As you've probably read by now, New Jersey progressive candidate Ed Potosnak withdrew his challenge to Leonard Lance yesterday to take a job as the executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters. He was one of Blue America's favorite candidates, both in the 2010 cycle and again this year. We'll miss him, but we know he will accomplish a lot in his new job. Here's what he told me last night when he came up with the idea for this contest to help out a Blue America candidate.

I have always been a strong environmentalist. As a young adult my passion for nature manifested itself by guiding my choices as an individual. As an adult I turned my commitment to the environment into political advocacy, because protecting our natural resources is bigger than recycling and requires strong pro-environment policies. It is urgent that we address global climate change and take measurable steps to safeguard our water, air, land and wildlife for our future generations.

New Jersey faces significant challenges in cleaning up and safeguarding our environment. I am extremely proud to be leading the NJ League of Conservation Voters and working with our diverse members to provide justice for an environment that cannot defend itself. With our help, our state will serve as a role model for other similarly challenged communities throughout world.

Ed has some extra money in his campaign war chest, and he's offered to give the maximum amount allowable from one campaign to another, $2,000, to the Blue America candidate who gets the most contributions in the next 24 hours. So take a look at our ActBlue page and contribute-- whether a dollar or $1,000, it still counts as one "vote"-- and the candidate who gets the most "votes" will get a $2,000 dollar check from Ed's campaign. Happily, all of the Blue America candidates are pro-environment, and all of them are running on platforms similar to Ed's in terms of protecting clean air and water and America's natural beauty.

"This is a truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Ed said to us about his new job, explaining his withdrawal from the campaign. “I look forward to building on the grassroots energy of the diverse membership of NJLCV to promote nonpartisan solutions to our environmental challenges... I will be working every day to ensure our children and future generations have clean water and air, as well open space." Every one of these Blue America candidates is committed to the same vision for our country's future.

The rules for this contest: Just contribute any amount to any candidate on this page and it will count as a vote for that candidate. And yes, you can vote for more than one if you want to. In 24 hours we count up all the votes (again, not the dollar amounts, but the votes), and the candidate with the most gets the check from Ed's campaign.

Mitt Romney is trying hard to combat the perception of his elitist, well-heeled upbringing in the age of 99 percent protests. Why, he wants you to know he's a man of the people, not a ruthless corporate raider or soulless automaton. Pay no attention to his nine-figure bank account, his multiple mansions and privileged childhood. So he rolls up the sleeves of his button-down shirts, restrains himself from pressing creases into his denims, and lets his carefully-coiffed hair get just slightly mussed. Obviously, that gives him the cred to hang out with Jersey tough Gov. Chris Christie, who likes to go "Jersey Style" at campaign events to prove what a big, tough guy he is:

On Sunday, Jan. 8., New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was speaking at a Romney for President rally in New Hampshire when he was interrupted by some female hecklers. It’s difficult to make out exactly what Christie’s critics were yelling, but it’s something to do with jobs going down. Ever the class act, Christie’s response: “You know, something may be going down tonight, but it ain’t going to be jobs, sweetheart.” He then goes on to insult the women by saying that if they were from Jersey, they wouldn’t be so silly as to think that his policies don’t support job creation.

Because nothing says "Vote for Romney!" than condescendingly referring to NH females as "sweetheart", "girls", make thinly veiled allusions to fellatio and to cap it off, insinuate that they are not as smart as New Jersey females. Does Mittens think this shores up his "regular Joe" vote? Gawker:

The question is: Does this stuff "work" for Mitt Romney, having a surrogate whom the Christian Science Monitor describes as "the larger-than-life governor" step forward in some sort of bodyguard-hitman role for the Massachusetts Moderate? It seems to remind Republican voters of how weak the field is: They couldn't get their cherished New Jersey monster to come and yell at liberal ladies and unionized teachers in his own campaign for President of the United States; instead he just throws out a couple of Jersey lines to make the Romney go down easier. Sigh.

