In an effort to protect the US Senate seats, lets face it they are afraid Senator Lautenberg may not make it 5 more years, Jack McKeon our wonderful SHU Assemblyman has introduced a bill which would strip the governor of his power to appoint any qualified person to fill a vacant senate seat.

Instead, Assembylman McKeon would like the Governor to be only able to appoint a member of the same political party to fill vacant seats, thus protecting Frank Lautenberg’s seat in the event of a health problem.

My theory here: they are preparing us for the bait and switch.

The Plan: They have already baited us with our  ‘experienced’ (aka ancient) Senator who earned reelection in 2008, knowing that he will be 91 at the end of the term our wonderful Senator probably planned bow out early so that some young gun Democrat could be appointed to fill the void, thus giving him the power of incumbency and protecting that seat and thus bypassing the electorate.

The Reality:  Governor Corzine LOST.  Now they have to find a way to make sure this plan is still alive.  How do you do that?  Legislation to force the Governor-Elect to choose someone from the same party as the departed Senator.

Clever?  I think this plan, and our illustrius Democratic legislature blows this and the power stays the way it is.

Obama-McCain (left) and Christie-Corzine (right)

In the presidential election, New Jersey turned out 3,828,000 votes which broke 57-42% for Obama. On Tuesday, about 2,300,000 votes were cast–about two thirds of last year’s turnout, an expectable drop. Check here for the 2008 election interactive map, and here for the 2009 election interactive map.

Let’s take a look at the turnouts of Morris and Essex Counties in these two races, which I feel illustrates the difference between these two elections.

Morris is the biggest voting base of Republicans in the state, and Essex (where Seton Hall and Newark are located) is a typical urban, Democrat stronghold.

In the 2008 presidential election, Obama carried Essex handily with 240,000 votes (76% of the county). Meanwhile, McCain had a rather poor cut of the Morris County vote with 132,000 (54% of the county).

Now, let’s look at the Governor’s race. While Corzine obviously did well in Essex (67% of the county), the turnout was terrible compared to the previous year–120,000 Corzine votes, half of what Obama garnered a year before. In the meantime, Christie beat Corzine 2-to-1 in Morris (60% to 31%), bringing in three quarters of McCain’s turnout. Similar results in Monmouth County, where McCain slipped by with 51-48%. As Kim Guadagno’s home turf, she and Christie once again beat Corzine 2-to-1 and matched McCain’s numbers by around 80 percent.

Essentially, this illustrates the differing levels each candidate’s bases were motivated this election. Democrats were forced to work with an unpopular incumbent who had nowhere near the “star power” of Obama, no matter how hard he tried. Meanwhile, Christie was able to win big in conservative areas and pull in large areas of “blue suburbs,” like Middlesex County.

Furthermore, wherever Christie did the strongest (Morris, Sussex, Warren)–so did Daggett, the independent candidate. While I’m sure it wasn’t a 1:1 ratio, for the most part, Daggett pulled votes away from Christie. The Democrats knew this and shamelessly tried to exploit it. Considering this, without Daggett in the race, I believe that Christie would have easily broken 50% of the vote.

Rasmussen: Christie up 46%-43% in final stretch.

Sarah Palin: “I never asked Daggett to drop out of NJ race, but…”

Individual insurance mandate is unconstitutional. Nancy Pelosi: “Seriously?”

“To Obama” – v., to ignore reality with a hope ‘n change mentality.

“Fox is biased.” What about MSNBC? “Um, nevermind.”

Gov. Mitch Daniels, conservatism as successful governance.

Conservatives outnumber moderates and liberals in the US.

Irony alert: “Congress wants another government regulator to cut through red tape…”

Scozzafava’s ex-campaign manager backs Hoffman in NY-23.

“Does Chris Christie support private school vouchers? How about helping my husband get a job and health insurance?”

In my mind, I was thinking, this is exactly the kind of person who needs a victory for Chris Christie in November. The three points that this woman brought up were completely a part of Chris’s mission to fix what’s broken New Jersey: schools, jobs, and healthcare.

The first part is a no-brainer, Chris Christie supports school vouchers. This will empower parents with children in failing schools—empower them with  the choice of which school to send their child. New Jersey has the most expensive schools (in per-pupil spending) in the nation, and yet our urban schools (which, with state funding, spend more per-pupil than the average NJ school) consistently fail to give our children a proper education. It is time for reform.

