Governor Murphy’s Re-Election Year Budget Has Me Missing Chris Christie

Governor Phil Murphy

I miss Chris Christie! There, I said it!

It’s true that I’ve had my fair share of disagreements with former Governor Chris Christie. I won’t rehash those disagreements here, but I will say this: Chris Christie was a better governor than Phil Murphy.

It’s Governor Murphy’s re-election year budget that has me missing Christie. Murphy had no problem raising taxes and/or fees in his first three budgets, but now, up for re-election, he has introduced a budget with no tax increases.

No tax increases sounds good…until you look at the numbers.

Looking at the numbers I think Regina Egea of Garden State Initiative explained it best. According to The Center Square:

Garden State Initiative (GSI) President Regina M. Egea echoed that sentiment, saying incorporating “billions in borrowing and federally funded one-time infusions of cash as the basis for a budget bodes poorly for all New Jerseyans in the very near future.”

“As has been reported elsewhere that the state is suddenly flush with cash, New Jersey residents should ask themselves: ‘When was the last time you remember taxes actually going down?’” Egea said in a statement. “Unless there’s more borrowing or further federal bailouts, get ready New Jersey, you just got stuck with the bill. Make no mistake, your taxes just went up.”

Basically, Murphy’s re-election year no tax increase budget is nothing but smoke and mirrors. Spending is going up again!

Phil Murphy has forced me to agree with Chris Christie!

Elections do have consequences!

And, thanks to all those people who sat on their butts and did not vote in 2017 because Kim Guadagno wasn’t conservative enough, we are all going to be screwed with a big tax increase next year because of this re-election year budget.

Remember that time state Senator Michael Testa said, “Governor Murphy’s giving the taxpayers a middle finger.”?

Testa was right, and soon we’re all going to know it!

Primary 2021: Steinhardt Wins Round 1; Singh Tries To Appear Relevant

Michael Lavery

Last evening, via Zoom, Republican state committee members elected Michael Lavery Chairman of NJGOP by a vote of 24 – 18.

The election was viewed as the first battle in the 2021 Republican gubernatorial primary between former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli and now former NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt. The third candidate in the race, former beauty pageant winner Hirsh Singh was a non-factor.

Lavery is an ally of Steinhardt, one of his best friends according to InsiderNJ and was the first announced candidate for Chair. Lavery’s candidacy didn’t sit well with some so former US Senate candidate Bob Hugin jumped in and was endorsed by Ciattarelli.

The battle was perhaps best summed up by Matt Rooney’s SaveJersey blog who wrote, in part, “The contest boiled down to a proxy battle between the party’s two major 2021 primary candidates – Doug Steinhardt and Jack Ciattarelli – who backed opposing chair prospects.”

Make no mistake both the Ciattarelli and Steinhardt camps worked this one hard. I spoke to a committee woman who was listed as a vote for Lavery by New Jersey Globe who told me she was called by “a couple of people” trying to convince her to change her vote.

Bob and I spoke with a few other committee people too. They were all being worked hard.

While the chairman election was a battle between the Ciattarelli and Steinhardt camps, Singh was a non-factor who tried to appear relevant by claiming some sort of a victory on social media.

Obviously, Singh paid no attention to what the party chair election was really about. Contrary to what Singh wants it to be, the party chair election was not a victory for supporters of President Donald Trump. It was an early test of the organizational strength of the gubernatorial campaigns. Unfortunately for Team Ciattarelli some also saw it as an attempted takeover by Christie folks.

So at the end of the first round of the boxing match that is our gubernatorial primary Steinhardt is ahead on points. It’ll be interesting to see how Ciattarelli comes out of his corner for round 2. And, Singh continues to sit ringside begging for a chance to get into the ring and thus far is much less of a factor in this primary than he was in the US Senate primary.

On a personal note, it is fun sitting on the sidelines and watching this one.