Honestly, this isn't going to help Mitt any more than it's winning over more supporters in Christie's home state, where the local editorial page beseeches Christie to find his inner Alan Alda:

Christie knows his belittling of town hall critics has made him a YouTube sensation. It attracts a national spotlight and he's good at it. In this case, he has every right to shoot back at this heckler. But he misfires. He picks two words, in a macho, pat-the-little-girl-on-the-head tone, that grate on the majority of women.

"Sweetheart" is patronizing. In an intimate context, it's a pet name. In any other context, it's a putdown.

Amazing that most media coyly avoids the "going down" reference and focuses solely on the paternalistic verbiage. Seems like that's the clincher in the misogyny sweepstakes.

"Do not think you can sell us out in June and buy us back in November." What a great line.

Labor was a major focus of this year's Netroots Nation, and one of the things we want to plant firmly in the public perception is that cutting public employee wages and benefits is dictated by choice, and is not a true emergency. The real reason states have a problem balancing their budgets is that their Republican politicians are too afraid of Grover Norquist and the Club for Growth to raise taxes and risk a primary challenge. Instead, they've chosen to take out their cowardice and lack of leadership on the backs of workers.

Make no mistake: This deal would dissolve collective bargaining rights in NJ as effectively as anything that Scott Walker has done in Wisconsin. The thing I can't figure out is, why are these craven Democratic politicians going along with it? Why aren't they standing up and fighting?

Thousands of angry government workers swarmed New Jersey’s Capitol on Thursday and some were briefly arrested, one day after Gov. Chris Christie and legislative leaders agreed to sharply increase the contributions public employees must make into their health insurance and pensions plans.

The proposed deal, which has yet to come to a vote in either house, would be a major victory for Mr. Christie, transferring billions of dollars a year in expenses from the government to its employees, and once again curbing the power of the governor’s favorite foil, the public employee unions.

It would eliminate the longstanding practice of negotiating health care payments in contract talks with the unions, instead imposing those terms through legislation. The proposed deal puts Mr. Christie firmly in the ranks of fellow Republican governors who have curtailed public workers’ collective bargaining rights this year, including Mitch Daniels of Indiana, John Kasich of Ohio, Paul LePage of Maine and Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

But the recent conflicts in those states have been strictly partisan affairs, with Democrats opposing moves made by Republican majorities. In New Jersey, the battle over pensions and health care has turned into an intramural fight among Democrats, who control both houses of the Legislature, threatening to shake up the party’s leadership and weaken it in coming elections, thereby strengthening Mr. Christie’s hand.

[...] Union members packed a State Senate hearing in Trenton on Thursday, the first one to take up the proposal. Like thousands of their compatriots in the State House hallways and on the lawn outside, they noisily protested what they called an assault on collective bargaining and a betrayal by key Democrats.

At one point, chanting protesters brought the hearing to a halt, which lasted until the State Police forced about two dozen of them out of the chamber. They were arrested, but then released.

“There is a campaign across the country to use this economic crisis as an excuse to destroy the rights of working people,” said Robert Master, regional legislative and political director of the Communications Workers of America, the union that represents the largest number of state employees. “Real Democrats would not have collaborated with Chris Christie to make this attack on the democratic rights of public workers.”

(Check out the above video from a post I wrote last year to get an idea how explosive this situation is and how angry students are. It's always the poor, the elderly and the students who get harmed the most by conservative ideology. Back in April there was a massive student walkout protest over his sweeping state aid cuts in education.

NJ.com: Gov. Chris Christie says protesting students 'belong in the classroom')

Tea Party favorite Gov. Chris Christie received a severe blow to his education budget cuts by a Superior court judge:

Gov. Chris Christie's deep cuts to state school aid last year left New Jersey's schools unable to provide a "thorough and efficient" education to the state's nearly 1.4 million school children, a Superior Court judge found today.

Judge Peter Doyne, who was appointed as special master in the long-running Abbott vs. Burke school funding case, today issued an opinion that also found the reductions "fell more heavily upon our high risk districts and the children educated within those districts."

