Tag: new jersey
Mikie Sherrill and Jack Ciattarelli

Yes, New Jersey Primary Turnout Was A Great Sign For Democrats

Last week, Rep. Mikie Sherrill won New Jersey’s hotly contested Democratic gubernatorial primary with 34 percent of the vote in a six-way race. New Jersey is one of just two states holding off-year governor’s races in 2025, the other being Virginia.

Sherrill is now the frontrunner heading into November’s election. Her Republican opponent, former state Rep. Jack Ciattarelli came shockingly close to winning four years ago. But like Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, he benefited from Donald Trump not being on the ballot or in office. This time around, Trump is all in, loudly endorsing Ciattarelli—much to Sherrill’s delight, no doubt.

Sherrill immediately pointed to the sky-high Democratic turnout as both the key to her win and a preview of November.

“We had almost 800,000 people voting in this primary. That’s unheard of,” she told the Washington Post. “It shows you the passion people have, shows you what’s coming in November here.”

And that’s underselling it. Democratic turnout now stands at 814,669, a genuinely extraordinary number. The closest comparison is from 2017, which saw 503,682 votes. In 2021, it was just 382,984 (an unopposed primary), and only 195,171 in 2013.

Republicans also hit a record of 459,574 votes, up from 339,033 in 2021 and the mid-200,000s in 2013 and 2017. But even with this boost, they still lag far behind Democrats’ surge.

This turnout is especially encouraging given New Jersey’s sharp rightward shift in the 2024 presidential election. Vice President Kamala Harris carried the state just 52-46, compared to President Joe Biden’s 57-41 win in 2020—a net 10-point swing to Republicans, largely driven by weak Democratic turnout. That’s clearly been fixed.

Holding New Jersey’s governorship—and reclaiming Virginia’s—matters. But what’s really exciting is what this says about the 2026 midterms.

Conventional wisdom says that the party in the White House gets shellacked in the midterms—especially with an unpopular president. But Biden and Democrats already broke that rule in 2022. Nothing’s carved in stone.

Meanwhile, Republicans got obliterated in Trump’s first term during the 2018 midterms, when Democrats flipped 41 House seats and seven governor seats. His second term is off to an even worse start, and with these early signs of hyper-engaged Democrats, the vibes are good.

Sure, 2026 is still a long way off. But if these numbers spook enough Republicans in swing districts, Democrats might be able to grind this narrowly divided Congress to a halt.

That alone is worth celebrating.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Alina Habba

Belligerent Trump Lawyer Habba Named US Attorney In New Jersey

President Donald Trump has named his former personal attorney Alina Habba, who has been serving as White House counselor, the interim, or acting, United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey. Habba immediately lashed out at the Garden State’s top Democrats.

Trump said the he is also nominating the current acting U.S. Attorney, John Giordano, who has been in that role for a mere three weeks, to a new post: U.S. ambassador to Namibia. Giordano is listed as a member of the White House Historical Association.

Habba, who recently faced backlash for suggesting that veterans dismissed from federal jobs may be “not fit to have a job at this moment,” quickly went on the offensive against Sen. Cory Booker and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (video below), claiming they have “failed the state of New Jersey.”

Telling reporters that “there is corruption, there is injustice, and there is a heavy amount of crime right in Cory Booker’s backyard and right under Governor Murphy,” Habba vowed, “that will stop.”

“I look forward to working with Pam Bondi and with the Department of Justice and making sure that we further the president’s agenda of putting America first, cleaning up mess, and going after the people that we should be going after, not the people that are falsely accused,” she said, a possible reference to the numerous state and federal charges Trump had faced until winning back the White House.

Politico describes Habba as Trump’s “legal attack dog.” Trump remains a convicted felon after being convicted by a jury in the State of New York on 34 counts of business fraud in what prosecutors said was an effort to influence the 2016 election.

The New York Post’s Manhattan courts reporter Molly Crane-Newman noted on Monday that “Habba’s behavior during Trump’s defamation trial last year was so far outside the bounds that Judge Kaplan threatened to imprison her.”

