A Tough Month for Governors in NY and NJ

It’s been a tough month for governors in the New York/New Jersey area.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you have noticed that one governor resigned after meeting with a high-priced hooker from New Jersey, and the other governor stayed put after meeting with about 200 mayors.Ours was the one to stay put and give them in person the bad news about state aid: There’s gonna be less of it. Ours was the one to stay put and give

I don’t know what was worse---having to resign in disgrace, or facing down a team of mad municipal mayors.

My hometown of Flemington stands to lose more than $250,000 in state aid, unless we figure out how to merge with the town that surround us. Raritan Township, the big gelatinous cell of a bedroom community, is the one that surrounds the Main Street nucleus that is Flemington.

Well let’s just look at that “merger”.

In 1910, Flemington separated itself from Raritan Township, and became it’s own community. I've read that the issue back then was much the same as it is today: property taxes that were too high. The residents of Flemington did not want to have to pay for the development in Raritan Township.

Ironically, we have still have the same issues today, as Flemington prepares for their centennial celebration. The fastest growing Township in Hunterdon County has placed nearly all its dense residential infrastructure around Flemington, choking the smaller town with traffic, stores and condo communities.

The governor has proposed to cut all aid for towns that have under a population of 5000. Flemington has a population of about 4200, and we are not about to jump over 5000 really soon. Raritan Township logs in at about 22,000 or so, according to the latest population estimates. So, according to the governor’s plan, their aid would not necessarily be cut.

What motivation would Raritan Township have to merge with Flemington? So, it goes.

I am sure that the issue will be hotly debated in the state legislature, and be fought sharply by the fine folks of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities.

We are a Festivus Nation

Just about a year ago, the wife of a current member of the Flemington Borough Council wrote a letter to the Hunterdon County Democrat newspaper, condemning what she described as the “attack on Christmas”. Her letter was entitled “Christmas Traditions”, and her analysis resulted in her declaration that “we are a Christian nation”, that “tolerates all others”. Her assertion was that since the majority of America is Christian, then we are a Christian nation.

Her belief that “majority means identity” was wrong on so many levels, I didn’t know where to begin to address the issue.

We get our national identity not from the ethnic, religious, racial, gender, or sexuality of the majority of our people. Our identity arises out of the principles of governance as written by the Framers in the US Constitution and those values are clearly laid out in the First Amendment:

• "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

And in his second term, President George Washington signed the the Treaty of Tripoli, which in Article 11 stated, "As the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion...".

However, IF we are to be judged on our ‘identity’ with ‘majority’ as the sole criteria, then we are a Festivus nation, if anything at all.

Festivus is the holiday invented by the Seinfeld TV show –the holiday for the rest of us. Festivus is celebrated annually on December 23, but many people celebrate it at other times, often to avoid the Christmas rush. The holiday includes novel practices such as the "Airing of Grievances", in which each person tells everyone else all the ways they've disappointed him/her over the past year. The decor for Festivus includes a simple unadorned aluminum pole. Also, after the Festivus meal, the "Feats of Strength" are performed, involving wrestling the head of the household to the floor, the holiday only ending if the head of the household is actually pinned.

More people watched the final Seinfeld episode ---78 million people---than go to church on any given Sunday. A National Election Studies poll showed that only 25% of adult Americans claim to attend church, synagogue or temple every week. With a population of about 300 million, only about 75 million people go to church on a weekly basis. Seinfeld and Festivus trumps the church goers.

Therefore, if we are to judge our national identity purely by who is in the majority, then we are a Festivus nation.

So, this season, please remember to wish everyone you see a Festive Festivus!

Every Vote Counts

"MATAWAN — Republican Paul Buccellato, who lost the mayoral race by one vote, is calling for a recount. Buccellato was defeated by Democrat Mary Aufseeser in the Nov. 6 general election. He received a total of 946 votes, and Aufseeser 947. "The best thing to do, since it is a single vote, is to do a recount," said Buccellato, 53, who has served as a councilman since 2001. "It's in the best interest of everyone." (Thompson, Asbury Park Press)

"BOGOTA -- Democrat Joseph Shuler, whose bid to unseat Republican incumbent Anne Marie Mitchell fell short by one vote in last week's council election, said Tuesday he will ask a judge to order a recount. "I want to rest good at night and know that either I won or I lost," he said. "I'm one vote away from being tied, and I'm optimistic that I'll be able to get two votes to win. I'm very close.”

