Will Steve Sweeney Feel Bad If There's A School Gun Massacre In New Jersey This Month?

Who likes Van Drew more, the DCCC or the NRA?

-by Jersey Jim

On March 26, the New Jersey Assembly passed a package of six gun control bills that Gov. Phil Murphy had promised to sign. Each of the bills had at least 12 sponsors and co-sponsors in the Assembly, and several Democratic state Senators were eager to vote for them, too. But two months later, gun control legislation still hasn’t reached the governor’s desk. Why not?

The bills are stalled in the Senate. They’ve been passed by the appropriate Senate committees, but Senate President Steve Sweeney has refused to put them on the agenda of the full Senate until that body’s next meeting on June 7-- two days after the primary election.

Now is it beginning to make sense? It does if you know anything about the ultra-corrupt South Jersey Democratic machine headed by George Norcross.

With the retirement of Republican Rep. Frank LoBiondo, there’s an open seat in NJ-02. The execrable Jeff Van Drew, the most conservative "Democrat" in the state legislature, is one of four candidates for that seat in the Democratic primary, and he enjoys the Norcross machine’s full support.

Van Drew is also the only one with a long history as an NRA ally-- a history he’s now trying to hide. He’s is so closely identified with the NRA that Parkland massacre survivor David Hogg cited him as an example of a Democrat who’s no better than a Republican.

If Van Drew votes against gun control, he risks offending Democratic primary voters who live in the Congressional district he seeks to represent, but not in LD-1, the legislative district he represents in the state Senate. LD-1 is more conservative than the rest of the Congressional district.

If he votes for any of those measures, he will certainly offend a substantial number of pro-gun voters in LD-1, Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike, without whose votes he might lose in November.

And if he fails to vote on those bills, he’ll offend everybody.

As Senate president, and as the Norcross Machine’s most important single asset in Trenton, Sweeney will do whatever Norcross wants; and DNC member Norcross, who used his clout to install his younger brother in the NJ-01 House seat after Rob Andrews resigned in disgrace in 2014, is all but obsessed with getting control of a second seat in Congress. That’s why Sweeney is delaying the final votes.

For all his flaws, Sweeney himself has a relatively good record on gun control, as do most of the legislators connected with the Norcross machine. In fact, several of them are sponsors or co-sponsors of the pending gun bills. But for Norcross and Sweeney, saving Jeff Van Drew from political embarrassment is apparently more important than saving lives.

Van Drew enjoys the support of the Democratic establishment in Washington, too. He’s not only on the DCCC’s Red-to-Blue list; he’s also been endorsed by both the New Dems and the Blue Dogs-- a corrupt Beltway establishment hat trick!

But will that be enough to get him into Congress?

A Van Drew mailer paid for by Patriot Majority USA, a dark money Democratic establishment group, boasts that Van Drew is "endorsed by every county Democratic party in the state." That wording is misleading. What they mean is not every county party, but every county executive committee. And in South Jersey, the membership of those committees consists almost entirely of insiders connected to the Norcross machine.

Beyond his current Senate district, consisting of Cape May County and a few neighboring communities in Atlantic and Cumberland Counties, Van Drew has little support among rank and file Democrats.

Even in LD-1, he probably couldn’t win a general election without the votes of gun-loving Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. In presidential, gubernatorial and US Senate elections, LD-1 usually goes Republican, while NJ-02 is less consistently Republican. In five of the last seven presidential elections, the Democratic candidates-- Clinton, Gore and Obama-- carried NJ-02. And Democrat Bill Hughes held that seat for 20 years before LoBiondo was first elected in 1994.

Trump won NJ-02 in 2016, but we’re already seeing the same kind of buyer’s remorse there that Trump supporters in Michigan and Wisconsin are feeling after 16 months of a Trump Administration. So Van Drew is no shoe-in in November.

But that doesn’t matter to corporate Democrats who would rather lose with a corrupt candidate of their own choosing than win with a progressive.

A Roll Call story last week reported how Blue Dog PAC co-chair Kurt Schrader approached Van Drew. When Van Drew complained about "having a tough time getting things done" in Trenton, Schrader told him he should run for Congress "because frankly, with Republicans in control, you’re going to find you’re going to have a lot more opportunity than you did back home," adding, "you’ll be the decision-maker, because you’ll be the swing vote."

Schrader must have known how unhappy Van Drew is about being pressured to soften some of his right-wing positions.

In January, Van Drew removed his name from Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 35, which proposes amending the state constitution to permit a law requiring parental notification when a minor seeks an abortion. (In 2000, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that a 1999 parental notification law violated the state constitution.) Van Drew had been listed as a prime sponsor of that resolution in this and the two previous Legislatures, and was the only "Democrat" with his name on it each time.

Van Drew also reluctantly took his name off a bill (S-539) to reinstate the death penalty in New Jersey.

Those capitulations have not gone unnoticed in right-wing circles. The Jersey Conservative web site noted his withdrawal of support for parental notification and the death penalty. And the Daily Caller ran a hit piece by Rick Trader, host of the obscure Conservative Commandos internet radio show (where Sharron Angle is sometimes his co-host!), calling Van Drew "one of the most fake conservative Democrats running for office in 2018."

With the organizational support of the Norcross machine, and with 6.5 times the war chest of his leading primary opponent-- not to mention the outside spending of "centrist" (read, "corporate") Democratic PAC’s-- Van Drew is almost certain to win the primary.

But November won’t be a cinch. He’ll need to hold on to all the Independents and Republicans who have supported him in his state legislative races. He’ll also have to turn out the kind of Democrats who usually don’t vote in the midterms. That will be hard, because conservatives like Van Drew don’t excite the base.

And if he does win in November, it will be no victory for progressives.

We Love The New Jersey Teachers Union-- And Why Corrupt Beltway Democrats Should Try To Understand Them... Pronto!

Trump Soho, Cyrus Vance & Marc Kasowitz

If you're as old as I am, when you hear "Cyrus Vance," you think of an elite Democrat originally from West Virginia who served as JFK's Secretary of the Army, LBJ's Deputy Secretary of Defense and then Jimmy Carter's Secretary of State. He died 15 years ago but today "Cyrus Vance" refers to Cyrus Vance, Jr., his less distinguished son, a corrupt elite sleaze bag District Attorney from Manhattan (Buckley, Groton, Yale, Georgetown), chosen by outgoing D.A. Robert Morgenthau, though the whole NYC liberal/neo-liberal establishment endorsed him, as did The Times, the Daily News and The Post. He won that election (2009) with 91% of the vote. Now that he's been exposed for taking a series of heavy bribes to drop cases against various Trumps, and as a defender of Harvey Weinstein, he probably won't get quite as big a margin. He took $25,000 from one Trump lieutenant, gave it back to make the dropped case look kosher, only to take $50,000 from the same Trumpist, shady attorney Marc Kasowitz, after the heat died down. Now David Sirota is reporting another $10,000 payoff.

