Thomas Giblin

Assemblyman Thomas Giblin (D-Montclair) says he will donate a dime to charity for every campaign lawn sign brought to his Clifton office. 

"Some of these signs sit around for months following an election," said Giblin, a former Democratic State Chairman. "We can clean-up our streets and help the less fortunate at the same time." 

Giblin says the money will go to Eva's Village, a Paterson-based social services agency.

"Not only do these things become an eyesore, but the metal hangers they're on start rusting and the laminated cardboard winds up in the streets and jamming up the sewers," Giblin said. "It poses a real hazard to the environment."

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ASSEMBLYMAN GIBLIN TO DONATE MONEY FOR SIGNS

Ten cents for every political sign goes to Eva’s Village

(CLIFTON) - Assemblyman Thomas Giblin on Friday announced that he will donate 10 cents to the nonprofit Eva’s Village for every lawn sign from the recent election that people bring to his Clifton office.

“Some of these signs sit around for months following an election,” said Giblin (D-Essex/Passaic). “We can clean-up our streets and help the less fortunate at the same time.”

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The Record and the Herald News have endorsed incumbent Democratic legislators in Districts 34 and 35, but said that they were "skeptical, given the heavy influence of New Jersey's political machinery" that Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) is an "independent thinker."

Oliver is expected to become the next Assembly Speaker when the Legislature reorganizes in January.  The two newspapers also endorsed Assemblyman Thomas Giblin (D-Montclair) for re-election.

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PASSAIC – Former Democratic Party state chairman Assemblyman Thomas Giblin (D-Montclair) prefers another former state chair for the position of lieutenant governor on a ticket with Gov. Jon Corzine.

He said if the governor asked him, he would recommend Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing).

“I think Bonnie is good because she knows the issues and has a leadership role in the legislature, she already has statewide reach as former chair of the party and as an African American woman she would help the governor with the party’s urban base,” said Giblin.

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ASSEMBLY CELEBRATES SAINT PATRICK'S DAY

Annual Celebration Commemorates Contributions, Heritage of Irish-Americans

(TRENTON) - Assembly Democrats today issued a multimedia package commemorating the chamber's annual celebration of Saint Patrick's Day - a celebration of New Jersey's strong Irish-American heritage and its contributions to the betterment and advancement of the state.

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Regardless of the outcome of the game of political musical chairs in the 28th legislative district, where two incumbents and a former Assemblyman are posturing for two spots on the Democratic line, look for the mostly white, blue collar towns of Belleville and Bloomfield to be split away from Newark and Irvington when a new map is drawn after next year's census.

The 28th was supposed to be one of the voting rights districts that protected minority representation in the Legislature when it was drawn in 2001.  The incumbents at the time were three African Americans: State Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark) and Assemblymen Donald Tucker (D-Newark) and Craig Stanley (D-Irvington). 

If Caputo holds his seat this year, it makes a defense of the current district under the Voting Rights Act more difficult.

Belleville, which was in the old 36th district, and Bloomfield, part of the old 34th district, were mostly represented by Republican legislators before the towns were moved in to the new 28th.  Rice beat GOP Assemblywoman Marion Crecco (R-Bloomfield) by a 69%-30% margin in 2001.

But Belleville and Bloomfield, which was estimated to have a combined population of 79,816 last year, have proven to be a greater force in Essex County politics than the redistricting commission imagined.  In 2007, Essex Democrats backed Ralph Caputo, a white Freeholder who served as a Republican Assemblyman from 1968 to 1972, to run for the Assembly.  Caputo and Cleopatra Tucker, whose late husband held the seat until his death in 2005, unseated two incumbents, Stanley and Oadline Truitt (D-Newark). 

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If Hunterdon County Freeholder Matthew Holt wins his bid for State Assembly, he'll follow a 23rd district tradition of sending the scion of prominent Republican families to the Legislature.  He is the grandson of Clifford Case, who represented New Jersey in the United States Senate from 1955 to 1979, and Union County in the State Assembly from 1943 to 1944.

Leonard Lance, who represented the 23rd district from 1991 until taking his seat in Congress earlier this month, is the son of Wesley Lance, a former Senate President who served from 1942 to 1943, and again from 1954 to 1962.  Walter "Moose" Foran, who served in the Assembly from 1970 to 1977, and in the Senate from 1977 until his death in 1986, was the son of former Senate President Arthur Foran, who served from 1936 to 1941.

Seven legislators had fathers who served in Trenton: State Senators Christopher Bateman and Christopher Connors, Assemblyman Thomas Giblin and Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose had fathers who were in the State Senate; and State Sen. Thomas Kean, Jr., Assemblyman Peter Barnes and Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle had fathers who served in the State Assembly. Read More >

New Jersey state government, closed today to honor the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., has failed to honor the lives of two African American trailblazers despite legislation that was approved almost two years ago.

P.L.2007, c.64., signed into law by Governor Jon Corzine on April 4, 2007, directed the Secretary of State to commission plaques commemorating Hutchins Inge, M.D. and Walter Gilbert Alexander, who were the first African Americans to win election to the New Jersey Senate and General Assembly, respectively.  The legislation, which had primary sponsorship from both parties and in both houses, included an appropriation to play for the plaques.

Alexander, a Republican who was elected to the State Assembly in 1920. The son of former slaves, Alexander was born in Virginia in 1880; he went to college at age sixteen and then to medical school. Alexander moved to Orange to build a medical practice and became involved in local politics. He ran unsuccessfully for the State Assembly in 1912 on the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party ticket with Theodore Roosevelt, and won in 1920. He went on to serve two terms in the Legislature and then spent many years on the state Health Commission. He died in 1953.

Inge, a 64-year-old Newark physician, became the first African American to serve in the New Jersey State Senate. Inge was elected in 1965, after the U.S. Supreme Court's one-man, one-vote decision increased the size of the Essex County Senate delegation from one seat to four.

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An event in Essex County today honoring former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie has several top Democrats seething as the soon-to-be Republican gubernatorial candidate makes his first public appearance since leaving office at 12:01 this morning at a tribute planned by Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo and Sheriff Armando Fontoura, both Democrats.  The potential love fest could be viewed as a shot at Jon Corzine, the Democratic Governor who could face Christie in the 2009 election.

One Democratic Essex County mayor, who asked that his name be withheld, suggested that the event is payback for a huge favor Christie did for DiVincenzo during the final days of DiVincenzo’s rancorous 2002 Democratic County Executive primary against Thomas Giblin, which was occurring two months after a raid on the offices of the Republican incumbent, James Treffinger.  There had been rumors that DiVincenzo, then the Freeholder Board President, was the target of a federal probe.  Christie ended the speculation with a two-sentence letter confirming that DiVincenzo was “not a subject or target of the grand jury investigation."  

"Now it is indisputable that I am not the focus of any federal inquiry," DiVincenzo said in a written statement released by his campaign.  "The U.S. Attorney's letter should serve as notice to Tom Giblin to end his reckless and libelous campaign."

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GIBLIN: NEW JERSEY’S WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL A FITTING TRIBUTE TO GENERATION THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD

(TRENTON) – Assemblyman Thomas Giblin (D-Essex) released the following statement today on New Jersey’s World War II Memorial:

“The world we know today would never have existed if it wasn’t for the brave men and women who made World War II a victory for freedom over the forces of evil and tyranny..."

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