New Jersey has the worst business and small business climate in the nation. Chris Christie will fix that by cutting income taxes, corporate taxes, and allowing a two-year tax holiday for any business that moves into certain urban zones as part of his Bring Our Cities Back initiative.

In terms of healthcare, New Jersey has the second highest average insurance premium cost in the nation (noticing a pattern here?), double the national average. If only we could purchase insurance across state lines, perhaps more of the uninsured would be able to purchase insurance from another state that has a fraction of the cost of the average NJ plan, which has been burdened with so many mandates.

After explaining these issues to her, she said “Well, if that’s the case, then put me down for Christie.”

People like this are counting on change in New Jersey. For the sake of the unemployed, the uninsured, and those stuck in failing schools, New Jersey needs change.

Oh, speaking of which, bailed-out banks make record profits!

Interactive map showing job growth/loss from 2005-2009. Kinda nifty (and scary)!

Rand Paul is ahead in fundraising for the Kentucky U.S. Senate primary.

Good news: On the issues, independents and Republicans see eye-to-eye in New Jersey.

Lefty talk show hosts use fabricated Rush Limbaugh quote to make him sound racist. Surprised?

Secret Service agents dish on the personalities of the presidents.

Christie vid: just a reminder how much Corzine raised taxes.

Chris Christie leads Corzine by 7 points in Rasmussen poll.

“HOV lanes are racist.”

Was the 1981 recession worse than today?

On the destructiveness of tariffs and taxes…

What WON’T a $20 bill get you? Esquire investigates…

Bill Clinton: “If Obama was white, there’d still be the same number of protesters.”

Change you can believe in–Obama keeps Bush’s “indefinite detention” powers.

$63k to charity for a dinner with Palin.

Speaking of, Sarahcuda hit one out of the park this week with her speech in Hong Kong–even the NYT gives it positive coverage. Snippets of her speech here.

In case you weren’t paying attention: Iran has a secret nuclear facility. Aaaand they’re test-firing missiles.

Getting the word out for Chris Christie!

Hey guys!

A big thank you to everyone who came out tonight for the phone bank. It was a ton of fun, and Amanda Gasperino, former SHU CRs president (and current Statewide Political Director for the Chris Christie for Governor campaign) was here to help us out. Together we made over 2000 calls!

Congrats to Matt Gilson, who made the most calls…I think over 200. He won an autographed Chris Christie poster.

Photos to come, and next week we will be ratifying our new constitution and also electing a Freshman Representative to our E-Board.

Thanks again, and see you all next week!

Check out the Fbook page for more photos.

Seton Hall University College Republicans E-Board w/ Jay Webber

Last night, NJGOP Chairman and Assemblyman for the 26th District, Jay Webber came out and spoke at our inaugural meeting of the 09-10 school year.

Jay Webber spoke out about the gubernatorial race in NJ this year, between Republican Chris Christie and incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine. Jay kept his presentation very topical, talking about how he wants to fix the economy of NJ, where Corzine has created a $9 billion dollar deficit. Additionally, Corzine has raised property taxes 17%, making it more and more expensive to live in NJ. Webber envisions lowering the taxes so that NJ student residents can stay in NJ after graduation and find jobs in their home state.

This is a really exciting race for NJ Republicans, who haven’t won a statewide race since 1997. Jay mentioned that the election is a means to an end, not an end in itself and that the work doesn’t end once the race is won…it’s just the beginning.

Up until November the SHU College Republicans are going to be working out hardest to help Chris Christie win the race. Kelly Smoke, the Essex County Regional Field Director also spoke to us about how she is willing to help us help the NJ GOP. She can provide call sheets and cell phones for us to make calls as well as literature for us to walk around South Orange, knocking on doors to promote Christie. If you’d like to contact Kelly directly, her email is kelly@njgop.org.

In other news, keep checking the blog for constant posts  from the e-board. Also, feel free to comment. This website is an open forum to discuss politics and other topics of importance to us students.

Check back soon for an updated calendar on the website for upcoming events and activities. Additionally, video footage was taken of Jay’s speech so as soon as I get that edited, I’ll post it up here for your viewing pleasure.

I look foward to seeing everyone next week!

Cynthia

P.S. Become a fan of Seton Hall College Republicans on Facebook! You can see more photos from Jay Webber’s appearance as well as other updates!