If you add the votes in both communities, you get a dead heat.

Last February in Flemington, Mark Legato won the first of several special elections engendered by a close race from the November 2006 election. He won by a single vote in November, but the election results were thrown out by a judge. And then in large part due to great organizing, and lots of help from Democrats and DFA, he won. I worked on that race, and know from experience that each and every vote counts.

With races that close, don’t let anyone ever tell you that your vote and voice do not count.

Getting more NJ-ish Every Day

I moved to New Jersey in 1989, after a lifetime of living in New York. I chose to live in Flemington, and I love it here. When I first moved here, though, I was the quintessential New Yorker.

I was born in Brooklyn, went to high school there, and graduated from Brooklyn College. Not the typical background for someone living now in rural-ish New Jersey. I say rural-ish [rather than 'rural'], because my fellow local elected officials/policy makers who are Republican have done everything in their power to make sure that developers have their way with the land around Flemington---but that's another story.

I moved to Flemington in 1990, and my first experience was a memorable one.

I stopped in front of Higgins Newsstand to buy a newspaper. And as was the standard practice in New York, I doubled parked. Right behind me apeared a police officer, Sergeant Faber. He signaled for me to move my car.

"Officer, I am just running inside to get a newspaper, I will be right out," I said. He told me to take my time.

About three minutes later, I came out with the Star Ledger in hand, as Sergeant Faber was finishing writing me a ticket.

"I told you I was just going in to get a newspaper. You told me to take my time," I protested.

He handed me the ticket and admonished me, "Here is something else you can take your time to read. Don't double park."

Lesson learned: Flemington is not New York.

Anyway, I still feel like a New Yorker sometimes, although I feel like a New Jerseyean most of the time.

Lots in New York has changed since I left. The Interboro Parkway is now the Jackie Robinson Parkway. The Westside Highway is now the Joe DiMaggio Highway. And even the subway token has given way to Metro Cards. I was in New York last holiday season, and I did not know how to take the subway, given the Metro Card need. Is that sad, or what? What's next? Yankee Stadium is gonna be replaced, too?

So, I am now a proud New Jerseyean. Just how much of a New Jerseyean am I? About 61%, according to this quiz I took.

How 'New Jersey' are you? Take the quiz yourself, and see where you fit in to the Garden State.

You Are 61% New Jersey!

You've definitely got some Jersey in you. Congratulations, it's a great thing to be. However you're score could certainly be a lot higher!

How New Jersey Are You?
Make Your Own Quiz

Politics As Usual in NJ

The great Dodger/Giants/Cubs manager Leo Durocher once said, "You win some, you lose some. Some get rained out, but you gotta suit up for every one."

That saying is as true for politics as it is for baseball. And I try to suit up for every political race, and always hope for the best. Yesterday had some mixed results.

It was a good day overall for Democrats in the state---picking up a seat here and there, and more control in the Senate. Unfortunately, several key people lost their seats ----including Senator Ellen Karcher. She was a truly well-guided spirit in the Senate, and her clear thinking and progressive viewpoints will be missed. Hope she stays active.

My own Senator, Leonard Lance, won his own seat easily. However, he is too nice a guy for his own party, and they are going to toss him to the side and hire Senator Tom Kean, Jr. as their new Minority Leader. Lance is the better person, but the better person does not always win in politics---especially in New Jersey. Go figure. Picking Kean over Leonard is the Republican’s loss. My prediction: Leonard will step aside in a classy way, and let Kean be the leader. Leonard is class all the way.

I was surprised to see the stem cell research referendum fail. I thought that the subject matter was very important, and would have passed as easily as the open space question. So it goes. This defeat, I fear, will be one of the things New Jerseyeans look back and regret in years to come.

And, constitutionally at least, we no longer can have ‘idiots’ or ‘insane people’ be able to participate in politics in New Jersey. See how that lasts, with the early primary just around the corner on February 5th. The measure passed 707,987 to 476,595 ----just under 60% to 40%. So, 40% of New Jersey voters want to see idiots and insane people mill about here and there. Go figure, again. Maybe, I will post on that issue later on.

