Joe Kyrillos

I write to express my serious concerns about the considered changes to the public debate schedule.  As has been reported in recent days, this change has been requested by NJN as a result of pressure from Governor Corzine's campaign.  At this point, it should be abundantly clear that the Governor and his campaign are attempting to manipulate the schedule of debates, and by extension the public financing system, for their own political gain.  While this is troubling on its own, the fact that Governor Corzine has opted to discard the public funding system makes this even more disconcerting. 

Senator Joseph Kyrillos, senior Republican on the Senate Economic Growth Committee, said today's report that New Jersey's unemployment rate surged to 9.2 percent in June shows the state is paying a terrible price for Trenton's inexcusable neglect of economic development over the last eight years. Governor Corzine should be calling the Legislature into special session to reverse the anti-jobs policies he has helped champion, Kyrillos said.

New Jersey Unemployment Surges to 9.2%

Senator Joe Kyrillos, senior Republican on the Senate Economic Growth Committee, said today’s report that New Jersey’s unemployment rate surged to 9.2 percent in June shows the state is paying a terrible price for Trenton’s inexcusable neglect of economic development over the last eight years. In addition to having the highest unemployment rate in the region, Kyrillos noted that New Jersey led the nation in new jobless claims during the week of June 27.

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In an email-web video blast to supporters last night, Corzine '09 Campaign Manager Maggie Moran said the campaign's original intention to encamp at Rutgers New Brunswick for a rally with President Barack Obama won't work.

Too many people want to attend next Thursday's event and the capacity on the Voorhees Mall is not there, Moran said. So the new venue will be the PNC Arts Center in Holmdel.

"In recent days, more than 52,000 of you have signed up through our web site to attend the event with President Obama and Gov. Corzine," Moran said in the web video.

The relocation places the president, governor and their minions squarely in the auspices of the very Republican 13th District for a few hours.

Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth)

TRENTON - If Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) has dominated some early moments of this senate budget session, the Democratic Party's other power center rises late in the evening here and sells his economic stimulus bill.

"It will spur billions of dollars in economic development," Lesniak says of the tough times document he fashioned, which, among other things, channels $15 million into affordable housing projects.

While quibbling with some of the bill's provisions, Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R-Middletown) mostly likes this stimulus, including the provision which gives developers two-decades worth of substantial tax revenue created by their projects.

But there are more strenuous objectors.

State Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Hamilton), one of seven senators voting 'no' on open space initiative

TRENTON - Moments ago, members of the state Senate filed back into the chamber here at the Statehouse and are underway again with Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) presiding.

They will soon consider the nearly $29 billion state budget.

In a sign of the first significant public dissent of the day, state Sen. Steve Oroho (R-Franklin) just stood and expressed his opposition to the open space bond question, which already passed in the Assembly earlier in the evening. 

In his brief questioning of state Supreme Court Justice Barry Albin, state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Middletown) offered some measured criticism.

“I do not think you’re an ideologue. I do not think that you’re a justice that over time a vast majority of New Jerseyans would be uncomfortable with. But I do 5hink you need to draw on your instincts, your abilities to be a leader on the court in the years to come, that you need to look at the practical effect that past decisions have had,” he said.

Christie Campaign Chairman Joe Kyrillos

In their NJN mano-a-mano this morning, Lonegan Campaign Manager Hank Butehorn and Christie Campaign Manager state Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R-Middletown) mostly scrapped over Lonegan's proposed flat tax and Christie's conservative credentials.

"We disagree on how to cut income taxes," Kyrillos told NJN senior political correspondent Michael Aron. "The electorate won't abide income tax hikes for a majority of residents out there."

Butehorn called the Christie campaign's interpretation of Lonegan's flat tax plan "an outright lie."

"It's a bout time the state has a conservative Republican leader with a plan to cut taxes and reduce spending," he said.

Romney endorses Christie for governor in Haddonfield **Photo courtesy of the Christie campaign

The Associated Press reported today that former Massachusetts governor and 2008 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney stood in front of Haddonfield Borough Hall with gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie and told a crowd of about 50 people that “New Jersey has tried liberal and it's time for the state to have a chance to try conservative.”

Romney’s New Jersey campaign chairman last year was state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Middletown), who also serves as campaign chair for his close friend, Christie.

Former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, right, with state Sen. Kip Bateman (R-Somerset).

Chris Christie made a multi-stop swing through South Jersey over the weekend and kept his sites trained on Gov. Jon Corzine in a new television ad, while Steve Lonegan, as far as 23 points back in the latest Quinnipiac University poll, hammered the GOP frontrunner wherever he could in advance of their 101.5 radio debate tonight.

As Christie marched in Hamilton’s Memorial Day Parade, Lonegan blasted out a press release branding the former U.S. Attorney as a media darling. “The liberal-left is worried about a real conservative winning in a ‘blue’ state and are lining up behind Chris Christie,” read the release, citing endorsements from the Philadelphia Inquirer and local weekly the Hanover Eagle.

Not content to snipe from afar, Lonegan went into the heart of enemy territory to denounce campaign literature that the former mayor of Bogota said wrongly attacked his chief Warren/Hunterdon County ally, Assemblyman Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.), who’s challenging state Sen. Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.) in the June 2nd GOP Primary.