The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reported that “Habba previously represented Trump in the New York civil cases where he was ordered to pay $450m for inflating his net worth and $83m for defaming E Jean Carroll.”

“In 2023, a federal judge also ordered Trump and Habba to pay $1m in sanctions for filing a frivolous claim against Hillary Clinton and others, calling the lawsuit ‘a hodgepodge of disconnected, often immaterial events, followed by an implausible conclusion,'” Lowell added.

Critics blasted the decision to name Habba.

Talking Points Memo founder and editor Josh Marshall appeared to compare Habba to an underboss in the Mafia, writing: “lol Alina Habba is now the capo of New Jersey.”

Former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner wrote, “I served as an AUSA in the District of NJ from 2001-04.”

“I’m disgusted by this,” he said, adding: “Caligula’s horse would have been a better choice.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

New Jersey Democratic Boss Norcross Indicted For Corruption

New Jersey Democratic Boss Norcross Indicted For Corruption

What’s going in on New Jersey, where everything is turning up roses?

First was the Sen. Bob Menendez indictment, ending his reelection bid as a Democrat.

Then it was hero Rep. Andy Kim immediately picking up the baton.

Then it was the end of New Jersey’s corrupt ballot line system, which essentially empowered Democratic Party county bosses to pick their candidates for office. (Thanks, Kim!)

Then it was the end of Tammy Murphy’s nepotistic bid for Senate (her husband is the governor).

And now? We may be witnessing the fall of New Jersey’s most corrupt Democratic Party power broker, George Norcross, as he faces a multi-count indictment for 12 years of wrongdoing.

It was five years ago that I wrote about Norcross, and this is as good a summary of that story as anything:

New Jersey politics have never been accused of being clean, and for good reason. Now that rampant and systemic sleaze is threatening freshman Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.

The gist of the feud is South Jersey political boss and all-around a-hole George Norcross, an insurance mogul who has seemingly purchased the entire South Jersey Democratic establishment, and much of its statewide crew as well. Many of the seedy details can be found in this article, and this one, oh, and this one. But it can be neatly summed up like this: While Camden is facing public school closings because of a $27 million budgetary shortfall, Norcross and his allies have sucked up $1.1 billion in public subsidies and tax breaks supposedly designed to help places such as Camden.

The article also blasted New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker for siding with Norcross despite his obvious sleaze. It was a blemish on Booker’s otherwise solid record. Norcross was so powerful, it seemingly was impossible for anyone in the state’s politics to cross him. That is, until Gov. Phil Murphy was elected. The two have been battling it out since 2019, and it apparently is now culminating in this indictment.

From at least approximately 2012 to the present, GEORGE E. NORCROSS, III led a criminal enterprise whose members and associates agreed the enterprise would extort others through threats and fear of economic and reputational harm and commit other criminal offenses to achieve the enterprise's goals (the "Norcross Enterprise"

For his part, Norcross is acting like the political mafioso boss that he is:

Nearly overnight, New Jersey has gone from one of the most corrupt Democratic machine states to one that is aggressively rooting out and exposing the worst people. And if the result is that we get Sen. Andy Kim and and Democratic politicians who are no longer beholden to that kind of corruption, the benefits will be felt far beyond New Jersey.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Chris Christie

WATCH: Christie Opens Campaign In New Hampshire With Epic Trump Takedown

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had news about Donald Trump for attendees of his presidential campaign kickoff event Tuesday night in New Hampshire.

"If you think for one minute, when he says, 'I am your retribution'—if you think he wants to be your retribution, forget it," Christie told them, referring to Trump's signature 2024 campaign pledge. "He's going to be retribution for one person and one person only: himself."

Trump, he said, was a "bitter, angry man" who wanted to get back in the seat of power so he could look out for No. 1.

"If you want somebody who's actually going to fight for you," Christie continued, "I would suggest to you he's not the right choice."