"Despite spending levels that meet or exceed virtually every state in the country, and that saw a significant increase in spending levels from 2000 to 2008, our 'at risk' children are now moving further from proficiency," he said.
--

“The difficulty in addressing New Jersey’s fiscal crisis and its constitutionally mandated obligation to educate our children requires an exquisite balance not easily attained,” Doyne wrote. “Something need be done to equitably address these competing imperatives. That answer, though, is beyond the purview of this report. For the limited question posed to the Master, it is clear the State has failed to carry its burden.“

Ouch. Chris Christie has spent only enough time to drink a cup of coffee in New Jersey as its governor so far, but since he's very good at bullying people, FOX News pundits just love him. He has yet to solve any problems there and when it comes to education, has refused to meet with protesters after he slashed education funding. Now he has to deal with this ruling.

Think Progress:

As the article notes, Judge Doyne was appointed as a “special master” in this case, and so his finding today will go back to the state Supreme Court, which can choose to act on it. This seems likely to happen. “A special master’s report like this carries great weight with the higher court,” said David Sciarra, the executive director of the Education Law Center. “The evidence was exhaustive, detailed thorough and its conclusions are sobering about the impact of the funding cuts on students across the state, particularly poor students, regardless of where they live.”

Christie has not yet responded to the finding. If he is required by the state Supreme Court to find more funding to at-risk districts, perhaps the governor could reconsider some of his proposed tax cuts for corporations and millionaires.

Here's a few other Christie stories from C&L: Chris Christie's bullying style is inuring Americans to ugly discourse---Presidential Hopeful NJ Gov. Chris Christie: Where Wall Street Leads, He Follows---NJ Gov. Chris Christie Kills Major Transit Infrastructure Project

Collective Amnesia Strikes Swooning Media As Manly Gov. Christie Blames Public Unions For State Deficits

Where to begin? Is it more egregious that Gov. Chris Christie is trying to pin NJ budget woes on public workers' unions (and models his solutions on Grover Norquist) -- or that a "60 Minutes" producer allowed his misinformation to go unanswered?

First of all, New Jersey's pension problems came to a head in 1997, during the rein of one Christine Todd Whitman, who cooked up a high-risk scheme to finance tax cuts by refusing to make the state's mandated pension payments from general revenue. Instead, she and state treasurer Brian Clymer floated a $2.75 billion bond issue that would fund the payments.

In other words, she and Clymer were gambling that the market would generate enough money to cover their pension obligations, so they could borrow that money right away for tax cuts. (The state paid $23.9 million in bond fees, by the way. Plus interest.)

This was a radical idea for the time, and not everyone was thrilled with the plan. The mayor of Edison N.J. filed a lawsuit to stop it. The State Supreme Court refused a stay, saying the point was moot -- but agreed with the plaintiff that the bond authority was merely a legal shell created to get around the state's debt ceiling without putting it to a public vote.

And of course the inevitable happened: Whitman's pension obligation bonds (and just about every other state's) became a ticking time bomb.

This year there are several Democrats running for Congress who are openly gay and Blue America has had several inquiries about why we haven't endorsed them. A couple of gay organizations have done so, and I think the DCCC is getting behind one or two as well. But Blue America isn't a gay organization that endorses based on someone's gender preference, and we're certainly not the DCCC. We're looking for smart, honest progressive leaders and we don't care what color they are, what gender they are, or how they look or who they sleep with. When we decided to endorse Ed Potosnak in New Jersey this week, the young high school science teacher running against Wall Street shill Leonard Lance, it was because of his stands on the issues important to working families and because of the strength of his character, not because he's an openly gay man. But he is.

Ed will be joining us at here this afternoon in the comments forum for a wide-ranging blogger session, not especially about his sexual orientation. In fact, it was his hammering on the importance of education policy that first got our PAC interested in his candidacy. That said, we had several long conversations about what it means for a member of the LGBT community to run for Congress. Remember, out of 435 congressmembers and 100 senators, we only have three openly gay Members of Congress-- all Democrats-- plus a dozen or so closeted Republicans. Ed made it clear that he's grateful that the trail was blazed for him by Tammy Baldwin, Barney Frank and Jared Polis.

This is a critical time for the LGBT community and the fight for justice. The LGBT community needs more representatives in elected office. We have seen throughout history that we march closer to equality for everyone when the makeup of our government better reflects the diversity of our great nation. We know that the best representation of LGBT issues will come from those of us who understand the unique issues facing our community.

