Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

Good decision proves program’s limits

Former State Sen. William Schluter, a Republican who sat on the Clean Election Commission that studied the 2005 pilot program, offered an interesting take on the decision yesterday to select the 14th District as the contested 2007 district — one I can’t necessarily disagree with.

“One of the criticisms of this bill is that it would have a partisan body formed to make this decision — and you’re looking at it,” Schluter said.

He added that the 12th is a major target this year, meaning it will be a magnet for money — again, this may be true, but it ignores the fact that the 14th has been the most expensive district in the state in recent years. So the money was going somewhere.

Where Schluter is correct is that the legislation was destined to create this kind of battle — one that could only result in a partisan decision. A better approach would have been an expanded program — at least four districts (two chosen by each party, which would have allowed both districts to be in play), though the six originally recommended would have been better.

In the end, the 14th makes the most sense — if for no other reason than the candidates will be committed to making the program work.

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Clean elections update

Politics NJ is reporting that the 14th District was selected as the clean elections district by a 3-2 vote along party lines.

It’s a good decision, though both districts could make a good case. In the end, the decision came down to the number of incumbents running — according to former Gov. Jim Florio, who cast the deciding vote. Just one incumbent is running in the 14th, while two are running in the 12th. Incumbent Assembly Republicans in both districts are making bids for the Senate — Bill Baroni in the 14th is seeking the seat left vacant by Sen. Peter Inverso, a Republican, while Jennifer Beck is challenging incumbent Ellen Karcher in the 12th.

Ms. Beck says the decision opens up the 12th to oodles of special interest money — a view that Sen. Karcher seconds. Seems there is room for some kind of truce. (I suspect the GOP would prefer not to have to spend money in the 12th, but that is just me.)

The key, as I’ve written many times in the last week, is that the 14th has been the most expensive in the state in recent years and the program’s primary sponsors — Baroni and Linda Greenstein, a Democrat — are running in the 14th.

So let’s get this thing going and prove that clean elections can work in New Jersey.

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Filtered images

Matthew Yglesias offers an interesting deconstruction of the attempts to link the Duke rape case to the Imus controversy. Like Yglesias, I have avoided writing about Duke — primarily because it was an ongoing police investigation and information was constantly in flux. And like him, I was struck by the attempts of some to dismiss the Imus controversy and its ugly racial elements by tossing the Duke case onto the table.

For months, …, every time I blog on anything even vaguely race-related, I’m struck by the sheer volume of people who want to respond “what about the Duke lacrosse case?” Well, I think, what about it? Then I read something like this from Victor Davis Hanson who really doesn’t cover these issues either, and it hits me. There’s this huge block of people out there, primarily reasonably prosperous middle-aged middle class white men, who in all genuineness seem to believe that what went down there is emblematic of broad-based social problem. They see the Imus controversy through the same lens — the lens that makes them think the issue here is Al Sharpton or hip-hop. It’s a mentality that believes — deeply and sincerely — that the middle-aged white dude just can’t get a fair shake in this country.

My sense, after this week, is that Yglesias’ depiction of the race filter is accurate. Much of the defense of Imus — and of others who have made race-denigrating coments — plays off this attitude.

That it doesn’t reflect reality, however, that white middle-class men are not a put upon class, not as a class, anyway.

If white middle-class men feel they aren’t getting a fair shake — and they aren’t — they should get together with all the rest of those not getting a fair shake and hold the people in power accountable.

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Decision time for clean elections

PoliticsNJ is reporting that the Clean Elections District Selection Committee will be meeting today, despite the weather.

The choice comes down to the 12th and 14th districts — two districts with shared representation. What separates them, in my mind (as I wrote last week week), is the commitment by both parties to clean elections. While the Democrats in the 12th are on the record in favor of the program (they cosponsored the legislation), the Republicans have been quiet.

In the 14th, however, you have the two primary Assembly sponsors (Republican Bill Baroni and Democrat Linda Greenstein), both of whom sat on the committee that studied the earlier trial. Both want this program to work and said they will do what they can to ensure it.

If the state is serious about this, it will select the 14th. If not, it will select the 12th and let the chips fall where they may.

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Va. Tech tragedy in the news

Watching MSNBC and CNN on the horrible shooting today at Virginia Tech. The cable networks are tossing anything they can find on the shooting, no matter how tangential, onto the screen, hoping to stay ahead of a story that no one seems to understand just yet. This has led to some questionable assertions and speculation — MSNBC had a psychologist/lawyer on who outlined what he believed would be the background, both biographical and psychological, of a man that has not been named.

It seem incredibly irresponsible to speculate like this — better to just report what we know as fact, offer comment from those students who wish to speak and go from there.

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