Repost: It’s game over for district 39...

I want to start this article off by sharing a few random, yet important points-

1. To a large degree, I don't think voters have given Kim Guadagno a fair chance. She does not like Chris Christie and if you do any amount of research, you would quickly find that it is Phily Murphy, not Guadagno who has the closest relationship with the current Governor and his friends. I also think that based on what I have read and commercials I have seen, that Guadagno isn't communicating the correct campaign message. I think she still has time to win...I do. But to do so, she'd need to change her messaging. I have tried (unsuccessfully) to reach her to speak about this.
2. I am getting really tired of people telling me things like "we know there's corruption. We've known it for years and we'll work on it after the election." Known about it for years? NJ residents knew half of the unethical and potentially illegal behavior of those surrounding Phil Murphy, they might think twice about voting for him.
3. Jim McQueeny, husband of the Bergen County Freeholder, Mary Amoroso, has been working with the Murphy campaign and making a lot of money. We know this through public financial disclosures where his company Winning Strategies, is listed several times. It can be inferred however, that he may also be supporting other Democratic campaigns as there are similar text patterns, tactics, and strategies, most of which are completely unethical or include untrue information. But this is almost irrelevant as McQueeny has already broken the law after going on TV and conducting interviews without disclosing that he works for the Murphy campaign. You know what is scary, however? Even though others know this is going on, nobody is doing anything about it.

OK...now on to the primary focus of this article...District 39, state-level candidates and campaigns.
After watching the debate between the statewide candidates, I wrote this article where I shared my thoughts on their individual performances. Therefore, I won't repeat what I noted then, except that I still cannot get over the fact that Jannie Chung is a lawyer and needed to read a 30-second opening statement. I simply cannot get over that and continue to question if that is funny or just completely sad.
I want to state up front, in the name of total disclosure, that I have a bias here, in favor of Holly Schepisi (R). However, please consider that I didn't wake up one day and decide I was going to be a fan of hers. As such, allow me to explain how I came to admire her as much as I do.
Holly is extremely knowledgeable on a variety of subjects and as a lawyer, she not only doesn't require a script when sharing opening statements at a debate, she also has a ton of experience with managing land development and affordable housing (which I believe, are the single most important factor in this year's election). With her legal clients, as well as in her capacity as an Assemblywoman, Schepisi has proposed new laws that are based on well-researched and documented facts, as well as over 12 bill packages, related to affordable housing. These packages include language that protects our communities, schools, supports emergency responders, infrastructure, and addresses environmental concerns. Further, her proposed legislation would prohibit builder remedy suits.In contrast, upon visiting her Democratic opponents website and selecting "the facts" in the navigation bar, I am greeted with (essentially) census data about District 39. These folks are running for office...maybe they should share some facts about what they are going to do and how they are going to do it?
As I have stated previously, I don't have very strong feelings on the other folks running with Schepisi (Cardinale, and Auth). In contrast, after attempting to learn more about their challengers, I am confident that the bigger threat is allowing these Democratic candidates to win.
I received this direct mail piece from the Schwager, Chung, and Hausmann campaign and wanted to share a few of my thoughts on it. I would had preferred to react to their specific stances on policy but have yet to find a single example from any of them. Their entire campaign seems to be built upon misleading information, insults, unethical slander, and some of the most flagrant lying I have ever seen.
We can tell that Jim McQueeny didn't have a hand in writing this postcard because it is so awful. He may be unethical and allegedly willing to break the law but I've got to give it to the man, he knows how to write deceptive political collateral.
Here's what it reads at the top of the direct mail piece-
"Ideas will only get you so far. Consider companies that struggled even after a competitor entered the market and made the great idea transparent to all. Did Xerox stumble because nobody there noticed that Canon had introduced personal copiers? Did Kodak fall behind because they were blind to the rise of digital photography? Did Sears suffer a decline because they had no awareness of Wal-Mart’s new every-day-low-price discount retailing format? In every case, the ideas were there. It was the follow-through that was lacking. In fact, we have found that innovation initiatives face their stiffest resistance after they show hints of success, begin to consume significant resources, and clash with the existing organization at multiple levels — that is, long after the idea generation stage(1)."
The fact of the matter is...we have enough ideas. If you ask me, we need less ideas (in this context, relating to future concepts to employ in our state) and more accountability. We need to get rid of the corruption, elected leaders admit exists. And then we need to brainstorm new innovations that can be facilitated, with a careful emphasis placed on ensuring everything that was broken, will never break again.
The next section actually made me laugh out loud:
"Ensure that our economy works for Everyone."

First of all, watch your grammar. I don't mean to be a hypocrite as I'm sure my articles are riddled with grammatical errors. But I can guarantee you that if I were sending out a postcard to promote my candidacy for something, it would be error-free. Second, where have you detailed your plan for this? Let me assure you of something...any time a politician uses 'absolutes' (e.g. Everyone), it typically means they actually don't have any ideas at all. Think about it...how is it even remotely possible to help 'everyone?'