The principal of a law firm involved in fending off a criminal investigation into a Trump Organization project gave $10,000 to Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance amid the probe, according to campaign finance records reviewed by International Business Times. The money from Elkan Abramowitz, which had not previously been reported, was in addition to a separate campaign donation to Vance from Trump attorney Mark Kasowitz. After the money flowed to Vance, the Democratic DA overruled his prosecutors and declined to file charges against Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump, Jr. and others involved in the controversial Trump SoHo project.

The disclosures are the fourth in a week showing that Vance received campaign donations from law firms whose clients had potential cases before his office. IBT previously reported that Vance declined to prosecute Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and received $182,000 from partners at the law firm of Weinstein’s long-time attorney. IBT also reported that Vance received more than $42,000 from lawyers at a criminal defense firm whose clients received plea deals from Vance’s office that let them avoid prison, including another high profile sexual assault case.

Polling consistently shows voters absolutely hate the Republican Party. But, understandably, they're not crazy about the Democratic Party either. How could they be? The Democrats have one thing going for the, which they summed up institutionally all on their own with this telling meme:

They are the ultimate lesser of two evils party-- though usually lesser enough for Democratic voters to hold their noses and vote for them against the more existentially dangerous Republicans. Usually. The latest PPP survey shows only 9% of voters approve of the job Congress is doing, only 14% approve of the job Mitch McConnell is doing in the Senate and only 25% approve of the job Ryan is doing in the House. When asked "if there was an election for Congress today, would you vote for the Democratic or Republican candidate from your district," 48% say the Democrat and just 37% say the Republican. Although the GOP is somewhat insulated from that kind of margin by gerrymandered districts in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, an 11 point margin would still sweep them out of power. And that margin has been growing, not shrinking. So how could the Democrats lose? By sucking as bad as they do and being disgusting enough so that people who care about good governance just refuse to get out for the lesser evil.

I'm not predicting that; Trump is just too horrific for the electorate at this point-- and worse is yet to come from that psychopath. But the Democratic Party should put some real effort into aspiring to be more than just the lesser evil. Rachel Cohen pointed to an object lesson from New Jersey, a state that knows the Lord of Bedminster well but where he was defeated last year 2,148,278 (55.45%) to 1,601,933 (41.35%). He won 9 of the state's 21 counties, primarily the ones with small populations, like Salem, Hunterdon, Cape May, Sussex and Warren. But as Cohen pointed out, the big New Jersey teachers union just backed a pro-Trump imbecile because they wanted to take a stand against grotesque and dysfunctional corruption in the Democratic Party. It was the right move too; state Senate president Steve Sweeney is the face of what's wrong with politics in New Jersey-- and one of the faces of what's wrong with the Democratic Party nationally.


The New Jersey Education Association, which is New Jersey’s top political spender, is backing Republican Fran Grenier against Steve Sweeney, the Democratic state Senate president and New Jersey’s second most-powerful elected official. The controversial endorsement has angered liberal allies, but the union remains unapologetic in its message: Democrats cannot take teachers for granted.

It’s a contentious move, but one that is unlikely to change the ultimate outcome of the election. Democrats are expected to control all three branches of government after November, a major turning point for the Garden State. After seven years under Republican Gov. Chris Christie-- a man boasting an impressively low 15 percent approval rating-- a majority of voters are expected to cast their ballot for Phil Murphy, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate running against the GOP’s Kim Guadagno. And with a state legislature that’s also expected to remain blue, progressives have been eagerly anticipating their chance to start reversing the policies of Christie’s tenure.

That explains why the NJEA has decided to spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in what’s shaping up to be the most expensive legislative race in state history to try to unseat Sweeney: The union feels the top Democrat has betrayed it one too many times.

In late September, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear Janus v. AFSCME, a case that could strike a mortal blow to the NJEA and other public sector unions across the country. Through the case, which mirrors a similar suit that reached the high court in 2016 but ended in a 4-4 deadlock following Antonin Scalia’s unexpected death, union opponents hope to outlaw “agency fees”-- mandatory dues all union members must pay for collective bargaining. The NJEA’s controversial endorsement has jeopardized Democratic support at such a precarious moment for unions, especially for someone who appears so at odds with labor’s goals, and has left many liberals squirming. The move has also baffled others in the labor movement-- Sweeney is backed by the AFT (the state’s smaller teachers union), the AFL-CIO, the UCFW, UNITE Here, SEIU, AFSCME, among others.

At the same time, many progressives have also long wanted unions to take a more aggressive stance against Democrats who happily court labor’s campaign contributions, yet fail to push for a strong pro-worker agenda once in office. The NJEA’s leadership, which has defended its endorsement by saying it is “not an arm of the Democratic Party”-- echoes some of the rhetoric of more left-leaning activists who urge unions to actively challenge more corporate, Wall Street-aligned Democrats. Yet it’s one thing to primary an establishment candidate from the left, and another to campaign hard for a Republican during the general.

Sweeney, who first joined the state Senate in 2002, became majority leader in 2007 and Senate president in 2010. His relationship with the NJEA began to sour in 2011 when he pushed forward a deal with Christie that limited pension and health benefits for public sector workers. The union says Sweeney has continued to cozy up with Christie and has failed to forcefully criticize the governor’s underfunding of public education. The relationship deteriorated even further last year when Sweeney walked back on a promise to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to fully fund pensions, and then accused the NJEA of bribery and extortion.

This past March, the NJEA declared it would try to unseat Sweeney, but there were no Democrats willing to primary him. The union could have chosen to give no endorsement and still run negative ads against Sweeney, but the NJEA instead decided to endorse his Republican challenger along with running attack ads.

...Political analysts suspect the NJEA is pursuing this strategy largely to send a message to other Democratic legislators that if you cross unions one too many times, they’ll come after you, too.

“Sweeney is extremely well-connected, has the resources to combat a barrage of negative attacks, but not every legislator can say that,” said Dworkin. “The fact that the NJEA is not likely to knock off the legislative leader doesn’t mean their strategy isn’t working on some level.”