And so, I move from the macro to the micro and to my own home town of Flemington. Last year, I lost the Mayor’s race to a candidate who felt comfortable using personal attacks and innuendo as the basis for his race. In this year’s race for Borough Council, the sting was still there enough to shave off enough votes to have me lose by a hair. Again, so it goes. I will continue to focus on getting good candidates elected locally. And that Democrats have been very good at in Flemington. In a town out numbered about 2-1 Rs to Ds, we have the majority on Council now and out polled the Rs for the last three years overall.

My running mate, Linda Mastellone, won giving the Democrats control of the Borough Council for the first time in many years. My advice to them: Use your majority wisely; it is a very fragile thing.

Linda is also the first tenant to be on the Borough Council in many years, and I hope she represents their interests wisely and well. Tenants are in Flemington a diverse group, who are not treated very well by the Borough at times. They need an active, assertive, knowledgeable representative.

So, in baseball as in politics, there’s always next season. And what a season 2008 will be.

Anne Coulter: Shut up.

If you take time to re-arrange the letters of the words, “Shut up, Anne Coulter,” you get the phrase “Petulant or eunuchs”.

Sometimes, there is so much truth in re-arranged letters.

During the October 8 edition of CNBC's The Big Idea, with host Donny Deutsch, Coulter stated: "No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. ... That's what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws.”

What a total ass. And she is amazingly unapologetic in her assertions. Host Donny Deutsch took her comments as Anti-Semitic, and so do I.

When Duetsch asserted that he took offense at her comments, she questioned as to whether he was a practicing Jew or not. What a moron.

From an email from the New Jewish Democratic Council:

As you are probably well aware, Ms. Coulter has a long history of making comments that border on hate speech. She was fired from National Review in 2001 after calling on the U.S. to invade Muslim countries, "kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." In 2006 she wrote about 9/11 widows: "I’ve never seen people enjoying their husbands’ deaths so much."

Similarly, last December, a resident of Flemington wrote a letter about the current state of Christmas celebrations. She wrote to the Hunterdon County Democrat declaring, “We are a Christian nation, tolerant of all others.”

It was the writer’s assertion that because the Framers of the Constitution were Christian and that the majority of our population is Christian, that we are a Christian nation. I assumed that the writer also thinks ----given the same flawed reasoning ----that New Jersey is a Christian state; Flemington, a Christian town and perhaps her street is a Christian street. Go figure.

That is wrong on so many levels; I don’t even know where to begin. And I am an American. I do not need your 'tolerance', thank you very much.

Memo to Coulter and the Flemington writer:

Majority never means identity ---especially in America. That was not what the Framers had in mind, although closed minded Neanderthals like the two of you would like to think so.

People like Coulter, as well as the letter writer from Flemington, are what is wrong with the Christian right wing:
They both suffer from the narrowest possible viewpoint of society, and they are both superior in their ignorance, at that.

The rest of us need to be ever vigilant to this kind of point of view of America. Their ignorance goes round the nation faster and faster these days.

Flemingtoon: Real Life Funnies

Back in the 70s and 80s, I used to read the Village Voice each week. I thoroughly enjoyed all the features, especially the work of Stan Mack and “Real Life Funnies”. Here’s the scoop on Mack from our friends at Wikipedia:

“Stan Mack is a reporter/cartoonist who pioneered a documentary style of cartooning with his notorious New York comic strip Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies, which ran in The Village Voice for 20 years.”

The subheading for the strip was “All Dialogue Guaranteed Overheard”.

Inspired by his work, I offer, “Flemingtoon™”, with all dialogue overheard on the streets of Flemington. I, however, do not hear as well as Stan Mack, and cannot make the same guarantee. However, I will assure you that I will make every effort possible to be as accurate as I can be.

This was over heard at the Salsa festival in Flemington. [Sorry for how blurry this is; I am still working on the process of creating the strip, and uploading it on to the blog].