Hirsh Singh Can Afford Kool-Aid, Jim Jones Used Fla-Vor-Aid

Hirsh Singh

Former beauty pageant winner Hirsh Singh has officially announced he is a candidate for Governor in 2021. The other announced Republican candidate for Governor is former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli.

There are many differences between the two candidates, but I like to point out the fun ones: Ciattarelli moved out of his parents’ house, Singh continues to live in mommy and daddy’s basement. Ciattarelli went to college, got a job on his own, eventually started his own business, won elections to council, Freeholder and Assembly. Singh went to college, was given a no-show job in daddy’s company, won a beauty contest, lost a gubernatorial primary, dropped out of a US Senate primary, lost a congressional primary and lost a US Senate primary that he’s still crying about.

A major difference between these two announced candidates is that Ciattarelli understands the winner of the primary runs against Governor Phil Murphy. Singh doesn’t seem to have a clue as to who he is trying to win the opportunity to run against.

Singh’s entire strategy appears to be whining and crying about some mythical establishment that rigged an election against him.

Even worse, a bunch of Kool-Aid drinking morons believe every word that comes from Singh’s keyboard.

For some reason I decided to look and see what led to Singh posting about “fake Republicans” on social media this morning and discovered this press release on InsiderNJ.

I’m not going to publish the entire release because it’s over 500 words of stupid. Singh spends most of his time attacking former Governor Chris Christie and Republican National Committeeman Bill Palatucci.

Why attack these guys? Christie and Palatucci aren’t running for anything.

The answer is simple, Singh went after Christie because he knew he would get some traction on social media. I’ll give him credit for being smart enough to know that. But they aren’t running for governor, so it doesn’t help his cause – not even a little bit.

After Singh gets done whining about Christie and Palatucci he switches gears and starts with his tried and true attacks against the mythical establishment. From Singh’s release:

The centerpiece of Singh’s gubernatorial campaign is to fix the electoral system in New Jersey as he himself was the victim of electoral fraud during the 2020 US Senate primary election. Every single type of fraud that Singh experienced has been used against President Trump as well. Singh also has a lawsuit that reached the US Supreme Court in October this year and with arguments nearly identical to those in the lawsuits filed later by President Trump’s teams. In both the case of Singh and President Trump, the NJ GOP and their most experienced operatives have been in cahoots with the Democrats in making the fraud a systemic feature of our election system.

The New Jersey establishment had set up a Democrat named Rik Mehta in the 2020 US Senate primary election to oppose Singh and rigged the primary in Mehta’s favor. They then joined the Democrats in opposing election transparency despite evidence of massive fraud. As a result of Mehta’s Senate candidacy, the Republican Party in New Jersey has nearly been wiped out.

The centerpiece of Singh’s gubernatorial campaign is to fix the electoral system in New Jersey? Is he nuts? Hirsh Singh has never paid a dime in rent or a mortgage or a utility bill and now he wants to fix an electoral system. If you believe he can fix anything you are drinking Hirsh Singh’s Kool-Aid and need to stop before it’s too late.

And, Singh is still whining about the “New Jersey establishment” setting up “a Democrat.” He even goes as far to say they “rigged the primary.” Perhaps Singh forgot that same “New Jersey establishment” awarded him the county line in four counties for the primary.

Get real! Hirsh Singh didn’t believe the establishment rigged anything when he was competing for county lines. If he truly believed that line of garbage he would not have competed for those lines. And, if you believe that garbage you’re still drinking Singh’s Kool-Aid.

I’m fairly certain others will get into the GOP primary for Governor and I am equally certain Singh will play the role of spoiler. The problem is no matter how whacky Singh is, no matter that he is completely unqualified to be Governor of anything, Singh has a following. His followers are as loyal as the followers of Jim Jones. And, those followers are eager to sallow some Kool Aid.

I can do nothing to stop folks from following Singh but I can ask that if he offers you some sort of Jim Jones style grape drink that you not take it. Though I suspect Singh will use Kool Aid rather than the Flavor Aid found at Jonestown.

At least, until Singh loses another primary, he’ll give me something to write about when the news is slow.