Others wonder if the NJEA’s hardball approach will come back to bite it, especially if Sweeney is elected and holds a grudge. Yet Dworkin notes that the powerful teachers union tried to oust the former Democratic Senate president in 1991, so this sort of politicking has some precedent in the NJEA’s playbook. With 200,000 members across every district in New Jersey, the union has some latitude. Plus, though the NJEA may take some heat if Democrats lose their races elsewhere in New Jersey, if Murphy (who the NJEA endorsed) is elected, then a veto-proof majority is less important.

Donna Chiera, president of the American Federation of Teachers New Jersey, declined to comment on the NJEA’s endorsement, but said she does worry it has diverted too much attention away from the fact that New Jersey has the opportunity to elect a Democratic governor with a Democratic legislature. “My concern is that members are hearing mixed messages, and sometimes when people get mixed messages they don’t vote at all,” she told The Intercept.

Murphy has so far refused to criticize the NJEA for endorsing Grenier. In Politico he was quoted as saying he’s “incredibly honored” to be backed by the teachers union, and yet “at the same time, I’m also on the line with and I’m campaigning with Steve Sweeney.” One Star-Ledger columnist argued that Murphy’s silence will weaken him, as other legislators “will see that he refused to throw a fellow Democrat a life-preserver in his hour of need.”

Alex Law ran for Congress last year as a reformer and progressive against the younger brother of Boss Norcross. The full weight of the Democratic Party's South Jersey Machine was brought down on his head. He's still fighting for New Jersey, though. Today he told us "As someone raised in a Democratic household that actively supports Democratic policies and ran for public office as a Democrat, I would have thought that in any match up of a Democrat versus a Republican that the choice would be obvious. However, Senate President Sweeney and the rest of the political machine he is intimately associated with are not Democrats in my mind. At every turn, they have put their own interest before the people they serve and have consistently worked against the interests of unions, especially the NJEA. Steve Sweeney is a quintessential example of the kind of people that are plaguing our party, so I wouldn't shed a tear if his past misdeeds cost him his office and sent him into the political underworld of lobbyists where he'd be amongst those with similar miniscule levels of integrity."

Ugly face of NJ corruption: Christie, So. Jersey boss George Norcross & Sweeney

And You Think 2016 Has Been Dirty... New Jersey Prepares To Take Center-Stage

George and Chris-- cut from the same cloth

-by Parsippany Pete

One of the screw-ball things about Garden State gubernatorial politics is that the elections occurs in the year immediately following the long, long Presidential campaign. Oh, and it's a microcosm for much of what's wrong with electoral politics: corruption and apathy.

For example, in 2009, many Americans (Democrats in particular) were emotionally moved by the inauguration of America's first black president. So moved that many stayed home the following November to allow for a loutish and nasty right wing authoritarian over-eater, Chris Christie, to win the Drumthwacket residency in deep blue New Jersey, albeit very narrowly (48.5-44.9%)

Similarly, in 2013, after reelecting Barack Obama by a healthy margin (58-41%), many Democrats stayed home (and some due to nefarious deal making) and allowed for Governor Bridge-Ayatollah to be re elected (against progressive champion Barbara Buono) with historic margins (60-38%). How could deep blue NJ do this, you may ask?

Well, mostly, it's all due to corruption. Particularly, corruption on the part of South Jersey Mafia-like boss and Christiecrat George Norcross along with his Essex County and Hudson County junior partners-in-crime, respectively Joseph DiVincenzo and Brian Stack.

Nor cross's ruthless, predatory machine gave rise to the flawed Jon Corzine's governorship because of one thing: Corzine's Wall Street fortune. After years of building heinous credit default swaps for Goldman, Corzine leveraged his cash to buy Norcross's machine-- and first a U.S. Senate seat and then the gubernatorial mansion.

Once Corzine's governance gave him the credibility and like-ability of a used car salesman, it was clear to Norcross that his power play was to get behind the Republican version of Ralph Cramden, corrupt deal-maker Chris Christie. Yes, on paper, machine boss Norcross (and his cronies around the state) claimed he was behind Corzine (and then even behind Barbara Buono) but the truth was, Norcross needed to get his guy into the governorship, and that guy, was pay-to-play tub-o'-lard Christ Christie.

So what does that mean for 2017? Will Norcross find a Republican to get behind? Nope, not this time around!

He will begin-- in fact, already has begun-- to rally behind his legislative creature, state Senate President Steve Sweeney-- best known to Democratic voters as Chris Christie's partner in crime for the last 7 unhappy years.

Sweeney, a former union boss (building trades), is actually a sad fellow to observe. If he were tapped on the right side of the head, he'd look left, and if told to jump, he'd ask how high. Perfect pliant tool for someone as dirty and brutal as George Norcross.

But Sweeney has severe electoral liabilities, particularly in a Democratic primary. For one, even passive Democrats know he's been Chris Christie's willing accomplice, and Christie's statewide approval rating is now at an astonishing 26%! One can only imagine what it is with Democratic primary voters.

Furthermore, there is talk of potential criminal activity in Sweeney-land (not that that's ever stopped a New Jersey politician) so that may cause Norcross to look elsewhere once the rotund and greed-driven Sweeney's already diminished star begins to really start to fade.

Then, there is Phil Murphy, former ambassador to Germany. He is unknown to most voters in New Jersey and recently announced he was launching a gubernatorial campaign with $10,000,000 worth of his Goldman Sachs fortune. Seems all too similar to Corzine, right?

Well, he's certainly recognizing that is the main problem in his way. NJ Democrats remember the Corzine days and don't remember them in a good way. Unless Norcross punts Sweeney down the Delaware River and adopts Murphy-- not impossible given the fact that Norcross could then use his cash down ballot rather than on the gubernatorial race-- it's unlikely that Murphy will do anything other than buy tons of television and the 25% those points that will get him. More so, his votes will come from the less machine entrenched northern part of the state, allowing for Norcross to have an even easier time of sliding someone through.

Then there are candidates like the saddle opportunistic John Wisniewski who is nothing more than a distraction and may not even make it past debate season without being laughed off the stage.

Someone who I still believe could shake things up is Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop. A self made man (and former marine) Fulop worked on Wall Street briefly, and left because he hated it so much. He instead went to go fight in Iraq and then attempted to take out the vile and corrupt Robert Menendez in a failed congressional bid. Steve beat a very entrenched incumbent scum bag mayor in 2013 and has built a very aggressive, very progressive platform as mayor of one of New Jerseys largest cities that he can certainly run on, offering a clear choice to the boss-backed garbage candidates.