My election is a historic opportunity to elect the first openly gay Member of Congress to serve New Jersey and to add to growing LGBT voice in Congress. My election is extremely close and I am well
positioned to unseat my Republican opponent, Congressman Leonard Lance. Mr. Lance has sided with the conservative leadership in Congress 91% of the time including voting against the repeal of Don’t
Ask Don’t Tell and he does not support marriage equality. It's critical that we elect someone in his place who will vote to end discrimination and fight for equality and inclusion in all legislation considered by Congress. We cannot afford more no votes from Congressman Lance on the repeal of DOMA, the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act, the Reuniting Families Act, on other pieces of legislation to establish equality, or AYES on votes to strip transgender inclusion from ENDA.

I am committed to fighting for equal and fair treatment for every American regardless of sexual orientation, gender, race, religion or creed. I strongly believe that the LGBT community must also fight for the equal treatment of women and minorities. We are partners in the march for equal rights. We recognize that strides have been made in our communities, but we still have a road ahead of us: a road that will be traveled more swiftly if we work together. When I go to Congress, I will help lead the fight to fulfill the real promise of the American dream, equality for all.

Please consider helping Ed get his message out by contributing what you can at the Blue America ActBlue page. In fact, the first 10 people who contribute at least $25 to Ed's campaign will get autographed copies of Russ Baker's Family of Secrets.

At least New Jersey gets the benefit of this kind of research before the real battle begins. It's already too late for the Gulf Coast:

The northern Atlantic Ocean, including the Jersey Shore, holds more economic value for activities such as commercial fishing and tourism than it does for oil extraction, according to a report released today by the New Jersey Sierra Club.

For every dollar an oil company would make from drilling off the North Atlantic coast, the more environmentally friendly pursuits of fishing and tourism would generate $12, making sustainable uses of the ocean more prudent than offshore drilling, the report said.

Long pushing for a moratorium on offshore oil drilling, several environmental groups gathered on the boardwalk in Asbury Park today to discuss the results of the report and announce a statewide event on June 26 calling for an end to offshore oil drilling.

"The report we’re releasing…shows that oil and gas is less profitable than sustainable activity," said Grace Sica, outreach coordinator for the Sierra Club. "Just two years of sustainable use of the North Atlantic Ocean almost exceeds whatever and all oil and natural gas resources are in the North Atlantic."

The report, authored by Michael Gravitz, oceans advocate for the Washington, D.C.-based Environment America Research and Policy Center, attempts to put into perspective the value of coastal business for each of the five oil-drilling regions of the United States compared to the value of oil and natural gas under their respective oceans.

The report said New Jersey was responsible for generating $11.5 billion of the estimated $61 billion generated by leisure and hospitality and recreational and commercial fishing among the seven states in the North Atlantic region. The suspected oil and natural gas in the region is estimated at $5.1 billion, according to the report.

DOWNLOADS: (2099)

PLAYS: (1153)

Embed

John Fund went on Glenn Beck's show last night to help Beck with his characterization of the Obama White House as a nest of fist-bumping terrorist radicals, mostly by underscoring its supposed connection to ACORN and the SEIU. (According to Beck, SEIU's Andy Stern is "really controlling our country.")

At the end of the segment, Fund began describing the ways ACORN's nefarious activists are supposedly engaged in voter fraud in the New Jersey election:

Fund: People are going door to door in parts of Camden with Hispanics that don't have very much knowledge of English, and they're saying, "We have a new way for you to vote, la nueva forma de votar; just fill out these papers."

But as Media Matters noticed, he's actually describing something that happened in 1993 in Philadelphia. Indeed, he accurately described it in his Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he tried to claim that fraud was occurring in New Jersey:

There are additional reports from Camden that Hispanic voters have been misled into voting absentee ballots. So-called bearers who are allowed to collect and carry absentee ballots are said to have encouraged voters to fill out applications for absentee ballots. A few days later, the bearers reportedly return with the actual ballots, which they offer "assistance" in filling out.