Flemingtoon™”: Real Life Funnies

I love Paris in the the spring

"When it comes to public records archives, New Jersey will always have "PARIS." At least that's the idea behind the Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support program, dubbed PARIS, that was established "to boost efficiency, integrity and security of public records systems at the county and municipal level." (Lockwood, Star-Ledger)

Paris is on every one's mind these days. No not 'France' or 'Hilton' ---the Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support program. It is essential for a town in a democratic society.

Flemington was one of many municipalities to pass a resolution this week asking the Governor to restore funding to the PARIS program. This is a very important program to aid towns in the management of "strategic and emergency records management, preservation, and storage needs of county and municipal governments." It is a no-brainer to support this resolution; the New Jersey State League advocates for all municipalities to let Governor Corzine know what you're thinking. Amazingly enough, though, a Councilman in Flemington actually voted against it.

The grant funds are accrued through fees charged to the public for the recording and filing of various public records at county clerks offices. Last month, the state announced this year's batch of PARIS grants, which totaled $21.8 million to New Jersey's 21 counties and 37 municipalities.

As the storage of information becomes more and more important in these days of electronic filing of financial transactions, property and zoning documentation ----maintenance of such records is essential for towns to be responsive for residents and businesses. If you're a borough clerk, you need to keep careful records. I have taught through the Municipal Clerks Academy, and I know the important work clerks do.

Just some thoughts.

Go hypocritical ‘libertarians’!

I served on the Flemington Borough Council for twelve years, eleven of them with Mayor Ken Kustcher. Ken in his professional life is a cardiologist. As a doctor, he was an ardent anti-smoking advocate, and he took this activism very seriously in his role as mayor.

Before he left office at the tail end of 2005, Ken tried to enact a ban on smoking at close outdoor gatherings in our town. When that failed, he attempted to create by ordinance a smoking section at outdoor events. Without getting in to the merits of the issues, suffice it to say the Republicans and the more libertarian residents and libertarian business owners in town fought him tooth and nail on the issue. So it goes.

Both the Republicans and libertarians are great at opposing what they look at as "too much government interference" in their lives when the issue is one that does not affect them personally. However, they love big government when they need to protect their own personal interests. Then they immediately define the issue as one in the “public interest”. Go hypocritical ‘libertarians’!

Anyway, the state eventually banned smoking in all indoor facilities [except for the AC casinos], and Ken was ahead of his time on the issue.

I don’t usually like to print an entire article from the news media, but this one caught my eye, and needed no comment:

Former supervisor suing Tropicana for firing him

ATLANTIC CITY - A former supervisor at the Tropicana Casino & Resort who says his lung cancer was caused by decades of exposure to secondhand smoke is suing the casino, contending it fired him for speaking out in favor of a smoking ban.

Vince Rennich was fired from the Tropicana in March, when he was the most vocal supporter of a proposed smoking ban that the City Council was considering. Originally set to ban all smoking in the city's 11 casinos, the council later agreed to a compromise in which 75 percent of the gambling floor had to be smoke-free. It took effect April 15.

"They tried to silence me," Rennich said. "It's not going to work. It was wrong, and I'm going to prove it. I'm still speaking out against smoking throughout the country."

The Tropicana had no immediate comment on the lawsuit, a spokeswoman said.

Rennich, 49, of Somers Point, has become for many the face of the casino antismoking movement, and has sought to publicize working conditions on the casino floors.

Politics aside, The Arts are good business for towns in NJ

As an actor and stand-up comedian, I have traveled in the world of entertainment for about twenty-five years. And as an elected official in my town of Flemington, I've been concerned about how to bring more business to Main Street . There is considerable debate in every community on just how to bring people in to town in order to help the downtown retail businesses come to life.

There is retail shopping, many a restaurant, and a good mix of historic sights to see in most towns in New Jersey. The Arts are a great way to bring business to any town ---whether it be the largest town in NJ of Newark or any small town like Flemington. It's just common sense.

This week in Trenton, there was a conference of towns, cultural organizations and businesses. Here is what was reported in the Star-Ledger:

“Theaters, museums and historic sites are valued as places of entertainment and education, but they also must be seen as employers, tax generators and magnets for shopping and dining, state officials said yesterday. In other words, culture means business in towns across the state. In towns like Red Bank, Madison, Newark, Trenton, Orange, Montclair and Lambertville, the catalyst for economic revitalization has been the arts," Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells told about 200 representatives of New Jersey's municipalities, cultural organizations and businesses at a conference in Trenton.”

