Linda Greenstein

McKEON/CHIVUKULA/COUTINHO/GREENSTEIN BILL PROMOTING CLEAN ENERGY NOW LAW
Deems Wind, Solar as 'Inherently Beneficial'

(TRENTON) - Legislation Assembly members John McKeon, Upendra Chivukula, Albert Coutinho and Linda Greenstein sponsored to promote alternative energy systems by deeming the technology as "inherently beneficial" when considered by local planning and zoning boards was signed into law today by Gov. Jon S. Corzine.

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) has no plans to change the seating chart for the Legislature's lame duck session, which will leave three indicted Assemblymen sitting in their old seats.  That will leave Democrats Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro) and Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) sitting in between the indicted three - Joseph Vas (D-Perth Amboy) to their right, and Harvey Smith (D-Jersey City) and Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) to their left. 

Assemblywoman-elect DiAnne Gove (R-Long Beach), who will be sworn in this month to replace another indicted legislator, Daniel Van Pelt (R-Ocean Twp.), will set next to Chiappone.

HAMILTON -- Governor-elect Christopher Christie continued his post-election education theme today, appearing in front of hundreds of students at Steinert High School in Hamilton Township this afternoon. 

The suburban environment surrounding the school, which counts Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito as an alumn along with two legislators who attended the assembly - state Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Hamilton) and Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) - provided a striking contrast to Christie's campaign stop on his first full day as Governor Elect, at the Robert Treat Academy in Newark. 

After praising the school's academic record, Christie told the students that kids in New Jersey's cities deserve the same quality.

"Those people, because of where they're born and where they live, are not getting the same education," he said. "Those kids in Trenton, Camden, Newark, Jersey City, Asbury Park - those kids deserve the same kind of education you all get in Hamilton -- at Steinert."

About half of the students gave Christie a standing ovation when he was introduced. 

Most of the assembly was taken up by a question and answer session, with students  asking Christie questions they wrote out on note cards.

Corzine enters IBEW Local 269 tonight in Lawrenceville.

LAWRENCEVILLE - Gov. Jon Corzine embraced labor here at IBEW Local 269 just before completing his day of campaigning on the night before Election Day.

"Get out there and vote," Corzine roared to a room packed with men who claim membership in this electrical workers union numbering 1,200 strong from around Central Jersey.

"Everything is what happens, not what people speculate," he told PolitickerNJ.com moments later when asked about his trust in the strength of the Democratic Party machine. "We think we have the better operation, and it's up to people to execute."

Asked why the voters of New Jersey should give him another four years, Corzine said, "I'm the best guy to get us out of this recession on the issues that matter: education, healthcare, partnership with the president; I'm in a much better position on every front, not for giving tax cuts to people making over $400,000 a year."

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton), Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein (D-South Brunswick), and Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) were in the room.

The Home News Tribune has urged the ouster of the most incumbent legislators this year: six.  The HNT called for the defeat of Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro), Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton), Joseph Egan (D-New Brunswick), Upendra Chivukula (D-Franklin), Patrick Diegnan (D-South Plainfield), and John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville).  Only Peter Barnes (D-Edison) survived the wrath of the editorial board.  But the HNT also endorsed three incumbent Democrats for re-election to the Middlesex County Board of Freeholders. 

The Courier-News wants five incumbents, all Democrats, to be defeated: Linda Stender (D-Fanwood), Gerald Green (D-Plainfield), Egan, Chivukula, and Diegnan.  They endorsed three GOP incumbents, Peter Biondi (R-Hillsborough), Denise Coyle (R-Bernards), and John DiMaio (R-Hackettstown) and Barnes.

The Courier-Post wants four Democratic legislators gone: five-term Assemblymen Herbert Conaway (D-Delanco) and Jack Connors (D-Pennsauken); and two special election winners -- State Sen. James Beach (D-Voorhees), who went to the Senate after John Adler became a Congressman; and Assemblywoman Celeste Riley (D-Bridgeton), who won a special election convention earlier this year after Douglas Fisher resigned to become state Secretary of Agriculture.   The Gloucester County Times also advocated the defeat of Riley, and the Burlington County Times said Coway should go.

