Rick Merkt

Republicans are hammering away on taxes today and the "Democrat-run" Legislature, while Democrats are trotting out their favorite election year punching bag: President George W. Bush and his veto of the state Children’s Health Insurance Program, which the U.S. House upheld today, by a vote of 273-156.

Republicans used the results of a new Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey Poll that shows 49% of all New Jersey residents would leave the state given the choice, to dispatch Assemblyman Richard Merkt.

Assemblyman Richard Merkt wants state Senate candidate Seems Singh to drop her bid for the 14th district seat after her involvement in what he calls “possible public pension abuse.”

A Trenton Times article today revealed that Singh had hired her former chief of staff, Leora Mosstown, as a $125-an-hour consultant six days after her retirement. State pension officials ordered Mosstown to return the $86,000 she had received after her retirement while she continued to work for Singh as a consultant, earning $520,000 in salary during that same period.

Less than a week after Passaic Mayor Sammy Rivera and Councilman Marcellus Jackson were arrested on bribery charges, City Council President Gary Schaer says the Council will hire an independent special counsel to review city contracts over the last two years. Schaer says he wants to hire a lawyer with “significant experience in matters before the U.S. Attorney.”

Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Morris) during a recent legislative session

Republican Assemblyman Richard Merkt took Gov. Jon Corzine to task today for repealing part of the contract he negotiated with a state labor union.

In Morris County, it's almost a tradition: challenge an incumbent in a primary and your political future is secure. 

Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen ran against two-term incumbent James Courter in the 1982 congressional primary, and ousted incumbent Assemblyman William Bishop in the '83 primary.  Michael Patrick Carroll took on Frelinghuysen in the 1993 GOP Assembly primary, and won an Assembly seat two years later.  Richard Merkt challenged Carroll in 1995 and won in 1997.  Joseph Pennacchio ran against Dean Gallo in a 1994 primary for Congress (he did not know Gallo had cancer), and later won primaries for Freeholder, Assembly and State Senate. 

Ethics complaints filed against seven GOP legislators by Democratic County Chairmen Richard Perr of Burlington and Elia Pelios of Somerset have been dismissed by the Joint Committee on Ethical Standards.  One Republican, Assemblyman Richard Merkt, says he may file a defamation lawsuit against Perr and Pelios for falsely accusing them of unethical conduct.  

A statement issued by Merkt labeled the complaints a "politically-motivated smear by state Democrats to divert attention from the recent federal criminal indictment of Democrat Senator and kingpin Wayne Bryant, as well as numerous ongoing federal criminal probes into Democrat legislators who steered state grants so they could profit personally."

Responding to a post in PoliticsNJ.com's The Inside Edge, Assemblyman Richard Merkt says that Susan Bass Levin should find a place to live in New Jersey, and cancel plans to live in New York City.

Richard Perr and Elia Pelios filed ethics complaints today against seven state legislators.

The two Democratic County Chairmen alleged State Senators Joseph Kyrillos, Bob Singer and Peter Inverso, and Assemblymen Kevin O'Toole, David Wolfe, Christopher Connors and Rick Merkt may have profited by state budget items that supported. Democrats are alleging that a federal probe of how legislators might personally profit off specific state budget items is unfairly targeting just one party by looking only at actions since 2004, when Democrats first had complete control of both houses of the Legislature.

"These complaints are nothing more than a pathetic attempt by the Democrat machine to divert attention away from the fact that a laundry list of Democrats is being investigated by the FBI and US Attorney for using their office to enrich themselves. By their own admission, their complaints lack any merit or substance," said GOP State Chairman Tom Wilson. "Their failure to provide a shred of evidence to support their claims demonstrates that this is nothing more than a couple of political bosses looking to sully the good names of honest legislators to help their campaigns. This shouldn’t surprise anyone, though, since Chairman Perr has a history of filing bogus complaints. The ethics committee will undoubtedly see this as yet another baseless, politically inspired stunt and dismiss it just as they have his past complaints."

Seven Republican legislators will be the targets of ethics complaints to be filed tomorrow by two Democratic party leaders: State Senators Joseph Kyrillos, Bob Singer and Peter Inverso, and Assemblymen Kevin O'Toole, David Wolfe, Christopher Connors and Rick Merkt.

O'Toole, is running for State Senate in a contested GOP primary against former Bergen County Freeholder Todd Caliguire and Wayne attorney Victor Rabbat. Inverso is retiring, but comes from the politically competitive 14th district. Connors, in a safe GOP district, is running for the State Senate seat his father has held since 1981.