The organization “Americans for the Arts” is the nation's leading nonprofit advocacy group for advancing the arts in the country. I have found their website an invaluable in helping to generate ideas for arts in local communities.

So, there you go. A good idea for any community in New Jersey. Republican or Democratic.

Some Mayors have trouble with E.D.

“Hi, I am Mayor Peter “Petey” McPeters of Jersey Shore, N.J. And I have trouble with E.D. First off, I have no idea what E.D. is.”

Some mayors are not the brightest bulbs on the tree.

Mr. Mayor: E.D. is eminent domain, and it’s in the New Jersey Constitution as well as the US Constitution. The Mayor is the chief executive officer in a town, and has the power to appoint members of the various zoning boards, planning boards and boards of adjustment. And the Mayor must have a working rudimentary understanding of eminent domain in in order to appoint the right people to those boards.

Without that knowledge, the town can get themselves in to a mess o’trouble. This is especially so with yesterday's New Jersey Supreme Court ruling on eminent domain.

The Court made it tougher for towns to take land through eminent domain for private development. In the Star-Ledger today Public Advocate Ron Chen said, "It is going to go a long way to preventing eminent domain abuse." The story even made papers outside of NJ.

Some in the Senate disagreed, though, such as Senate Majority Leader Bernard F. Kenny Jr. (D., Hudson), who argued, “that eminent domain has long been used, especially by urban areas, to promote redevelopment” and that the rulling will “create a litigation nightmare in the state that will paralyze redevelopment."

As my Jewish grandmother would say, “Both are a little right. Let’s meet in the middle.” But she would say it in Yiddish, trying to break up a fight between two children.

In my town of Flemington there are several projects that could develop in one of two ways. One of them is the Flemington Cut Glass property, currently owned by Hunterdon County Freeholder George Muller. It could be torn down to make way for more condos, with more people, more families, more children, more traffic, and higher property taxes. That would make Freeholder Muller a nice payday, but impact the neighborhood negatively.

Or it could be turned in to a railroad station with a light rail that connects eventually to the New Jersey Transit Line to Newark and New York. That plan would include commercial development, parking, and a way directly in and out of Flemington --- that would increase the value of our residential properties.

Should eminent domain be used for such a project?

As my grandmother would say, “Both are a little right. Let’s meet in the middle.”

"First things first, but not necessarily in that order." Doctor Who

I love walking around on Main Street in Flemington. You run into the most knowledgeable Republican people there:

“Leonard doesn't speak up enough for the Republican Party”, said a local Republican in Hunterdon County of Minority Leader Leonard Lance, ---a local Republican who shall remain nameless. “That’s why he will be challenged for his leadership position in the Senate by Tom Kean, Jr.”

Let’s just say that my Republican source was a former leader of the Hunterdon Republican County Committee, who knows how to come clean when it comes to washing dirty laundry of politics.

So, Jr., fresh off his defeat last year in the US Senate race, and facing a very active opponent in Gina Genovese, former Mayor of Long Hill Township in Morris County is already planning to challenge Senator Leonard Lance to be the Minority Leader in the Senate. My advice to Mr. Kean: Put first things first.

Now, I do admit that the 21st Legislative District, which covers parts of Union, Morris, Somerset and Essex Counties, is a fairly Republican district by and by. And Jr. does have the edge there. But, Gina is no slouch, either.

She is a Democrat, elected in a predominately Republican town. She was one of the first [if not the first] openly gay Mayors in New Jersey. She is very progressive, in a part of New Jersey that is rapidly becoming more and more progressive itself.

She has run a tennis instruction camp for more than a quarter of a century in Morris County, and has lots of name recognition. And she will have much support from the Morris County Democrats [fresh off their great win in the Morris Township special election], the gay and lesbian community in NJ, and volunteers from New Jersey for Democracy. And of course, the New Jersey State Democratic Committee is likely to make her race a priority ---- seeing that her opponent is Kean, Jr.
So, Tom, before you plan to take on Senator Lance, you’ve got to get by Gina first. And, that, ain't gonna be easy.

