Mensch of the Week and Putz of the Week February 2nd, 2008.

Happy Groundhog Day.

Happy Groundhog Day, again.

As Congressman Rush Holt is trying to reinvigorate support for HR 811 [the H.R. 811: Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007] , there are some judges who are trying turn back the clock on the integrity of the electoral process.

Such is the case in New Jersey with Superior Court Judge Vincent J. Grass who wants to let voters in New Jersey vote early and often.

And like in the film Groundhog Day, he wants them to vote again and again, until they get it right. If you voted too early, and your chosen candidate has chosen to drop out of the race, you get another bite at the apple.

So, supporters of Biden, Dodd, Edwards, 911uliani, Kucinich---maybe even Brownback and Tancredo, can now give it another try. “They must sign an affidavit stating that the candidate they voted for is no longer running…The county clerk can then decide whether the voter gets a second ballot.”

The County Clerk decides whether or not the voter gets a second ballot?? The Couty Clerk? Based on what criteria? And in what part of the New Jersey Constitution does it say that the partisan County Clerk gets to decide who can vote once and who gets to vote twice?

For those of you who voted for a candidate who dropped out, you’re not disenfranchised. You just chose unwisely. Your choice lost before Election Day. Those decisions should be political ones in the voting booth, not legal ones in the courtroom.

This decision is so fraught with the possibility of fraud, it is lacking in good judgment on its face. What ever happen to “one man [or woman]/one vote”? Apparently in New Jersey, that just isn’t the case any more.

For his decision, Superior Court Judge Vincent J. Grass is our Putz of The Week.

Mayor Cory Booker of Newark is a great speaker, and has, perhaps, the second toughest job in New Jersey. He has decided to back another great speaker and inspirational communicator for president, Senator Barack Obama. Amidst speculation that Booker would scoot south to DC for a Cabinet post should Obama win, recently he declared, “I'm a purpose-driven person, and my purpose and my consuming passion is Newark…And there's not a job in Washington someone could offer me that would pull me away from what I am doing here.”

From someone like Mayor Booker, you can believe that to be true. Others, like Gov. Christie Whitman, skedaddled south once Bush was in power, leaving NJ to be led for years by an acting governor.

For his commitment to New Jersey, the City of Newark, and finishing what he started, Cory Booker is our Mensch of the Week.