"Keep property taxes stable by offsetting costs by securing more funding for education."
Again, holy grammar. But let's break this one down a bit because this is an important bullet point. First of all, let's be clear that Phil Murphy is the one that plans to apply more funding towards education and while this would typically be the decision of the state government and not the governor, he would be achieving this by unfreezing the State Aid Formula for Education- something Christie froze eight years ago. On the surface, this seems great...more money to our schools who desperately need it. Someone like Assembly Speaker, Vincent Prieto loves this because he represents East Newark, Edgewater, Fairview, Guttenberg, Harrison, Kearny, North Bergen, Secaucus, West New York.
Here's the problem. I'm no fan of Christie's but the reality here is that he froze the State Aid Formula because needed to reallocate those dollars elsewhere in the state. I find it staggering that my fellow Democrats don't see the problem with Murphy's logic here. Can't NJ residents see that this man is just making empty promises? He's going to satisfy teacher pensions, unfreeze this State Aid Formula, which then takes funding away from wherever Christie reallocated it...the state is already, basically broke. Murphy's plans, overall, are estimated to cost the state $7.B that it does not have. And if we use historical data as our guide, this would translate to $2.5B, directly from Bergen County. Let's also remember that Bergen County accounts for 30% of the state's budget, while only receiving around 3% of those dollars. It, therefore, begs the question...where is Murphy getting the money for this? I know, I know...he's going to tax millionaires. Right. How many election cycles are the Democrats going to get away with this claim before voters realize they are never actually going to do it? And even more to the point, when this was attempted a few years back (and got vetoed), this plan included taxes based on net revenues which impacted small businesses, as well. From what I can tell, Murphy's plan does the same, exact thing.
In contrast, Schepisi has sponsored a bill that would create a baseline amount, per student, which means that dollars would fluctuate throughout the state based on varying needs. How this is funded, is that dollars currently being wasted, even by their own admission, from areas such as Jersey City, would be reallocated. Yes, Murphy has stated that prior to unfreezing the State Aid Formula for Education, it would need to be revised so that the proportions of dollars are more fairly distributed across the state. It's great that he realizes this but unlike Schepisi, Murphy doesn't actually have a plan to achieve this goal (which is extremely complicated).

But I digress, because no matter how you look at it, for Schwager, Chung, and Hausmann to make this claim is ridiculous.
"Create jobs and help small businesses by reducing business taxes."

Two points here. First, how are they planning to achieve this? Second, what many small businesses need is help, guidance, expertise, training, etc. What is the use of reducing business taxes if a person isn't making any sales?
"Offer opportunities for our children by making college more affordable and providing trade and technical skills."

Again. HOW? No, I do not think they would explain this on a postcard. However, once again, their website only shows me how many people live in our district. Further, it is impossible to provide trade and technical skills-
According to dictionary.com, a skill is defined as "the ability, coming from one's knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc., to do something well." Exactly how do they plan to provide these skills?

On the other side of the postcard, we see this really dark design that screams Jim McQueeny. I can't confirm this was his doing but it sure looks like it. The language pattern is also completely different from the other side of the post card.
The only thing I can say about this is that it is baseless. If someone wants to prove me wrong, I invite you to please send me any articles that demonstrate something different...but I can't find it: mypoliticalpizza@gmail.com.
The final piece of this post card includes these bullet points-
The first bullet is misleading and a typical McQueeny'esk strategy to attract more Democratic voters. As it stands today, it is impossible to get a carry permit in NJ. And as such, I would be much happier knowing people who have a gun, applied for a permit and went through a background check, rather than simply having one illegally. Inasmuch as I am not an advocate for guns, I do believe in democracy which often means finding a happy middle-ground. To me, this is completely logical legislation.
This third bullet is a fantastic effort by these McQueeny minions. Three years before Schepisi was even in office, there was a $7.5M cut to family planning services. This is sort of like blaming me for Pearl Harbor. But it was also around the same time that Obamacare was enacted and as a result, there were significant increases in what insurance covers on behalf of women, namely younger women. In NJ, once Schepisi was in office, federally qualified health centers were established to supplement existing facilities. As a result of this, the state experienced significant increases in preventative and Cancer care and birth control, mammograms, and cervical Cancer tests were finally covered by insurance.

By the way, Planned Parenthood receives $1.5 BILLION per year and has been financially secure enough to provide 20% increases to their executive staff during this time (equaling an average of $300K per year).
One more point...Schepisi sponsored a bill that protects women in NJ. Should the federal government ever cut supplemental healthcare for women, NJ's residents would still be able to access these services. So, this group's other claim that Schepisi is "anti-woman" is unfounded and completely ridiculous.
This is where my original article ended until yesterday, when I received another postcard that perpetuated even more lies.
In addition to repeating the lies I have already debunked, above, they have also made the following claims about Schepisi, Auth, and Cardinale-
Higher Property taxes - 17% higher!
This is complete nonsense. Schepisi sponsored a bill that would actually cap property taxes at 2%.
Reduced School Aid
The School Aid Formula (which influences property taxes) is based on Democratic legislation. In fact, in addition to the preceding points made above about the School Aid Formula, Schepisis sponsored yet another bill to get fairer school funding for our kids.
The shutdown of the George Washington Bridge
This one made me laugh out loud...yes, Schepisi was on a special investigation committee researching what happened. However, the U.S. attorney's office ordered the committee to stop investigating.
These folks have no ideas and their false accusations, including another that attempts to claim Schepisi has worked with domestic terrorists is not only shameful but also insulting to voters who they are clearly relying on to believe headlines over substance and facts. Shame on them. Have a great McQueeny...I mean...have a great day!
Side note: I don't want to go there and so allow me to add that I was also quite disturbed to learn that at a recent Lions Club Pancake breakfast, Linda Schwager, Democratic candidate for the state senate, took it upon herself to publicly call Schepisi a "bitch." That is not indicative of a true leader or someone I'd want representing District 39.
(1) https://hbr.org/2010/08/innova...