This is what passes for patriotism?

MyTown of Flemington has the best of traditional Memorial Day parades, filled with boy scout troops, the Hunterdon Central Marching Band --- and veterans, old and young.

One of the heads of the local veterans groups is a 60ish Viet Nam vet, who speaks each year at the various services, and is passionate about America.

After the very moving event, we had a chance to chat about ‘patriotism’ and ‘Americanism’ away from the crowds.

“I am always for America”, he says, “No matter what happens. And I have a solution to this whole immigration problem. When the first spic guy comes across the border, I’d shoot him. Then, when the next guy comes across, I shoot him, too. By that time, I figure the third guy will think twice, and go back and tell the other Mexicans to stay home.”

He continued.

“I teach in a Catholic school. I would get fired from public school. After 9/11, I tell my kids that the rag-heads and the dot-heads just have to go. America should be for Americans.”

Are these the values you want to teach to your kids I inquire. He says again that America "should be for Americans". Just a few generations ago, they were the saying the same the same thing about my people [Jews] and his people [Italians], I say. "It should still be America for Americans" he insists. I end my efforts, and wish him a good holiday for himself and his family.

Maybe someone should educate him: Tell him that Hindus are not our enemy [think that is who he means by ‘dot-heads’.] And that many of those who he is spouting this racism against are actually in the military themselves---fighting in the very same American army today he served in 30 plus years ago.

Unfortunately, this is what sometimes passes for ‘patriotism’ sometimes these days.

“Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?”

Recently in my hometown of Flemington, a Republican member of the Borough Council, called for clean and ethical campaigns in the coming fall elections. Great idea, I thought. Ironic, though, when called for by the Republican Party.

The Councilmember stated [in the May 17th Hunterdon County Democrat newspaper] that he would like to see the Council draft a resolution in support of ethical campaigning; that the Council ban taking campaign money from “state organizations, county organizations or even private organizations because that money comes with strings attached.” While I agree with the sentiment he expressed, I was wondering if he understood the irony: The irony, of course, was that it was his Republican Party that had acted in the fall elections in the manner he found so offensive. It was his Party that made allegations of corruption that they knew were not true when they said it, said it anyway, and the newspapers declared were not true, also. His Party, not the Democratic Party.

It was his Party which took substantial cash from a local attorney, and then rewarded him with a job as the Flemington Public Defender, and a place in the New Jersey pension system----those were the "strings attached”.

It was his Republican Party that over the years rewarded a local business owner with an economic development consultant contract worth close to $80,000 in return for her support in recent elections. More strings attached.

It was his Party which engaged in the campaign that the Courier News called the “nastiest ever” in Flemington ---- using Karl Rovian-type baseless personal attacks on the integrity and veracity of his Party’s Democratic opponents.

And it was his Party’s candidate who refused to sign an ethical campaign pledge in the February 2006 special election. His Party spent thousands more than the Democratic Party candidates, and moved political campaign cash around from the County Clerk’s campaign to the local Flemington campaign.

So, I think the answer to his concerns are, first, cleaning up the mess in his own Republican Party, and then see what the Borough Council can do. Such is the irony.

In the last quarter century, the American voting public has seen a disturbing trend take place: An alarming decrease in the percentage of those who are registered to vote going to the polls on Election Day. According to David Wallechinsky in Parade Magazine, "One of the more shocking statistics also relates to elections. In a recent survey of the percentage of voting-age citizens who actually cast a ballot in their country’s elections, the United States ranked only 139th out of the 172 nations that held elections." There is an equally alarming increase in the negative tone of campaigning and 'politics of personal destruction' in federal, state and especially in local campaigns. Such was the type of campaign conducted by his Party in Flemington.

I truly believe that in order to change this, we must begin locally at the grass roots level---within each political party.

Basic retail politics in local elections in Flemington used to be the traditional knocking on your neighbor's door, handing out flyers with good ideas for your community, and attending coffee gatherings in the local church or temple meeting room or school community room.

