New Jersey Votes Tuesday November 5th! We tailgate until then!

You probably already know that Election Day’s only 5 days away. Turnout will be abysmal which is sad. But that won’t stop us political junkies from savoring every detail. Here’s a little something to nosh on which gearing up for Tuesday’s main event.

Twit

When I was little growing up in South Carolina, my mama always told me “honey, you can alway spot a thin-skinned man by how quickly he blocks on Twitter!”

Just kidding, she never said that. But it would’ve been prescient if she did. Jay Webber proves it all the time.

Webber, the long-time Assemblyman from Morris County loves to tell you how he feels on Twitter and then block you before you can clap back. This routine accelerated during Webber’s losing battle for Congress last year. Now Jay’s back on the ballot defending his assembly seat.

Juxtapose that with Senator Loretta Weinberg, the venerable liberal from Teaneck, who takes a very different approach on social media. Loretta always had the onions to engage and even embrace the kind of debates that send Jay Webber scampering.

“I tend to not internalize,” Senator Weinberg explained. “I take the attitude that people who are so personally negative have their own problems, and they are not mine!”

Then she offered up something Webber could emulate but probably won’t.

“Some are respectful ‘disagreers’ and they have a right to take on my beliefs and the bills I pass, and we can have a dialogue,” Loretta told InsiderNJ. “But I must admit I sometimes get a bit snarky when people are really rude or with some of ‘our friends’ who are fixated on one issue or who get a little myopic.”

But Jay Webber won’t engage, not even when the critiques are constructive and warranted. He’d rather block you and then whine about “radical socialists” and “political correctness.”

Meanwhile, you’ve got Loretta Weinberg, an 80-something granny who continues to demonstrate that you can engage your detractors without losing your cool or abandoning your convictions.

For Loretta Weinberg, it’s part of the job she signed up for.

“And by the way,” she aded,”I get 100 times more encouragement and support than I ever receive on the negative side.”

Zwicker v NJLCV (part 2)

Yesterday I weighed in on Andrew Zwicker’s feud with NJ’s League of Conservation voters and since I apparently came off less neutral than I actually feel about the whole matter let’s revisit that for a second, shall we?

First of all, Zwicker’s environmental track record is superb. Secondly, the NJLCV’s endorsement snub for issues unrelated to their core mission is petty. LCV should have endorsed on the merits despite Zwicker’s curiously vigorous support for legislation to get (some) dark money out of the political process. I don’t understand why LCV rebuffed a true champion of the environment. Nor is it clear why Zwicker’s so intent on pushing legislation that IMHO doesn’t measure up.

Which gets me back to me original point: this spat never needed to happened.

Grade inflation, tailgate edition 

We’re sticking with NJ’s League of Conservation voters for a minute because yesterday they released their 2019 Legislative Scorecard which rated NJ lawmakers on their environmental track-record.

“The importance of the Legislative Scorecard cannot be overstated,” said NJLCV’s Ed Potosnak in a press release. “With this comprehensive scorecard, and the amount that has been accomplished by this legislature, one thing becomes exceptionally true – this is the most environmentally productive legislature in over a decade.”

That sounds a lot like “mission accomplished” despite the fact that there’s lead and plastic in our blood and the Jersey Shore is steadily eroding into the sea. And to call this a “comprehensive scorecard” is a really curious way to put it.

Remember last spring when NJ’s Board of Public Utilities approved a $300,000,000 bribe bailout to subsidize PSE&G’s nuclear power portfolio? That was awesome wasn’t it? I’ll never forget that day because I had at least a dozen conniptions.

NJ’s League of Conservation Voters apparently didn’t factor PSE&G’s bailout into their scorecard calculus. Lawmakers who championed and ultimately voted to give PSE&G $300,000,000 didn’t take a hit.

Whether massive corporate subsides are a good deal for the taxpayer (or not) is worth debating. One commissioner called PSE&G’s windfall “highway robbery” and another said “the Board (of Public Utilities) is being directed to pay ransom and the hostages are the citizens of New Jersey.”

There’s nothing green or sustainable or progressive about forcing taxpayers to subsidize nuclear power plants. For NJLCV to ignore those transgressions will be hard to forgive.

Today’s the 7th anniversary of Hurricane Sandy’s wrath. For a more sobering account on Trenton’s environmental track record, click here for Clean Water Action’s take.

Jay Lassiter got into NJ politics pretty much straight out of rehab for meth. Any guesses which world is shadier?