’s tax hikes.  At least one major newspaper, the Star-Ledger, linked the leadership’s refusal to adopt our Party’s platform to the fact it contains Pro-Life and Pro-Traditional Marriage planks."

Homophobs are always hypocrites!

GOP State Assembly candidates Robert Villare and Lee Lucas have never met or spoken, according to Brandon Glurk, Villare’s campaign coordinator.

“They are not currently, nor were they ever running together,” Glurk told PolitickerNJ.com.  “Unfortunately, the state GOP was too incompetent to elect one of their own.  Therefore, Lucas is on the Republican ticket with Chris Christie and Bob Villare, but that is not by choice.”

Gloucester County GOP Chairman Bill Fey and Assembly Majority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) have called on Lucas to drop out of the race following reports of racially insensitive remarks.  DeCroce has said he will not fund the Republican challengers in District 3, even though some GOP strategists had viewed the two Assembly seats as winnable.

Lucas has not been invited to a rally in Gloucester County on Monday featuring Christie and Republican National Chairman Michael Steele.

Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) is having a tough year playing the candidate recruitment game this year. 

At the start of the campaign season, only four districts were viewed as potentially competitive for the Republicans: District 1, a GOP-leaning district where Democrats hold two Assembly seats and will not have the benefit of coattails from popular State Sen. Jefferson Van Drew (D-Upper); District 3, where four-term Assemblyman Douglas Fisher gave up his seat to become state Secretary of Agriculture; District 14, which has elected Democratic and Republican legislators in each of the last four elections; and District 36, where two Democratic Assemblymen were re-elected by a relatively narrow margin two years ago and where the EnCap/Xanadu issues have taken a toll on local candidates.

But the GOP has not done well recruiting or nominating their strongest candidates.  Their top choice in the 36th district, East Rutherford Councilman Joel Brizzi, changed his mind about running and dropped out between his announcement and filing day.  Some Republicans think there might be more to the story, suggesting that State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Sanzari) might have helped alter the field.

The top GOP recruits in the 14th, Hamilton Councilwoman Kelly Yaede and former Cranbury Councilman Wayne Wittman, ended their campaigns just days before the GOP nominating conventions.  Republicans wound up with a primary between second choice candidates, and DeCroce had to spend money to nominate two political unknowns.

In District 3, Republicans worked to recruit Arthur Marchand, a top-tier challenger who had served as Cumberland County Surrogate, Freeholder and Prosecutor.  But Marchand and his running mate, East Greenwich Mayor George Shivery, lost the GOP primary by a razor thin margin.

CHRISTIE OBSTRUCTIONISTS OPPOSED PROPERTY TAX RELIEF

“Christie’s Leadership Would Have Meant No Property Tax Relief”
 
TRENTON- Democratic State Committee Chairman Joseph Cryan today blasted Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie and his campaign leadership team, including Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean Jr., Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce and newly anointed Republican State Chairman Jay Webber for voting against direct property tax relief for New Jersey residents.  Along with 16 other Christie Right Wing Republicans in the legislature, Kean, DeCroce and Webber all voted against the Tax Amnesty bill that today yielded hundreds of millions of dollars that will be returned to New Jersey homeowners in the form of direct property tax relief.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie says it's clear that Gov. Jon Corzine "has no control over the budget or our government."

"He promised four years ago to change the way Trenton budgeted, but this budget uses billions in one-shot gimmicks, including this latest tax amnesty windfall, that will have to be made up in future budgets," Christie said in a statement released today.  "This kind of haphazard governing by chance just doesn't cut it when we're facing 8.8% unemployment, skyrocketing property taxes and real pain for all middle class New Jerseyans."

Assemblyman Joseph Cryan (D-Union), the Democratic State Chairman, criticized Christie's legislative allies from voting against the tax amnesty bill which he says "yielded hundreds of millions of dollars" in new revenues.