Authorities in nearby Philadelphia know about such scams. In one infamous case, a key 1993 race that determined which party would control the Pennsylvania state senate was thrown out by a federal judge after massive evidence that hundreds of voters had been pressured into casting improper absentee ballots. Voters were told by "bearers" that it was all part of "la nueva forma de votar" -- the new way to vote. Local politicos tell me Philly operatives associated in the past with Acorn may now be advising their Jersey cousins on how to perform such vote harvesting.

Notice that in this version of events, there's no mention of the "la nueva forma de votar" ruse being used in Camden -- just the use of absentee ballots. And despite Fund's claims, there is no evidence of actual fraud yet even in this absentee-ballot operation -- just the potential for it.

Conservatives like Fund have long pinned their electoral hopes on reducing voter turnout, because encouraging large numbers of voters is a certain recipe to right-wing defeat. The Right succeeds most when voter turnout is suppressed -- and absentee-ballot efforts are part of reversing that trend.

They also like having handy excuses when they lose. It's clear that Fund, Beck, and the rest of the Right is setting themselves up with a way to claim that an electoral loss in New Jersey was illegitimate. Because that's what they're best at -- tearing down liberals after they beat them at the polls.

Listen, I plead guilty to having raised money for Governor George W. Bush because I thought he was the best person to be President of the United States. And I did it in a completely appropriate fashion and enthusiastically for the President. And there's no mystery to the fact that I was appointed to this job because, in part, I had a relationship with the President of the United States.

Anybody who receives a political appointment -- I am a political appointee -- there's going to be some measure of politics involved with that appointment.

Maybe it's just me, but I think this is exactly the kind of attitude that voters pretty decisively said they were done with. But good on GOP candidate Chris Christie for being so honest and upfront about what was expected of him as a Bushie. It's especially telling given that Christie talked to Rove about running while still US Attorney, a violation of the Hatch Act and that he gave no bid contracts to Ashcroft and a former US Attorney who had opted not to prosecute his brother.

It's been a fairly nasty campaign in New Jersey, with the added bonus of an Independent candidate, siphoning off some expected Democratic voters. Even so, incumbent Democratic candidate Jon Corzine is up in the polls:

New Jersey Governor, polled by The New York Times, 10/9/09-10/14/09, Likely Voters, MoE +/- 4-5%

Jon Corzine (D) 40

Chris Christie (R) 37

Chris Daggett (I) 14

After a week in which Republican challenger Chris Christie has watched poll after poll showing a dwindling lead in the gubernatorial race in the Garden State, this poll is the first to show a Corzine lead of greater than a point.

What's more, among registered voters, the polls lead really expands:

New Jersey Governor, polled by The New York Times, 10/9/09-10/14/09, Registered Voters, MoE +/- 3%

Jon Corzine (D) 40

Chris Christie (R) 30

Chris Daggett (I) 13

That would seem to suggest that the pool of persuadable voters, who are not yet quite sold on voting, is even more anti-Christie than the corps of likely voters identified by the New York Times.

Download | play Download | play

I was watching MSNBC this morning and during a segment on the Black Friday shopping frenzy and the throngs of people waiting in line to get into a New Jersey mall, when something caught my eye. I rewound the video and sure enough, the first two people through the door were wearing protest shirts -- "Impeach Bush" and "Out Of Iraq".

I don't know who these brave souls are, but I thought I'd thank them for waiting in line to get the chance to make their statement and give them props for getting the holidays off to a great start and trying to spread some good will. We can only hope security didn't tackle, tase or beat them...

*Update: They made it on CNN later in the morning!

Daily Darfur: The blogosphere won one (as the MSM blinked) -- Fidelity divests from genocide. How do we hold Fidelity's feet to the fire?

Pardon us bloggers for asking, but has George Bush gone completely mental? Maybe this moron magnet will help consolidate the 29 percenters... and speaking of rampant stupidity, what if, in the battle against global warming, we pay people to give us permission to kill trees we were gonna kill anyway? By the way, it turns out a group of New Jersey eighth graders can show support for the troops better than Washington. But you knew that.

Republic of T: The color of net neutrality.

Off the Beaten Path, "the best bloggers are simians" edition: Damned, Dirty Ape!, Gorilla88, Blogmonkey, Monkey Muck, Dr. Zaius.

guest round-up by Blue Gal -- http://bgalrstate.blogspot.com