Fulop will need to build a strong alliance with the mayors of New Jersey's urban population centers (a process he seems to already have underway) for him to have a prayer. But don't count this guy out.

Mayor Fulop

Chris Christie, the Christiecrats and Pipelines – Again!

Nancy Wittenberg, Governor Christie's plant as executive director of New Jersey's Pinelands Commission, is a former lobbyist for the NJ Builders Association who understands her mission.

by Anonymous Operative

On May 21, South Jersey Gas filed an “amended” application to run a 22-mile pipeline through the New Jersey Pinelands. And we’re using the word “amended” loosely here, because there were no substantive changes in the pipeline itself.

In January, 2014, the Pinelands Commission rejected essentially the same plan when it was submitted in the form of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between itself and the Christie-controlled Board of Public Utilities. Under an MOA the Pinelands Commission can grant a waiver for a project that would be otherwise not be allowed under New Jersey’s 1979 Pinelands Protection Act, but only if the Pinelands Commission finds that it primarily serves the needs of the Pinelands. The proposed pipeline would only serve the interests of Rockland Capital Energy Investments, which owns an outmoded coal-fired power plant that has to be converted to natural gas. (The plant was originally scheduled to close in 2013, but it just received its second two-year reprieve from the Christie-controlled Department of Environmental Protection.)

This time, SJG is applying directly to the Pinelands Commission as a private party, instead of through an MOA. That approach would let senior commission staff approve the application without having the commissioners vote on it. And Nancy Wittenberg, the executive director of the Pinelands Commission, is a former lobbyist for the New Jersey Builders Association. Aside from that, there are no real changes in the application. (For a detailed discussion, see the post "‘New’ Pinelands Pipeline Proposal Based on Brazen Lies” by Bill Wolfe, the New Jersey director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.)

But this different tack hardly seems necessary, now that the Pinelands Commission has been stacked with pro-pipeline members by the Republican Christie and the über-corrupt South Jersey Democratic Party boss George Norcross.

The Norcross-controlled Christiecrats on the Cumberland County Board of Chosen Freeholders did their part by replacing their longtime commissioner, environmental activist Leslie Ficcaglia, with Jane Jannarone, a realtor and former Freeholder.

And instead of renominating Robert Jackson, who voted against the pipeline, Christie nominated Robert Barr, a protégé of arch-conservative Democratic State Sen. Jeff Van Drew. Barr was turned down twice by the Senate Judiciary Committee before finally getting approved thanks to some underhanded maneuvering by Senate President Steve Sweeney, the public face of the Norcross machine in Trenton. And it took more bullying to get the Barr nomination through the full Senate—but bullying is a Sweeney specialty. You can read about the whole process here, here (update), and here.

The most striking things about that floor vote were that (1) more Democrats voted against Barr than for him, (2) Barr had more votes from the GOP than from Democrats, (3) most of the Dems who voted for him were South Jersey Christiecrats, and (4) the only South Jersey senator to vote against Barr was not a Democrat, but Republican Diane Allen. There you have the Norcross machine at work, aiding and abetting Christie.

Those two changes in membership alone could be expected to assure Pinelands Commission approval of the pipeline project. So why is South Jersey Gas altering its application to make an end run around the commission? They’ve never been embarrassed by that kind of corruption before!

The pipeline could still be stopped in court, and environmental groups have vowed to sue. DWT will be following this story.

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Christiecrats Roiling The New Jersey Democratic Base

-by Jersey Jim

When 22 Democrats in the New Jersey Legislature-- eight in the Senate and 14 in the Assembly-- joined their Republican colleagues in voting yes on S-2937, a bill to eliminate collective bargaining for public employees in June, they hurt the party’s chances of maintaining control of the legislature in November (New Jersey holds all its elections for state offices in odd-numbered years). 

Fifteen of the Democratic defectors-- six in the Senate and nine in the Assembly-- are from South Jersey. The others are all connected to the Essex County machine, which is beginning to look like a branch office of George Norcross’s Camden County machine.

While nearly all Democratic office holders and party officials are putting on a brave face in public, many fear that those legislators who voted for the measure are not only in danger of losing their own seats, but could also hurt many down-ticket Democratic candidates at the county and local levels in places where labor support is essential for any Democrat to win. They’re well aware of how Obama’s failure to live up to progressive voters’ expectations caused many of them to stay home last year, allowing the U.S. House of Representatives and some state legislatures to fall to the GOP.

The sellout was coordinated by State Senate President Steve Sweeney, who represents District 3. In his day job, believe it or not, he’s business manager for a local of the Ironworkers Union.

Sweeney, as most politically aware New Jerseyans know, is a creature of South Jersey Democratic boss George Norcross, a wealthy insurance executive. So is District 5 Sen. Donald Norcross (George’s brother), who’s an IBEW official in his day job, as well as president of the Southern New Jersey AFL-CIO Central Labor Council. (For background on Norcross and his machine and the Essex County connection, see the two Steve Kornacki “War Room” pieces from Salon that Ken cited in an earlier post:  Chris Christie's Democratic helpers and The rise of the Chris Christie Democrats.)

And thereby hangs a tale, because the perfidy of those 22 turncoats, led by Sweeney, has hurt more than just the state Democratic Party. It’s also caused a rift within organized labor in New Jersey.

Before the vote, several unions, including the UFCW, the Steelworkers, the UAW, the SEIU and the Painters, along with public sector unions, went on record opposing the bill. They enjoyed the full support of state AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech and Secretary Treasurer Laurel Brennan-- “in spite of threats from the Sweeney building trades,” according to a letter to sent CWA members and signed by the presidents of 20 CWA locals.

Then on July 7, according to a report in PolitickerNJ, the state’s public sector unions wrote to national AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka demanding the removal of Don Norcross as president of the South Jersey AFL-CIO Council. On July 18, Norcross announced that he was moving up the date of his resignation as president of the council from December 31 to Labor Day. But he denied that opposition from the public workers had any effect on him-- and even denied any knowledge of the letter, dismissing it as “bogus.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Courier-Post and the Gloucester County Times all reported that Norcross was stepping down, saying he wanted to devote more time both to his family and to the Fall campaign, but none of them mentioned the public sector unions’ letter to Trumka.

