Bruce Springsteen

SCHAER, DeANGELO TO ASK AG TO DETERMINE WHETHER
JILTED SPRINGSTEEN FANS HAVE ALLY IN STATE LAW
Lawmakers to Ask Whether State's Consumer Fraud Act Applies

(TRENTON) - Assemblymen Gary Schaer and Wayne DeAngelo today said they will ask the state Attorney General to determine whether New Jersey consumers blocked from purchasing tickets for this spring's Bruce Springsteen concerts at the Meadowlands can seek refunds under the state's Consumer Fraud Act.

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) made it to the front page of the Star-Ledger and The Record today by asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate allegations that Ticketmaster blocked consumers from purchasing tickets to a Bruce Springsteen concert so they could re-sell them at a higher price on an aftermarket website they own.  Now two Democratic Assemblymen are trying to replicate Pascrell's media hit with their own copycat local version. Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) and Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) are asking the state Attorney General to launch its own investigation.  Could the Star-Ledger bite again?

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The Washington Post is reporting that Bruce Springsteen will perform a free concert in Washington, D.C. on January 18 in celebration of Barack Obama’s inauguration as the 44th President of the United States.  The Asbury Park native is also set to perform at the Super Bowl XLIII halftime show next month.

Enough talk about the lack of New Jerseyans on the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week: two Monmouth County Democrats are expected to get a prime slot on Thursday, when Barack Obama accepts his party’s presidential nomination.  Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi will be the opening acts for Obama’s concert. 

DENVER -- As of right now there are no speakers from New Jersey slated for the Democratic National Convention. But two of the most famous musicians to ever come out of the state are scheduled to perform not just at the convention, but at Barack Obama’s big night. 

The Rocky Mountain News reports that Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi will bracket Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at Invesco Field on Thursday night.

Governor Corzine, who's said to have invited the two to perform at the convention, couldn't confirm the report.

"I don't know that they're coming," he said while walking out of the Inverness Hotel. 

One interesting item in Charles Stile’s column today on the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority putting premium seats to the Bruce Springsteen concert aside for the politically connected to buy at face value: 24 tickets went to the Asbury Park Press. That wouldn’t be so noticeable if the APP hadn’t held itself out to be the beacon of ethics reform over the last five years.

Lobbyist/cable TV host Jim McQueeny is strongly denying an Inside Edge report that he was one of three people who worked on a plan for U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg’s campaign to buy premium seats to a Bruce Springsteen concert for $108 and resell them to campaign contributors for $1,500. "This story is utterly and completely untrue, but you don't have the balls or the ethics to print the retraction it requires,” McQueeny wrote in a statement, printed in its entirety, to PolitickerNJ.com. “Wally was obviously using this political science fiction in an obvious competition with the X-Files movie opening for bizarre plots. Congrats, Wally, you won!"

Published reports over the weekend that U.S Senator Frank Lautenberg’s re-election campaign called in some chits with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to but forty premium seat tickets for Bruce Springsteen’s concert this Sunday for $108 each and resell them for $1,500 each to campaign contributors raised an interesting question: what if some random person called a State Senator’s office and asked them if they had the clout to get them tickets to see The Boss?

PolitickerNJ.com asked one of our summer interns, Michael Gsovski, to find out.

Jim McQueeny, a lobbyist who hosts News 12 New Jersey’s Power & Politics, was one of the organizers of U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg’s now controversial plan to buy 40 premium seats to a Bruce Springsteen concert for $108 and resell them to campaign contributors for $1,500. Lautenberg cancelled the fundraiser yesterday after The Record broke a story detailing the event, which involved a deal with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, a state agency, to obtain concert tickets set aside for VIP’s and political insiders. McQueeny, who served on Lautenberg’s staff in the 1980’s, worked on the event with Dan Katz, the Senator’s Chief of Staff, and Samantha Maltzman, the campaign finance director.

U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg sought to end a brewing political firestorm today cancelling a campaign fundraiser at Bruce Springsteen’s Giant Stadium concert on Friday – just one day after The Record broke the story that the Senator’s re-election campaign had cut a deal with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to buy forty premium tickets held back by the state agency for VIP’s and political insiders for $108 per ticket and reselling them to donors at $1,500 each.