Thomas Kean

KEAN: GOVERNOR SHOULD RED-LINE BUDGET PORK
Use The Line Item Veto Stop Wasteful Late Night Spending Binge

Senator Thomas Kean, (R-21), issued the following statement regarding a letter sent to Governor Jon Corzine asking him to use his constitutionally authorized line item veto to remove wasteful political pork from the State budget. The letter is attached.

A high ranking Democratic leader says there has been discussions among Governor Jon Corzine's staff about removing Joseph Roberts as the Assembly Speaker, although the front office strongly denies that they are focused on anythig but the budget. James E. McGreevey, as the Governor-elect in 2001, engineered a deal to elect Albio Sires as Speaker instead of then-Minority Leader Joseph Doria.

Any group of ten Democrats could effectively organize the Assembly, if they can develop an alliance with the 31 Republicans. Similarly, a group of four Democratic State Senators could remove Richard Codey as Senate President with the help of the eighteen GOP Senators. In 1971, after Democrats won control of the State Assembly, Republican Thomas Kean cut a deal with four Democrats from Hudson County to become the Speaker.

Codey and Roberts, of course, are perpetual targets of leadership change rumors.

Personal contributions to federal campaigns this cycle by former Governors of New Jersey, according to the Federal Election Commission:

* Richard Codey: $0

* James E. McGreevey: $0

* Donald DiFrancesco: $1,000 to Tom Kean for U.S. Senate; $500 to the It's My Party Too PAC

* Christine Todd Whitman: $2,100 to Tom Kean for U.S. Senate; $1,000 to Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen; $1,000 to U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe; $500 to Congressman Michael Ferguson; $1,000 to The Wish List; and $500 to Republicans for Choice.

* Jim Florio: $0

* Tom Kean, Sr: $4,200 to Tom Kean for U.S. Senate; $14,500 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee; and $250 to the It's My Party Too PAC

* Brendan Byrne: $1,000 to Linda Stender for Congress.

Personal contributions to federal campaigns this cycle by former United States Senators from New Jersey, according to the Federal Election Commission:

* Bill Bradley: $1,000 to his former press secretary, Dan Maffei, who is running for Congress in New York.

* Robert Torricelli: $500 to Albio Sires for Congress.

* Nicholas Brady: $4,200 to Tom Kean for U.S. Senate; and $1,000 to New York Senate candidate K.T. MacFarland.

Here's what the Washington Post wrote about the 2006 U.S. Senate race in New Jersey:

"Despite Democrats' insistence that state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. (R) doesn't even belong in the same political league as incumbent Bob Menendez (D), polls continue to show the two men running even. Neither is well-known by voters in the Garden State, and given the difficulty and cost of communicating in a state with no TV market of its own, that trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Political Analyst Stu Rothenberg has long argued that New Jersey is actually Republicans' best pick-up chance this cycle because recent political scandals, especially among Democratic officials, are likely to create "special circumstances" that would allow New Jersey to run counter to the national, anti-GOP mood. As a long-standing player in northern New Jersey's Democratic machine, Menendez could suffer just by association. Kean is positioning himself as a fresh-faced reformer, which could be a potent message for the state's voters. His fundraising needs to pick up, however, if he hopes to be competitive with Menendez on the airwaves this fall."

Tom Kean, Jr. continues the family tradition of losing a big primary and then winning one. His great-grandfather, Hamilton Kean, lost the 1924 GOP primary for U.S. Senate (to the incumbent, Walter Edge) and then won a Senate seat in 1928. His father, Thomas Kean, Sr., lost primaries for Congress (to Millicent Fenwick in 1974 by just 83 votes) and Governor (to Raymond Bateman in 1977) before winning the 1981 gubernatorial election. Kean, Jr. lost his first bid for public office six years ago -- a congressional primary against Michael Ferguson. Menendez also lost his first campaign -- a local race for Union City Commissioner in 1982.

The literary buzz in New Jersey has been mostly about former Governor James E. McGreevey's upcoming book and not as much about a newly-published biography of former Governor Thomas H. Kean. Governor Tom Kean: From the New Jersey Statehouse to the 9/11 Commission was written by historian Alvin Felzenberg, who served as Assistant Secretary of State when Kean was Governor, and was published by the Rutgers University Press.

Ginty Pushes Free Markets and
Increased Domestic Oil Production as Routes
to Energy Independence and Lower Prices

GOP Candidate Breaks with Kean
in Support for ANWR Drilling and More Nuclear
Power Plant Construction

New Jersey Right to Life PAC
Endorses John Ginty in Republican U.S. Senate Primary

Candidate Defends Pro-Life Values
With No Compromise at Annual Convention Banquet

In the five months since the race for United States Senate began, the two major candidates seem to have lost name ID: in a December 15, 2005 Quinnipiac poll, Bob Menendez (who had been named to the Senate but had not yet taken office) was at 22% Favorable/10% Unfavorable, and Tom Kean, Jr. was at 20% Favorable/8% Unfavorable. The Quinnipiac survey released today has Menendez at 20% Favorable/12% Unfavorable and Kean at 16% Favorable/7% Unfavorable. That's what makes this so difficult.

From Roll Call's Stuart Rothenberg: "All things being equal, the GOP's s best chance for a Senate win is in New Jersey, where state Sen. Tom Kean Jr., the son of a former governor, is running on a message of reform against appointed Sen. Bob Menendez."