Then on July 22, the South Jersey AFL-CIO Council announced its endorsements for the November elections. Only one of the endorsed candidates-- District 1 Assemblyman Nelson Albano, a shop steward for the UFCW-- voted no on S-2937. It probably would have been a little too obvious if they’d omitted him.

There was already some animosity between the UFCW and the building trades even before that vote, because the building trades have always supported WalMart in its fights with local zoning boards. That ill feeling is even worse, since leaders of the building trades unions are threatening a mutiny if the AFL-CIO opposes those legislators who voted against public employees. But there’s no indication that the rank and file share their leaders’ views.

New Jersey Democrats are in trouble because of internal strife, and labor here has factional squabbles, too. And the divisions in both are largely the work of George Norcross and his minions.

Belatedly, a progressive response is beginning to take shape. Tonight, a yet unnamed group will hold its third meeting in Collingswood (see the poster above). The group is seeking write-in candidates to run against the “Christiecrats,” i.e., the Democrats who voted for S-2937. They’ll probably endorse the 33 Assembly Democrats and the 16 Senate Democrats who voted no on the bill, as well as CWA Local 1038 President Paul Alexander, who filed to run as an Independent for the District 4 Senate seat currently held by Christiecrat Fred Madden.

And on Wednesday, the New Jersey Industrial Union Council will be meeting at the headquarters of CWA Locals 1038 and 1085 in Woodbury Heights. The IUC represents the more progressive factions in labor, and some members of the Collingswood group will be at the IUC meeting, too.

It would be easy to condemn this effort. Third party and independent are often seen as nothing more that spoilers. But the anger toward the turncoat “Christiecrats” in New Jersey is so great that write-in candidates could conceivably win. At the very least, they could hold down the GOP’s percentages by bringing out labor and progressive voters who are so disgusted that they otherwise wouldn’t even go to the polls-- as so many didn’t last November after becoming disillusioned with Obama.

It’s shaping up to be battle between the Third Way “centrists” and Not Ready for Prime Time Blue Dogs on one side, and the true heirs of FDR on the other. A fight between the Norcross Christiecrats and the real Democrats.

Sounds like a reality show, doesn’t it? “Real Democrats of New Jersey!”  

NJ Update: What Chris "Porky Pig" Christie giveth and what he taketh away

After wielding his powerful veto cleaver, Governor Christie announces the conclusion of the NJ state budget process.

by Ken

One thing that you and I may not have known before last Thursday, when NJ Gov. Chris "Porky Pig" Christie took a meat cleaver to the deadline-day budget passed by the nominally Democratic-controlled state legislature, but that the governor certainly knew and State Senate President Steve Sweeney surely should have known, is that the New Jersey governor has line-item veto power over the budget.

Line-item veto has always struck me as an absurdity. It's one thing for the chief executive of a state to have the right to accept or reject laws passed by the legislature. It's quite another to give that chief executive the effective power to rewrite legislation, if only by subtraction. But facts are facts, and the fact is that the New Jersey governor has line-item veto power, and as a colleague who specializes in legislative issues points out, against a governor with that, "negotiation" can become meaningless, since one party has all the leverage.

And it's not as if Governor Porky doesn't know how to veto bills. At the same time that he signed his hand-crafted version of the budget, he "vetoed bills that would tax millionaires more to fund schools and provide tax relief for low-wage earners." (Does that juxtaposition of vetoed bills tell us everything we need to know about the Porkyman's agenda?)

It was widely reported Friday that no sooner had the legislature passed the budget than the governor made a public show of signing, not the legislature's version, but his own shredding of it.

At a news conference to unveil the cuts he made with line-item vetoes, Christie blasted the Democratic budget as "unconstitutional" and based on "fantasy revenue found between the cushions."

"They decided to deceive the citizens of the state with a budget that makes them look like Santa Claus in an election year," Christie said. "How shocking, politicians deceiving and pandering to voters to get re-elected."

Christie had one explanation for his individual reductions: "We can’t afford it."

Of course he was lying. But then, he always lies. This is a man awash in corruption as well as right-wing hackery. He mouths off about changing the course of how New Jersey got in such financial trouble, but of course everything he says about it is a lie. Lying comes naturally to him.

Anyway, while the governor's slashing of the passed budget was widely reported, I'm not aware of much coverage of what exactly he cut under the pretext of unconstitutionality. As if people like Governor Porky, filled to the brim with their own agendas, give a hoot about constitutionality.

In a rather curious context, to which I'll come back in a moment, we got some specifics of how the governor wielded his budget cleaver. It turns out there's money for the people he wants there to be money for (like himself), but not for the people he doesn't.

The governor cut the Senate and Assembly budgets, but not his own, a move that is unprecedented. He cut money from the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services, the outfit that sided with Democrats on this year’s revenue estimates.

He cut a fellowship program run by Alan Rosenthal, the Rutgers University professor who served as referee in this year’s legislative redistricting fight, and sided with Democrats.

When Democrats tried to restore money to a few favorite programs -- including college scholarships for poor students, and legal aid for the needy -- the governor not only rejected the additions, he added new cuts on top of that.

He mowed down a series of Democratic add-ons, including $45 million in tax credits for the working poor, $9 million in health care for the working poor, $8 million for women’s health care, another $8 million in AIDS funding and $9 million in mental-health services.

But the governor added $150 million in school aid for the suburbs, including the wealthiest towns in the state. That is enough to restore all the cuts just listed.

(Just how, I'm wondering, did the Porkyman manage to add something to the budget?)

Now, as to that curious source. Senate President Sweeney himself went blubbering to the press. The head on Newark Star-Ledger columnist Tom Moran's Sunday piece read: "Sweeney unleashes his fury as N.J. budget battle turns personal."

Now Sweeney, you may recall from my piece last Thursday, is the tool installed as Senate president by South Jersey right-wing Democratic boss George Norcross in a coup that ousted widely popular Sen. Dick Codey. Codey had endeared himself to many New Jerseyans during the time he served as acting governor as well as Senate president following the resignation of Gov. Jim McGreevey in November 2004 -- only to be quickly muscled out of any idea of running for governor in his own right when, as Salon's Steve Kornacki put it, "Norcross and the state's other Democratic bosses all lined up with [Jon] Corzine (who plied virtually every county and municipal Democratic organization in the state with money)."

