Hank Kalet

It’s time to move on same-sex marriage

I am sure there is a majority in both houses of the state Legislature that supports same-sex marriage, but too many have failed to step up, moderates like state Sens. Bill Baroni and Jen Beck, who have stood up for gay rights and other socially liberal positions in the past, but have remained silent on the issue until now.

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora and state Sen. Loretta Weinberg have sponsored legislation — with 11 Assembly co-sponsors and five Senate co-sponsors — that deserves a hearing, and soon.
(There is a competing bill in the Assembly, voiding same-sex marriages, that is unlikely to get traction.)

The bills, both called the “Freedom of Religion and Equality in Civil Marriage Act,” were introduced in June 2008, but remain dormant in both Judiciary committees. Sen. Paul Sarlo, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Tom Moran that he remains undecided.

“These are people I go to church with,” he said. “I’m leaning towards not supporting it. But I’m an open-minded person.”

Let’s hope so. It’s his ballgame for now.

Dispatches: It was all about Jersey

Dispatches is up — on the election. The column already has generated a comment, disagreement from the right (from someone calling himself MotherRedDog).

And after all of that spin………Obama did campaign for him often and yes the
money was big, and 25 percent of the voters said it WAS a referendum on
Obama…..spinning until you puke won’t change these facts.

I am willing to admit that this is not a good thing for the Obama administration, but to think that 25 percent of voters — not sure where the number comes from, but it’s what he offers — means much is absurd. That is fewer than voted for McCain last time.

In fact, fewer people voted for Chris Christie on Tuesday than voted for John McCain last year. The issue was turnout — a complete lack of faith in the incumbent, mostly deserved, suppressing turnout in urban areas at a time when suburban Democrats bailed on the party.

The evidence just doesn’t support the anti-Obama theory, at least not in New Jersey, where the president continues to poll well.

Define mandate

I’m not a big Mulshine fan, but this column pretty much covers it — at least as far as Christie is concerned.

Voters held Corzine accountable; they will hold Christie accountable, too

The New Jersey electorate held Jon Corzine to his word and held him accountable for the mess the state is in, even if he was not responsible for a good portion of the mess.

That said, it will be interesting to see how Chris Christie, the new governor elect, can pull off his agenda without budget gimmicks and what might happen when it becomes obvious that we cannot lower both state and local taxes, cannot promise to cut waste and shrink government without hurting someone, without angering some constituency that he will need down the road.

Who gets hurt is the question that awaits. Who gets hurt? Because someone will get hurt. It is the only way to bridge an $8 billion gap.

Christie wins, but appears to lack coattails

AP has called it for Chris Christie and the TV news is trumpeting it, but it appears that he has few coattails. Democrats look like they are going to keep their seats in the Assembly, Republicans theirs and, of the handful of local results I’ve seen, only South Brunswick flipped, so we’ll see.

And yet we’re starting to hear the nonsense about how this shows a groundswell for the GOP, something I guess was inevitable.

Painting the Christie win as startling is startling in and of itself, given that Christie was ahead by 20 or so points early, saw the poll-lead evaporate and hung on. By rights, it shouldn’t have been as close as it was.

I suspect the New Jersey vote has little to say what will happen nationally. Consider these numbers from the exit polling:

Obama made himself a major factor in the race by campaigning for Corzine twice in the final weeks of the race — including at two rallies on Sunday. The majority of voters said that their feelings about Obama were not a factor in their vote in the race for governor.

But voters’ feelings about Obama were in sync with the what they did in the voting booths Tuesday. Christie voters strongly disapprove of Obama’s performance; Corzine voters overwhelmingly approve of the president.

Two-thirds of Daggett voters said they approved of the president — perhaps a hint that Daggett’s presence on the ballot hurt Corzine more than Christie.

The New Jersey Republican revolt of the early 1990s didn’t prevent Bill Clinton from winning in New Jersey. And I suspect that the anti-Corzine revolt — which is what this was, an anti-property tax, anti-Corzine vote — will have little impact on the congressional races, as little as they appear to have had on the Legislature.