In this off-election year New Jersey & Virginia have the distinction of being the only two states to hold state wide elections – governors' races & the entire legislatures. Due to the death earlier this month of incumbent Senator Frank Lautenberg NJ will also hold primaries & a special election to elect a senator to complete Lautenberg's term through 2014.
We have not gotten off to a good start in NJ. Governor Christie selected NJ AG Jeff Chiesa to fill the senate vacancy until the October special election. On his first day in Washington Chiesa (a self described conservative Republican) voted to reauthorize agricultural programs (subsidies) through 2018 so there was no difference in the vote this Republican cast & the vote Lautenberg would have cast. The bill was 1,150 pages long which makes you wonder if he, or anyone else, read it before voting.
On a more personal note, a few days before the farm bill vote, my friend Leigh-Ann Bellew lost her primary bid for state senate losing to Joe Kyrillos 79% to 21%. Leigh-Ann is as fine a candidate as you could ever hope to have represent you & her defeat shows the road we are going down @ least in NJ. Kyrillos was the unsuccessful Republican U.S. senate candidate against incumbent Bob Menendez last November.
Two prominent Republicans are running for the senate seat in the August primary – Steve Lonegan & Somerset physician Alieta Eck. Both have been subjects of postings on RTE in the past & would be excellent. Democrat Newark Mayor Cory Booker leads Lonegan in the first poll 59% to 27%. Lonegan is fearless but has lost two gubernatorial primaries in NJ.
If NJ, like CA, IL, NY, & the rest of the northeast, is a microcosm of America to come, people of substance throughout the country can look to present day France to see what is in store for us. Socialist President Francois Hollande ran for office actually proposing a 75% top marginal income tax rate & got elected. As Democrats notch more electoral victories & Republicans try to keep up by capitulating on issue after issue higher French-type taxes (both income & VAT) are inevitable.
We can either prepare for an un-peaceful end to this assault on our livelihoods or look for third party candidates who can reach the masses by explaining to them & convincing them that they really do have skin in the game in that their entire standard of existence is @ stake by following the welfare state road.
Now Virginia is in a much better position than NJ in that Ken Cuccinelli (Lonegan's friend) is running for governor with a good chance to win in that he has won elections in VA before although his last election for state senate in 2007 was a squeaker. Ken was elected AG in 2009 & is running with E.W. Jackson for lieutenant governor.
Click here to hear E.W. Jackson give an inspirational speech whose principles are the bedrock of the Tea Party. The long time subscriber who passed the url on to me said it makes her want to move to VA so she could vote for him. The next best thing is to support Jackson, Cuccinelli, & Lonegan wherever you live.
Eck is my sister-in-law's Dr.
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