I don't know whether this rises to the level of irony, or just "Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas" politics, but when it came time for Corzine to run for reelection, Christie actively courted Norcross and Newark Democratic boss Steve Adubato Sr., and as Kornacki put it:

It's a widely held view by insiders from both parties in New Jersey that Norcross and Adubato essentially left Governor Jon Corzine to wither on the vine in the '09 campaign, boosting Christie's prospects in the Democratic state. In fact, Christie's first public appearance after his victory that fall was with Adubato in the heart of his political/educational/social services empire in Newark's North Ward. On the public employee benefits and public television votes this past week, just about all of the Democratic defections can be linked to the Norcross and Adubato camps.

Note that the Pigman had gotten what he wanted from Sweeney, Senate approval of his assault on public employee benefits (and also acceptance of his plan to turn New Jersey's public television stations over to New York's WNET), by the time the legislature produced the budget that he proceeded to carve up -- and on those crucial votes, Sweeney actually functioned as the right-wing governor's partner.

Steve Sweeney: star of Puppet Senate President Theater?

Now Sweeney is feeling betrayed, or so he claimed. Here's the Star-Ledger's Tom Moran:

Senate President Stephen Sweeney went to bed furious Thursday night after reviewing the governor’s line-item veto of the state budget.

He woke up Friday morning even angrier.

"This is all about him being a bully and a punk," he said in an interview Friday.

"I wanted to punch him in his head."

Sweeney had just risked his political neck to support the governor’s pension and health reform, and his reward was a slap across the face. The governor’s budget was a brusque rejection of every Democratic move, and Sweeney couldn’t even get an audience with the governor to discuss it.

"You know who he reminds me of?" Sweeney says. "Mr. Potter from ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ the mean old bastard who screws everybody."

There is some understandable disagreement as to whether Sweeney is really that rage-filled, or is enacting a bit of Puppet Senate President Theater to cover the embarrassment of having been caught doing the Pigman's right-wing hatchetwork for him. Oh, no one's suggesting that he has any remorse for betraying workers who would once have expected support from a Democratic pol. No, it's the "getting caught" part that would, in this view, have set him to emoting. Salon's Kornacki hasn't been the only one looking askance at the unholy alliance of Norcross and Adubato, and their puppets Sweeney in the Senate and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, who's actually on the payroll of Adubato protégé Joseph DiVincenzo Jr., the Essex County executive, as an assistant county administrator. I notice that on her Assembly webpage, Speaker Oliver has also come out swinging against the governor's budget whackery.

What really seems to get to Sweeney, though, is that his until-recently BFF didn't treat him right.

The governor’s budget, he says, is full of vindictive cuts designed to punish Democrats, and anyone else who dared to defy him. And he is furious that the governor refused to talk to him during the final week.

"After all the heavy lifting that’s been done — the property tax cap, the interest arbitration reform, the pension and health care reform — and the guy wouldn’t even talk to me?" Sweeney asks.

The details are even uglier. The governor, Sweeney said, personally told him they would talk. His staff called Sweeney and asked him to remain close all day Wednesday. At one point, the staff told him the governor planned to call in five minutes.

No call.

No negotiations.

"I sat in my office all day like a nitwit, figuring we were going to talk," Sweeney says.

Um, like a nitwit, Steve?

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As the NJ Democratic Party shows, people who say Dems have no principles are wrong. The principle is: What's in it for me?

UPDATE BELOW: Sign on to Adam Green's pledge to find and support a progressive challenger for Steve Sweeney

NJ State Sen. Dick Codey: He was the state's most popular pol when he served concurrently as acting governor and Senate president. How did he get, first, muscled out of running for governor, then pried out of the Senate presidency? It's a nasty story, with nasty consequences.

by Ken

So in the final days of New Jersey's fiscal year Democratic legislators rediscovered a modicum of backbone, or perhaps of shame, and refused to give the state's Republithug governor everything he was demanding, to solidify the hold of the state's overprivileged elites. They passed a somewhat less inhumne budget, and the governor shortly thereafter announced that he was using his statutory line-item veto power to strike out the things he doesn't like, having already gotten the things he wanted most.

Which brings us back to the story of how important elements of the state Democratic party rolled over and played dead for him (and maybe raises the question of whether increasing public attention to the seamy machinations of the state's Dem power brokers played a role). Last night, while writing about the governor, Chris "The Stench of Corruption" Christie, I waded into the morass of some pretty stinky NJ Democratic power-brokering that goes a long way to explain some otherwise hardly scrutable developments in the politically always-swampy Garden State. I noted in particular two questions that have occupied Salon's Steve Kornakci in a pair of recent pieces, "Chris Christie's Democratic helpers" (June 24) and "The rise of the Chris Christie Democrats" (June 29). The wording that follows is mine, not his, but I don't think Steve will feel misrepresented:

Question 1: *Did Democratic State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (who engineered the breakaway of enough Senate Democrats to pass the savage-the-unions portion of the governor's budget plan) simply fold up like a cheap suitcase?

Question 2: What happened to Gov. Jon Corzine in his unsuccessful reelection bid?

Working backwards, I know we thought we knew the answer to the second question: that Corzine was understandably unpopular, between his own character, er, traits, his own blundering, the churn of the economic meltdown, and the presence of a vote-siphoning third candidate. It turns out, though, that there's a crucial element left unmentioned here: that the election of the right-wing Republican Christie suited quite well the growing power of two state "Democratic" (even though "Democratic" no longer means much, to the extent that it means anything we kind of need to be using quotation marks when it comes to these fellows) political, er, operatives -- okay, bosses, South Jersey's George Norcross III and Newark's Steve Adubato Sr. (Kornacki writes: "It's a widely held view by insiders from both parties in New Jersey "that Norcross and Adubato essentially left Governor Jon Corzine to wither on the vine in the '09 campaign, boosting Christie's prospects in the Democratic state.")

And so the answer to Question 2 turns out to have a heavy bearing on the answer to Question 1, which seems to be that -- with Corzine's reelection defeat and the ouster of widely popular Democratic Senate President Richard Codey (more about this in a moment) -- the new Senate president, Stephen Sweeney, became the state's highest-ranking Democratic official. (I would agree that NJ's two Democratic U.S. senators are higher-ranking officeholders, but they're not state officials, and really don't seem to have much input into state government or politics, which may be one of the reasons Corzine gave up his Senate seat to run for governor in the first place.) And Sweeney is Norcross and Adubato's man in Trenton.

Which brings us to Question 3, one that Steven Kornacki asks explicitly:

Question 3: How did the Norcross and Adubato camps gain so much power within the Democratic Party?