The Record endorsed Republican challengers running against Frederick Scalera (D-Nutley), Joan Voss (D-Fort Lee), and Connie Wagner (D-Paramus); they endorsed ten incumbents for re-election - seven Democrats and three Republicans.  The Record also called for the ouster of Democratic Freeholders in Bergen and Passaic counties.

The Press of Atlantic City endorsed a Republican challenger against freshman Assemblyman Matthew Milam (D-Vineland).  The newspaper backed five incumbents - one Democrat and four Republicans.

Two Central New Jersey daily newspapers went in different directions today in their endorsements of candidates for the State Assembly in the politically competitive fourteenth district:  the Trenton Times backed the Democratic incumbents, Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro) and Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) for re-election, while the Home News Tribune endorsed the two Republican challengers, businessman Rob Calabro and attorney Bill Harvey.

The Times praised Greenstein for her sponsorship of the Party Democracy Act, designed to break the control exercised by some county political bosses over their organizations and candidate selection, and sais that DeAngelo "is a reliable supporter of constructive policies" and focuses on job creation and green technology.

The HNT says that Greenstein, first elected in 1999, has "had a seat at the legislative table throughout all of the missteps and failures of the Gov. Jon Corzine administration and the aborted term of Jim McGreevey before that. She has signed on to countless measures along with the rest of her party colleagues, sharing some of the responsibility for the costly direction of the state."

Greenstein, the editorial said," is also too much of an apologist for the slow pace of reform. She acknowledges that some lawmakers can't be trusted, and yet seems apathetic to trying to change a governing process obstructed by such unworthy characters. She claims to be dissatisfied with Trenton's culture but in the end seems most concerned with protecting her own power."  They say that Greenstein "at least acknowledges that some problems do exist in how Trenton operates."

"But if she won't do anything about them, does it matter?" the newspaper wrote.

CHILD INTERNET SAFETY BILLS SPONSORED BY ALBANO, BARNES, EVANS, GREENSTEIN, MILAM & SCALERA NOW LAW

(TRENTON) – Assembly Democratic legislation sponsored by Nelson Albano, Peter Barnes III, Elease Evans, Linda Greenstein, Matt Milam and Fred Scalera sponsored to give law enforcement enhanced abilities to crackdown on child Internet crimes was signed Tuesday by Gov. Jon S. Corzine.

WEST WINDSOR - The four major party assembly candidates in the 14th Legislative District met this morning for their first and only debate of the campaign season.

The forum, attended by about thirty senior citizens, was organized by two retiree groups and focused on property taxes, Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) regulations, senior issues and same sex marriage.  Incumbents Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro) and Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) asserted their independence from Gov. Jon Corzine and the Democratic establishment, while Republicans Rob Calabro and Bill Harvey branded themselves as small business owners facing the same tax pinch as the rest of the district's residents. 

All four candidates came out against at least some of the provisions of bill A-500, which barred municipalities from paying other towns to take on their affordable housing obligations.  Greenstein abstained on the bill - a vote she characterized as a "soft no," while DeAngelo voted in favor of it.  That led to one of the only contentious exchanges in an otherwise civil debate. 

"Only three Democrats did not vote yes on that bill, and I was one of them," said Greenstein.  "The meaning of that vote is no.  You might say it's a soft ‘no,' but it's a ‘no.'"

Calabro, a restaurant and Italian food market owner from Hamilton, hammered Greenstein for not voting the way she really felt, and then criticized DeAngelo for voting yes.

"Abstain is undecided to me," he said.  "We're here to make a decision, not to be a soft ‘no' or a soft ‘yes.'"

ASSEMBLY DEMOCRATS PRAISE RELEASE OF LANDMARK HOSPITAL SAFETY REPORT

Commend Governor for Posting 1st Report with Hospital-Specific Error Data

(TRENTON) – Assembly members Paul Moriarty, Linda Greenstein, Herb Conaway, Lou Greenwald and Nilsa Cruz-Perez today praised a new state report that for the first time details hospital-by-hospital medical errors. They urged New Jerseyans to use the report when making health care decisions.

DeANGELO & GREENSTEIN PRAISE HORIZON-CAPITAL HEALTH SETTLEMENT

(14th LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT) – Assemblywoman Linda R. Greenstein and Assemblyman Wayne P. DeAngelo today praised Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s announcement that Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and Capital Health System have ended their insurance dispute.