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Truck driver leads NJ Senate president after spending $153 on campaign

nbcphiladelphia.com

21–30 of 459 posts

Re: Truck driver leads NJ Senate president after spending $153 on campaign

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an interesting story about Madigan in Chicago. Ran the Illinois machine. Corrupt as all hell. A college student decided to run against him and collected enough signatures to get on the ballot. Madigan typically ran unopposed. Well come to find about, of the 500 people who signed the petition to get this kid on the ballot, 1200 rescinded their support. You do the math. These people aren't loved. They just kno…

People where I live get a ballot and a book in the mail weeks before the election with details for all the candidates and questions, and all you have to do is drop it in the outgoing mail. Takes no more than 30min of your time, maybe 1 hour if you are a slow reader. And yet, less than 20% voter participation. It is ironic that turnout for national elections, where their vote is moot is much higher. But for school boa…

WA? That's how it was in Vancouver when I lived there. Best system I've experience so far. Also felt the government was very fair and in line with the community.

Re: Truck driver leads NJ Senate president after spending $153 on campaign

#22
post #17
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something was mentioned about 150k total voters, but only 32k ever voted for the incumbent.

150,000 people eligible to vote. 32,000 votes for the incumbent. Hence, 118,000 people who would either vote for someone else or could be persuaded to come and vote.

Yep. DecisionDesk shows GOP got 32,682 whereas the incumbent DEM got 30,352 with 96% in.

Re: Truck driver leads NJ Senate president after spending $153 on campaign

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My gut take is that the removal of the SALT deduction had a huge impact in NJ due to the very high property taxes

I doubt the vast majority of people (probably less than 10%) in NJ are paid enough to be affected by SALT since standard deduction went up so much. Property plus state income tax liabilities would have to be more than $12.5k/$25k single/married for people to have been affected. I would bet on school closings and the trend of higher taxes/less government services, but the latter is unavoidable due to the outlier amoun…

>According to recent reporting, if we reinstated the SALT deduction, nearly a third of New Jersey residents — almost three million people — would get tax relief. As many as 80% of them have incomes of $216,000 or less. Hardly the 1%.

https://www.northjersey.com/story/opinion/2021/05/17/salt-de...

NJ has very high property tax rates and high home values

Re: Truck driver leads NJ Senate president after spending $153 on campaign

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People where I live get a ballot and a book in the mail weeks before the election with details for all the candidates and questions, and all you have to do is drop it in the outgoing mail. Takes no more than 30min of your time, maybe 1 hour if you are a slow reader. And yet, less than 20% voter participation. It is ironic that turnout for national elections, where their vote is moot is much higher. But for school boa…

WA? That's how it was in Vancouver when I lived there. Best system I've experience so far. Also felt the government was very fair and in line with the community.

Yes. OR is the same.

Re: Truck driver leads NJ Senate president after spending $153 on campaign

#25
post #2

Any (relatively) unbiased sources that explain how NJ got into this predicament? Just current leadership being out of touch with the wants/needs of NJ citizens?

People turned out to vote for the marquee election, the governor's race, and voted for that party all the way down the ballot. Almost anyone from the republican party would have wound up in the same position

Re: Truck driver leads NJ Senate president after spending $153 on campaign

#27
post #14
post #2

Any (relatively) unbiased sources that explain how NJ got into this predicament? Just current leadership being out of touch with the wants/needs of NJ citizens?

Quoting Durr in Politico: [0] Durr said Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s coronavirus executive orders, vaccine and school mask, unemployment benefits snafus and a general distrust of the South Jersey Democratic machine that has dominated the region for years all contributed to his strong performance. Sweeney, Durr said, “never challenged” Murphy during the pandemic. “You have the debacle of unemployment. The masking of…

I'm beginning to come around to this point of view: https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/peacefield/617c7b245793d... - we are not a serious nation.

There's a global pandemic caused by an airborne pathogen, and people throw an absolute hissy fit over a minor inconvenience like masks. My kids wear them all day long in school, and while they don't love them, they are not constantly whining about them like some adults.

My grandparents, on the other hand, dealt with wartime rationing for years (and they were lucky, because they lived in a place where they could hunt) because our country was in a global battle with Nazis. And all that after the depression.

Re: Truck driver leads NJ Senate president after spending $153 on campaign

#28
post #2

Any (relatively) unbiased sources that explain how NJ got into this predicament? Just current leadership being out of touch with the wants/needs of NJ citizens?

There is an interesting story about Madigan in Chicago. Ran the Illinois machine. Corrupt as all hell. A college student decided to run against him and collected enough signatures to get on the ballot. Madigan typically ran unopposed. Well come to find about, of the 500 people who signed the petition to get this kid on the ballot, 1200 rescinded their support. You do the math. These people aren't loved. They just kno…

It's not that simple. There was a multi-million dollar (I believe it was $18MM) coordinated campaign against Sweeny in 2017 that failed. It wasn't about offering voters a choice, they've had choices in the past.

Re: Truck driver leads NJ Senate president after spending $153 on campaign

#30
Something's weird here:

"State campaign finance records show a slate of candidates including Durr raised more than $10,000 during their campaign but spent only $153: $66.64 at Dunkin to buy food and drinks for staff and $86.67 for paper flyers and business cards."

So he raised more than $10,000, but reports only spending $153. Then how much did he raise? Where did the remaining money go? And how did he pay for things like the video ads linked below or other outreach efforts if he only reported spending $153 on donuts and paper?

Is this a situation where outside donors/PACs financed everything so on paper he himself spent nothing?

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