And while some of the particulars are NJ-specific -- there really isn't any escaping the Tip O'Neill dictum that "all politics are local" -- a lot of it seems to me of a piece with the increasing replacement of whatever principles the Democratic Party might once have stood for with the single overarching one: "Hey, rich white dudes, we can be your bitches just as good as the Republicans, or almost." As I wrote last night:

Who is George Norcross III? No, he's not an elected official, and you man not have heard of him, but you've heard about some of the South Jersey Democratic boss's accomplishments, like helping get Republican Chris Christie elected governor and swinging a bloc of State Senate "Democrats" behind him.

Kornacki takes us back to that gubernatorial election cycle.

Christie, whose gubernatorial ambitions were well known years in advance his 2009 campaign, began cultivating friendly, symbiotic relationships with two key Democratic bosses well before he even became governor: South Jersey's George Norcross and Steve Adubato Sr. from Newark. . . .

In fact, Christie's first public appearance after his victory that fall was with Adubato [above] in the heart of his political/educational/social services empire in Newark's North Ward. On the public employee benefits and public television votes this past week, just about all of the Democratic defections can be linked to the Norcross and Adubato camps.

Here's one way of measuring the clout of the Norcross and Adubato factions:

[T]he president of the state Senate, Stephen Sweeney, is a Norcross loyalist, while the Speaker of the Assembly, Sheila Oliver, also holds an $83,000-a-year job working for Adubato's protege, Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo. But if either the Senate or the Assembly were run by non-Norcross/Adubato loyalists, the past week might have played out very differently -- and Christie's benefits overhaul might have been dead on arrival.

And it all goes back, says Kornacki, to "an only-in-Jersey backroom deal that was struck at the height of the 2009 campaign -- one that dethroned Richard J. Codey, the long-serving Democratic Senate president, in favor of Sweeney and set up Oliver to claim the Speaker's gavel." From here I think we should just let Kornacki tell the story his own way, from the June 29 piece.

When news of the deal broke that fall, it marked yet another embarrassment for the beleaguered Corzine, who was locked in a tight race with Christie and facing intense voter skepticism about his leadership skills. Corzine was pleading with voters that he was focused on rescuing the economy -- but here was his party in Trenton, preoccupied with who would have what title in the next legislative session.

The deal itself was years in the making, the culmination of the rise of Norcross [right] and his South Jersey operation. A wealthy insurance executive who counts Donald Trump among his friends, Norcross has mixed business and politics to slowly build a massive, lavishly-funded Democratic machine in South Jersey.

Over the last two decades, Norcross has built a stable of thoroughly loyal state senators and assemblymen, often using truly shocking sums of cash to win over Republican-held seats -- more than $4 million in one state Senate race in 2003. As Norcross assembled a turnout machine and amassed clout in Trenton, he became a kingmaker in state Democratic politics. For instance, when Senator Robert Torricelli, his poll numbers ruined by an ethics scandal, abruptly withdrew from his reelection bid five weeks before the 2002 election, Norcross was one of a select few Democratic leaders who huddled with then-Governor James McGreevey to choose a replacement candidate.

Ideologically, Norcross is all "New Democrat," uneasy with the party's close identification with minorities and public employee unions and committed to making it marketable to suburbanites. His critics on the left believe he is philosophically aligned with the Republican Party but that he saw an opening to amass more influence by seizing and building what had been a feeble South Jersey Democratic operation.

His goal had long been to move loyalists into the three plum spots in Trenton -- Speaker, Senate president, and governor. After the 2001 elections, he took his first step, working with Governor-Elect McGreevey to oust a North Jersey Democrat named Joe Doria as the party's Assembly leader. Norcross still didn't have the numbers to install his own choice as Speaker, but a compromise was struck: A backbencher from North Jersey named Albio Sires would take over as Speaker for a term or two, at which point it would be safe for Norcross' candidate -- Joe Roberts -- to take over. Sires played along, serving two terms, then stepping aside. He was rewarded with a congressional seat, which he still holds today. Roberts became the Speaker in January 2006.

Norcross' next goal, the Senate presidency, was tougher to come by, mainly because Codey, who first came to Trenton in the early '70s, was so entrenched and skilled at self-protection. To say that Norcross despises Codey would be putting it mildly. Throughout the 2000s, he made it clear that one of his chief missions in politics was to get rid of Codey. Norcross tried in 2003, but Codey outwitted him. Then came McGreevey's shocking resignation in August 2004, after which Codey was elevated to acting governor for 15 months -- a period of time in which New Jersey residents seemed to fall in love with the self-deprecating, youth basketball-coaching, accidental governor. Codey wanted to extend his interim term and to run for a full term in 2005, but he was forced to back down months into his stint when Norcross and the state's other Democratic bosses all lined up with Corzine (who plied virtually every county and municipal Democratic organization in the state with money). So Codey deferred to Corzine, racked up a year of enviable press, and left office as one of the state's most popular politicians.

He still had the Senate presidency, though (New Jersey didn't yet have a lieutenant governor), and with his sudden fame and popularity, he was impossible to dislodge. So Norcross bided his time and waited for the right moment -- which finally came in 2009.

By that point, Codey's celebrity had faded a bit, and so had his grip on his colleagues. And then there was the Adubato/DiVincenzo factor: Norcross had waded into Essex County (which encompasses Newark and the surrounding area) to support DiVincenzo in the Democratic primary for county executive. Codey and most of the Essex Democratic establishment backed DiVincenzo's rival. When DiVincenzo won, Norcross suddenly had a powerful and grateful ally in a key county -- an ally who came through for him seven years later, when Norcross made his run at Codey. 12 Senate votes were needed to oust Codey, and two of them ended up coming from Essex: Teresa Ruiz, who also works as DiVincenzo's deputy chief of staff; and Nia Gill, who does legal work for Essex County.

That two Essex senators would turn on Codey was shocking, given that Codey is from Essex. But as part of the deal, the job of Assembly Speaker would be vacated by Roberts and given to a Democrat from Essex County -- Oliver, who also works for DiVincenzo. So it was a good deal for DiVincenzo and Adubato. Sure, their county lost the Senate presidency, but they'd never liked or gotten along with Codey, and now their lieutenant would be running the Assembly. And it was a great deal for Norcross, who was able to claim a big prize for one of his proteges, Sweeney, while still having wide influence with the Assembly Speaker. With this deal, George Norcross -- an unelected backroom player -- became the most powerful Democrat in Trenton.

