That the New Jersey GOP would look outside the state for a challenger to U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg says quite a bit about the party’s health at a time when there is an unpopular Democratic governor in the State House.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
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As of now, it appears that the governor’s school-funding plan is not going to pass in the state Senate. This is not a bad thing — and not because the plan is flawed. It is because the plan is being rushed, because officials from school districts like South Brunswick, which appear to gain new funding, are concerned what will happen down the line. And because the concerns of urban educators need to be addressed — will this plan result in reduced funding?
Should the plan go down, I am hoping the governor will put it back on the table and the state Legislature slows the process down and answer the questions.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
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Al Leiter for Senate??? Has anyone watched him broadcast a Yankee game? I mean, here’s a guy whose chief qualification is that he grew up in New Jersey and pitched some big games for the Mets. But really, Al Leiter for Senate? Really?
Granted, Leiter has been actively involved in charity work, but something about a Leiter candidacy just smacks of the absurd.
Plus, has anyone noticed how the star turn turned out in Pennsylvania? Remember Lynn Swan, star receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers, managed to lose in a serious thumping in his race for governor (he managed a paltry 40 percent).
Frank Lautenberg maybe old, but it would be foolish to underestimate his political abilities in a state as blue as New Jersey.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
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Hard to argue with this editorial from The Asbury Park Press.
Efforts to block consideration of the nomination of Attorney General Stuart Rabner for chief justice of the state Supreme Court exposed one of the Legislature’s most unseemly traditions: senatorial courtesy. The ability of senators to hold up action on gubernatorial nominees from their home county — for no reason and without explanation — has no basis in state law and should be abolished.
The affair was an unseemly one and tarnished for me the reputation of one of the state’s better senators.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
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Buried in Monday’s state Supreme Court decision upholding the death sentence of 29-year-old Brian Wakefield, who was convicted of the 2001 home invasion and beating deaths of Richard and Shirley Hazard in Atlantic County contained a kernel of hope for opponents of the death penalty.
The court ruled that the Wakefield trial and sentencing met all of the criteria under New Jersey law, that it was fair, the death sentence was properly imposed, and his death sentence is not disproportionate.
Justice Virginia Long, in a dissent, offered a concise rebuke not only to the courts immediate decision, but to the ethical underpinnings of the courts willingness to continue endorsing the death penalty. She said the state court in the 1980s relied on evolving standards of decency to uphold that ultimate sanction and that a changing moral climate required the state to reconsider its commitment to the death penalty.
Justice Long’s view of the death penalty is consistent with the recommendations made in a report issued by a state panel that had been charged with reviewing the state’s capital punishment statute.
The key finding of the report, issued in January, was that the the death penalty was inconsistent with evolving standards of decency in New Jersey and elsewhere in the country. The report also found that there is no evidence that the death penalty acts as a deterrent or “rationally serves a legitimate penological intent”; that there remains too much risk that felons who commit similar crimes will face different sentences or that the innocent will be executed; that it is more expensive than life in prison without parole; and there are better alternatives, including life imprison without parole.
Unfortunately, the court may not have the authority to follow Justice Long’s lead — Justice Roberto A. Rivera-Soto, writing for the majority, cited a 1992 constitutional amendment explicitly stating that the death penalty is not cruel or unusual punishment to explain why he believed the court did not have the constitutional authority to strike down the capital punishment statute.
But that does not mean the death penalty cannot be overturned by the state Legislature. With Thursday’s Senate hearing coming up, I am hoping that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee read Justice Long’s dissent and take it to heart.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
The Cranbury Press Blog
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Hank Kalet 