Before launching, Christie advertised himself and fundraised for his bid as a brawler who would take on Trump like no other Republican in the GOP field. Frankly, that was a very low bar, given the lightweight barbs of Trump's other rivals thus far. But Christie didn't just clear that bar during his town hall-style event at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics: He smashed it to smithereens.

If New Hampshire marked a bitter end to Christie's disappointing run in 2016, he delivered a raucous rebirth Tuesday, with nothing and no one off limits.

“The grift from this family is breathtaking,” Christie said, going straight at the Trump family's shameless swindling. “Jared Kushner and Ivanka Kushner walk out of the White House and months later get $2 billion from the Saudis?”

What for? It's a payoff, Christie suggested.

"You think it’s because he’s some kind of investing genius?" Christie posited. "Or do you think it’s because he was sitting next to the president of the United States for 4 years doing favors for the Saudis?"

Voters should be pissed off, he added.

"That’s your money," Christie said. "That’s your money he stole, and gave it to his family."

Speaking of wasting taxpayer money, Trump dug America into the biggest financial ditch it's ever seen.

"He left with the biggest deficit of any president in American history," Christie said, before pummeling one of Trump's patently ridiculous 2016 campaign pledges. "He said he was going to eliminate the national debt in 8 years. He added $3 trillion to the national debt in 4 years."

On foreign policy, Christie wondered if attendees had heard the one from Trump about promising to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours if he were elected president.

"Did you hear that one?" Christie asked, calling it "a beauty" worthy of Trump's "top five" list in “a career of complete falsehoods."

But hey, why not give Trump the benefit of the doubt, Christie continued.

"Let me tell you how he would. He'd give Ukraine to Russia," Christie explained. "He'd call Zelenskyy and say, 'Hey, guess what? Time to raise the Russian flag up on the poll. We're out of here.'"

Christie managed a few hits on other 2024 candidates, but he deftly kept Trump in the mix.

Only Trump, Christie said, could manage to lose to Joe Biden.

"He wouldn't be in office if it wasn't for Trump," Christie offered. "Joe Biden never beat anybody outside the state of Delaware in 45 years except for one guy: Donald J. Trump," he said, knocking Biden's two previous runs for president in 1988 and 2008.

Christie also added a touch of humor at his own expense, but not without a jab at Trump first.

"Beware of the leader in this country, who you have handed leadership to, who has never made a mistake, who has never done anything wrong, who when something goes wrong it's always someone else's fault, and who has never lost," Christie said, then paused as the crowd giggled at his oblique reference to Trump's persistent election fraud lies.

"I've lost," Christie continued earnestly, before pointing around the room and dropping a pitch-perfect delivery: "You people did that to me in 2016."

Indeed, Christie suffered a sixth-place finish in the Granite State after hanging his hopes on a strong finish there to boost his 2016 bid.

But now Christie's back, warning voters about the "pretenders" who say, "Pick me, ‘cause I'm kinda like what you picked before—but not quite as crazy, but I don't want to say his name."

Christie completed his barb at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by saying the name.

"Let me be clear," he said, "the person I am talking about who is obsessed with the mirror, who never admits a mistake, who never admits a fault, who always finds someone else and something else to blame for whatever goes wrong, but finds every reason to take credit for anything that goes right—is Donald Trump."

Trump's response to Christie's truly epic takedown of him was a predictable exercise in fat shaming the man who initially led his presidential transition team and nearly died after helping COVID-positive Trump prep for a 2020 debate.

"How many times did Chris Christie use the word SMALL?" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Does he have a psychological problem with SIZE?" Trump also disseminated doctored video of the town hall depicting Christie at a buffet.

Trump is known for his mastery of finding his opponents' weak spots and savagely exploiting them, but if anything seemed small by comparison, it was Trump's response to Christie's biting commentary.

Trump has never seen broadsides like this from a Republican rival with no fucks to give beyond his promise of going nuclear on the perennial loser and GOP front-runner.

Perhaps because Christie's critique of Trump was so brutally incisive and Trump's response so childishly predictable, it seemed weak. But one has to wonder if Trump’s one-time superpower still packs the same punch.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

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