And now we are seeing the results. If Dick Codey were still running the Senate, the benefits overhaul would surely never have reached the floor, and the outcome of the public television bill -- only one more vote would have killed the giveaway -- would have almost certainly been different. But instead, Codey is now a backbencher, so all he could do was vote against Christie's agenda -- and watch as some of his fellow Democrats provided the crucial votes to make it law.

Isn't that a pretty story? And see what wonderful things it's done for New Jersey?


UPDATE: JOIN THE ADAM GREEN'S PLEDGE TO FIND AND
SUPPORT A PROGRESSIVE CHALLENGER FOR STEVE SWEENEY

I don't read much, so I'm just catching up with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee's Adam Green's Tuesday DailyKos post, "Defeat the top Democrat who helped Chris Christie attack workers." (Don't try clicking on the button in the graphic which says, "CLICK HERE." The link in the post should work, however, or you can follow the DailyKos link, or go directly to the PCCC's website.)

I'm from New Jersey and I'm outraged. I don't think I'm alone.
I'm outraged that top NJ Democrats like Senate President Stephen Sweeney worked hand-in-hand with Chris Christie to pass an anti-worker bill that some say is worse than Wisconsin's -- which Christie signed into law about two hours ago.

Democrats...were the deciding votes to block NJ workers from negotiating for better health care.

Today, I'm pledging to do everything I can to help a bold progressive candidate defeat Stephen Sweeney when he seeks the Democratic nomination for governor. Will you join me? Click here.

Please pass this diary to every progressive you know. As more and more of us take the pledge, not only will Stephen Sweeney feel the heat but every Democratic politician in NJ will be on notice.

Over 1,000 2,000 people have taken the pledge on the PCCC's website so far -- that's a lot of volunteers!

I was the NJ Democratic Party's communications director several years ago. But today, I am disgusted and outraged at what some party "leaders" are doing. . . .

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Is Chris "Mr. Corruption" Christie joining the ranks of the other tanking "Miracle Fascist" GOP governors?

Who is George Norcross III? No, he's not an elected official, and you man not have heard of him, but you've heard about some of the South Jersey Democratic boss's accomplishments, like helping get Republican Chris Christie elected governor and swinging a bloc of State Senate "Democrats" behind him.

by Ken

The phrase "buyer's remorse" has been cropping up a lot in Howie's coverage of the new crop of GOP "Miracle Fascist" governors (in Wisconsin, Florida, and Ohio among others). It looks like the poster boy for the club, New Jersey's Chris Christie, is joining the club. Bloomberg's Elise Young reports today on a recently conducted Bloomberg New Jersey poll:

Christie Loses Support for Second Term
By Elise Young - Jun 29, 2011 12:53 PM ET

More than half of New Jersey residents say they wouldn’t back Governor Chris Christie for a second term, disapproving of his choices on a range of policy and personal issues, from killing a commuter tunnel to using a state-police helicopter to attend his son’s baseball game.

Teachers, whose union Christie has targeted on tenure, pay and benefits, received a far higher favorable rating, 76 percent, than the first-term Republican. His favorable rating was 43 percent, according to a Bloomberg New Jersey poll conducted June 20-23. . . .

Fifty-eight percent of New Jersey residents disagreed with Christie’s decision not to extend a surcharge on the state’s highest-earning taxpayers, a measure that was revived for a vote this week by the Democratic-led Legislature. A majority, 51 percent, opposed his October cancellation of an $8.7 billion rail tunnel to New York, and 70 percent disagreed with his traveling via helicopter to his teenage son’s baseball game. . . .

The poll reports more than two-to-one (65 to31 percent) opposition to the Lardman's education cuts. In addition,

The survey showed 68 percent believe Christie stands with the business community compared with 22 percent who said he sides with “ordinary New Jerseyans.”

In the suburbs, where Christie proved more popular than Corzine in 2009, parents now disapprove of the Republican, 57 percent to 38 percent.
Mothers in those towns reported voting for Corzine over Christie, 34 percent to 32 percent. Now, 61 percent said they wouldn’t vote for the Republican. Fathers in those towns chose Christie over Corzine, 43 percent to 26 percent. Now, 51 percent said they wouldn’t vote for Christie.

Oh, there are still a lot of New Jerseyans buying the Superchris's pose as a champion of fiscal austerity (not helped, though, the poll shows, by the embarrassing revelations his would-be plutocrat's use of state helicopters for private purposes), but more and more Garden Staters are getting the message that what he's really about is making middle- and working-class families pay the bulk of the price for his bankster masters' greed and financial incompetence.


MEANWHILE, LIGHT IS SHED ON QUESTIONS
ABOUT THE STATE'S POLITICAL SKULDUGGERY

Did Democratic State Senate President Stephen Sweeney simply fold up like a cheap suitcase?

It was Sweeney who engineered the Senate Democratic split that brought the Lardman just enough votes to get his union-busting budget plan passed. Was he simply all atremble before the juggernaut that is National Hero Chris Christie?

Well, maybe not. In fact, Salon's Steve Kornacki says that's not at all what happened. In an earlier piece I'm just catching up with, "Chris Christie's Democratic helpers," tackling the question "Why would a Democratic legislature in a very blue state join the war on public unions?," he set out what in his latest piece, "The rise of the Chris Christie Democrats," he calls "the basics of what's going on here." And what's going on, he says, is some serious muscle-flexing by two increasingly powerful NJ Democratic political bosses, South Jersey's George Norcross and Newark's Steve Adubato Sr., which includes collaboration with Superchris going back to the gubernatorial race that Christie and Karl Rove illegally plotted while the Lardman was the stinking-corrupt U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.

Which incidentally casts a whole other light on what seemed a closed question:

What happened to Gov. Jon Corzine in his unsuccessful reelection bid?

"It's a widely held view by insiders from both parties in New Jersey," says Kornacki, "that Norcross and Adubato essentially left Governor Jon Corzine to wither on the vine in the '09 campaign, boosting Christie's prospects in the Democratic state."

In the new Salon piece Kornacki has a question of his own:

How did the Norcross and Adubato camps gain so much power within the Democratic Party?

Now this may sound like a parochial NJ issue of little concern for people outside the state. However, I think it's not only fascinating in its own right, but an important example of what we can expect from Democrats across the country. So I want to look in more detail tomorrow at what Kornacki describes as "an only-in-Jersey backroom deal that was struck at the height of the 2009 campaign."

I'm not so sure it's an "only-in-Jersey" kind of deal. I'm thinking, in fact, that it represents a kind of thinking common among nominal Democrats all over the country.

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