Nicholas Asselta

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It’s another day in Trenton, that substitute city for Sodom and Gomorrah in the storybooks Republicans read to their children.

There’s a kindly-looking, self-deprecating man presiding in the upper house. Senate President Richard Codey tells a boy entrusted as the day’s gavel pounder that they’ll get out of the Senate chamber earlier than the boy’s schoolmates, who are still stranded in a classroom somewhere. Later, he’s posing for pictures with what look to be the female, senior citizen contents of a bus that was bound for Atlantic City, since detoured to Trenton to see the former governor.

Poltical junkies should not miss NJN's On the Record this weekend: Democratic strategist Steve Ayscue and GOP consultant Bill Pascoe face off in a discussion on the race for State Senate in the 1st district. Ayscue is backing Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew, while Pascoe is working for the Republican incumbent, Senator Nicholas Asselta. Ayscue and Pascoe have the potential to be incredibly entertaining, and you can be sure they won't agree on much in this hotly contested legislative race.

(OCEAN CITY, September 14) – First District Republican Senator Nick Asselta and his Assembly running mates Norris Clark and Michael Donohue, will host a Tribute to First District Firefighters to thank them for their hard work and dedication to public safety.  This event is held in conjunction with the Annual New Jersey Fire Expo in Wildwood, NJ.  This event will be free and open to the public.

(VINELAND, September 7) – Senator Nick Asselta – responding to Democrat Jeff Van Drew’s latest press release, posted to PoliticsNJ.com last night at 8:51 PM – today reminded Van Drew that, under the generally accepted rules of political discourse (not to mention the courtesies of polite society), in order to launch a negative attack, the foundation of the attack must have at least some element of truth to it, and that repeating a flawed attack doesn’t make it any more effective, it just makes it look like you’re not paying attention.

(VINELAND, September 7) -- Senator Nick Asselta -- responding to Democrat Jeff Van Drew’s demand that his fellow Democratic Assemblymen Al Steele and Mims Hackett resign their offices in the wake of their indictments yesterday by a federal grand jury -- today declared Van Drew’s call for their resignation nothing more than political showmanship, and pointed to Van Drew’s failure to call in March (or April, or May, or June, or July, or August, or earlier this month, for that matter) for the resignation of indicted Democratic Senator Wayne Bryant

(VINELAND, September 6) -- Senator Nick Asselta today declared that Democrat Jeff Van Drew’s “opposition” to the Democrats’ toll road monetization scheme is a sham, and said that Van Drew’s failure to call on his party’s legislative leaders to kill the scheme by pledging to refuse to post enabling legislation is the proof.

Republicans rally in District 1: left to right, Alex DeCroce, Norris Clark, Nicholas Asselta, Michael Donohue and Leonard Lance
Showing a capacity for Jersey road rage at the start of the political season, Republicans stood on the side of the Garden State Parkway in Cape May County today and vowed, once they win the majority, not to post a bill that would enable the leasing of the state’s toll toads.

This press conference, held in district 1 where state Sen. Nicholas Asselta is in a re-election tussle with challenger Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew, featured Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance, Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, Asselta and his running mates, Michael J. Donohue and Norris Clark.

They say they’re against the leasing of state assets, but at the very least the GOP want to know more. "I call on the governor to release the details of his plan," said Lance.

(OCEAN VIEW SERVICE AREA, Garden State Parkway, September 5) -- Senate Republican Leader Leonard Lance, Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce, Senator Nick Asselta and his Assembly running mates Norris Clark and Michael Donohue -- addressing the media at a press conference at the Ocean View service area off the Garden State Parkway -- today declared the clear difference between Republicans and Democrats over the increasingly critical issue posed by the Democrats’ plan to monetize New Jersey’s toll roads: the Republican leaders vowed to kill the scheme by refusing to post the enabling legislation for a vote, should New Jersey’s voters return Republicans to majority control of either the Senate or the Assembly.

Is Shirley Turner really in trouble, or did someone just spin Joe Donohue? In a review of competitive State Senate races for the upcoming mid-term elections, The Star-Ledger listed the 15th district as one of the in-play seats that the GOP needs to win to take control of the Senate.

Republican newcomer Robert Martin is self-financing his race against Turner, and Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance has become infatuated with his candidacy. Martin has done some early mail and cable TV ads, and GOP insiders say he plans to spend a few hundred thousand dollars.

The first district Republicans have seized on a new report from a Wall Street lawyer that says monetization could increase tolls by 150 percent.

The analysis by New York-based attorney Peter Humphreys, reported by the Associated Press this morning, said that issuing bonds to bring about a cash infusion would increase tolls in the long run. Although the details of the plan have not been made public by Gov. Corzine, Humphreys said that the average commuter on the Turnpike could wind up paying $2,400 a year in tolls.