Unfortunately, this has been replaced by the same kind of negative tone and broad-based personal attacks that is typical of the 'Karl Rove/Swiftboat’ variety of campaigning in national elections. And that is not good. There are several things that residents can do right away:

Demand debates by local candidates, sponsored by the League of Women Voters. Letters to the Editor of the local community newspaper requesting in depth coverage of the local race and debate. A voluntary 'Truth in Campaigning' state-wide statute or local ordinance. Fair campaign practices. A "Clean Campaign Pledge" signed by the candidates. For some really great ideas, see an article by Seton Hall Law School Prof. Paula A. Franzese, the Chair of the New Jersey State Ethics Commission, at: http://www.cleancampaigns.net/3.html

Your elected officials, your local newspaper, and your neighbors can all be persuaded to do the right thing---and require the highest standards in New Jersey for clean political campaigns in local elections.

Flemington: MyTown in Central Jersey

While most of New Jersey struggles with the dichotomy of being either South Jersey or North Jersey, MyTown of Flemington sits in the center of Central New Jersey, at the heart of heavenly Hunterdon County. We sit pretty much in the center---we’re one hour north of Philadelphia and one hour west of NYC. People here work and travel to both cities everyday. Well, not the same people---that would be silly. But many people do choose to live here because of its proximity to NYC and Philly. One spouse/domestic partner/civil-unionist can work in one city, while the other works in the other. Proudly, we are the center of Central New Jersey. The center of what Ben Franklin called "A keg tapped at both ends".

Fellow comedian Dom Irrera tells a joke about nicknames: “In the old neighborhood, everyone had a nickname. There was Big Petey. There was Little Petey. There was even Medium Petey."

Sometimes, but not always, I feel like we live in the equivalent of ‘Medium Petey’. Not quite northern NJ and not quite southern, either. To my buds in Bergen County, we’re part of South Jersey, and all Philly fans. To my peeps in Gloucester County, we’re strict northerners and all Yankee fans. And at the center of it all is Flemington, MyTown in Central Jersey.

And I can say ‘MyTown’ because while I am not a native NJer [born and raised in NYC, thank you very much---Brooklyn, to be exact, thanks again] I spent twelve years on the Flemington Borough Council dealing with the problems and challenges that any Central Jersey town faces these days. Property taxes. Sprawl. Property taxes. Traffic. Downtown business leaving, coming back, leaving again. And property taxes, of course. So, I can now claim my piece of NJ as MyTown.

Flemington [aside from being MyTown] is really Anytown, USA. We have our Main Street [really called “Main Street”, ---and we even have a North Main and a South Main, too]. We have our history ---the Lindbergh Baby Trial took place here in 1935. And, no, it was not the Lindbergh Baby who was on trial [like we’ve never heard that joke before]—(and yup, I made that joke myself once, when I was living here for about five minutes) ----it was the first “Trial of the Century” and the trial-ee was Bruno Hauptman. We even have a re-enactment of the Trial each year in the actual courthouse where the original trial took place. Some older folks around here (including the current Mayor) still believe that Hauptman was guilty and got what he deserved. Really.

While MyTown has not grown much in years and years and years [pop. according to City-Data.com is “Males: 2,038 (48.5%)Females: 2,162 (51.5%)”, [Check that out, fellas!---that’s 1.06 girls for every boy!]
We’re still just about 4200, on the nose------MyTown is surrounded on all four sides by the ever-growing, ever-changing, ever-pulsating, housing development-building, school-constructing, mall-installing, ‘open space’ buying, super-growing Raritan Township [21,834 residents, increased a staggering 138.9 percent since 1980!] -----RTville, the town without a center.

RTville used to call MyTown ‘the whole in the doughnut’. I prefer [since MyTown is the town-center of RTville] to call MyTown the ‘nucleus of the cell’. After all, this is where everything in Hunterdon happens---all roads in Hunterdon County [well, two roads, actually---31 and 2-oh-2] lead to MyTown. My term has not caught on yet with the local residents, but it is more catchy than ‘the whole in the doughnut’, and it has panache. And EveryTown in NJ needs some panache to distinguish itself from NYC, Philly and [sometimes] the rest of Jersey.

So, I kind’ve grown to like MyTown very much. It’s home and it is getting more panache-ey everyday.