Hank Kalet

Jim Testa of Jersey Beat offers a pretty good summary of the failings of the Menendez campaign this year — in a senate race that he should have been winning (in the polls, anyway) by 10 points. I mean this is a so-called blue state, right? And there is a concensus that George Bush is doing a bad job and that his war is a debacle and Tom Kean still supports it — and yet Sen. Menendez has been unable to take advantage.

There always were some questions about Menendez — about his name recognition, about his connections to Hudson County (a canard that shouldn’t have been an issue), about the bodies he’s left strewn across the political landscape (they play rough in his neck of the woods). I had been hoping for someone like state Sen. Nia Gill, a politician who is willing to battle the entrenched elite, or U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, a rather solid progressive. Menendez is reliably liberal — aside from his stance on Cuba and some security issues — but there were always those nagging doubts.

I just hope this is not something that Gov. Jon Corzine — who picked him to fill out the unexpired seat partly because he thought he was the man most likely to retain the seat against a well-financed opponent — will live to regret.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

So the South Brunswick Democrats are not returning or donating the campaign money they’ve received from John Lynch’s PAC. I guess that’s the organization’s prerogative, though I think it’s a bad move.

Here’s my Dispatches on the issue.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

If the state wants to find new revenues, here is a pretty easy place to find them: the state’s Business Employment Incentive Program.

According to New Jersey Policy Perspective,

BEIP provides to businesses cash grants worth up to 80 percent of the amount that a company withholds from its employees for their New Jersey Gross Income Tax payments. The size of the payments depends on how many people a company brings to New Jersey, and how much it pays them.

The program sounds good on paper, but as the story of Altana Pharma in Florham Park shows, it is really nothing more than corporate welfare.

At a ribbon-cutting in 2002 for its new US headquarters in Florham Park, Altana Pharma made the prediction that by 2007 the international pharmaceutical firm would employ 1,000 people at the site.

Things didn’t work out as the company hoped. On October 3, Altana announced plans to lay off 350 workers. That was bad news for the employees-and it also was bad news for the taxpayers of New Jersey, who to date have handed out $488,553 in subsidies to Altana. The money was part of the deal the state made with the firm when it decided to put its headquarters in New Jersey.

Altana, according to NJPP, “attributed to delays by the federal Food and Drug Administration in approving pharmaceutical products,” which meant a loss of revenue. The layoffs meant that Altana ended up receiving less from the state, but it still received money even though it failed to follow through on its promises.

NJPP thinks this Altana should give the money back now and not wait the two years that generally pass in these circumstances.

(F)airness to New Jersey’s taxpayers should also dictate that the company give back the nearly $500,000 it has received so far. New Jersey has gotten a poor return on its investment. Altana, meanwhile, had net income of $507 million in 2005 from its operations in 30 countries.

“New Jersey taxpayers shouldn’t have to support payoffs for layoffs,” said NJPP President Jon Shure. “This is one more example of how subsidies are bad business for the state.”

Which is why the state should kill the subsidy program and end the farce of having taxpayers subsidize businesses that do not need the money.

The Altana case is one more piece of evidence that state subsidies to businesses are the wrong way to build an economy. Companies have gotten very good at playing states off against each other. Businesses end up getting paid by taxpayers to do what they might well have done anyway. And when promises aren’t kept, the state loses. If the money going to Altana and other companies were used instead to build an economy the old-fashioned way-investing in transportation infrastructure, schools, training, etc-the results would last a lot longer.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner has pulled out of the presidential sweepstakes — no loss, really, too much of a centrist for my tastes, too bland. Odds remain that Hillary Clinton will be the nominee, which is bad news for the party (if there is a more polarizing figure these days, I’m not sure who it is).

I like Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold (no surprise, right?).

Here is how I rank them based on my own preferences:

Could easily vote for:

1. Russ Feingold, U.S. senator from Wisconsin
2. John Edwards, former vice presidential candidate and former U.S. Sen. from North Carolina

Some trepidation:

1. Al Gore, former vice president, but not running (or so he says)
2. John Kerry, former presidential candidate and U.S. senator from Massachussets
3. Tom Vilsack, governor of Iowa
4. Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico
5. Christopher Dodd, U.S. senator from Connecticut

Yuck:

1. Evan Bayh, U.S. senator from Indiana
2. Joseph Biden, U.S. senator from Delaware
3. Hillary Clinton, U.S. senator from New York.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

The basketball preseason opens tonight for my beloved New York Knickerbockers, so forgive me a moment of obviously unwarranted optimism — it’s likely the only chance I’ll have to be optimistic about the Knicks.

Five reasons for optimism:

1. Channing Frye — The young power forward showed last season that he will be a good player in the NBA, possibly an all-star. But he was a bit soft. So this year, he comes in bigger and stronger and could be the down-low presence the team needs.
2. Eddy Curry — The center has all the tools. The big question is whether he has the attitude. Freed from Larry Brown’s accusatory stare (and let’s face it, Brown was as much to blame for last year’s disaster as the players, the GM and ownership — it truly was a team effort), Curry might just find the confidence to shine.
3. The Marbury/Francis tandem — If these guys can find a way to coexist and play some D, then we could have one of the best backcourts in the league — especially with Jamaal Crawford developing into a solid performer.
4. Jamaal Crawford — Right now, he is the team’s best player. His defense has improved, he handles the ball well and he’s a streaky shooter. But he has game and is willing to take the big shot.
5. Isaiah Thomas — Thomas is bringing a fresh attitude to the team after a year of turmoil and bad vibes. This is his roster and he maybe the right guy to get it to play better.

Five reasons for skepticism (call this the reality-based category):

1. Isaiah Thomas — This is his team and it remains dysfunctional and badly constructed. If he comes to this job with the same lack of foresight and shapeshifting that he approaches roster building, then the Knicks are doomed to repeat last year’s debacle.
2. Marbury/Francis — If they can’t coexist, if they can’t share the ball with each other or the other important Knicks then guys like Frye, Curry and Crawford will not grow as players and the team will lose 60.
3. Eddy Curry — He proves to be the next Jerome James.
4. Jalen Rose — What is he doing here? His presence can only mean trouble down the road.
5. Dolan and Thomas — No one should have any illusions that these guys know what they are doing.

So there it is. At least I can watch the Mets.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick