Bedbugs may creep you out, but they're not that bad. Catch them early before they dig in and they're very treatable. But expensive.

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We're all glad to hear the Mayor has such high ethical standards.

All the same, I'd check the phone logs.

Healy fundraiser called into question
By Darryl R. Isherwood | February 28th, 2013 - 12:41pm

Jersey City Councilman and Mayoral candidate Steve Fulop is raising questions over a recent fundraiser held by his opponent, city Mayor Jerry Healy.

Fulop is calling into question whether Healy partnered with an independent expenditure organization in holding his fundraiser in an attempt to circumvent laws governing pay to play and campaign contribution limits.

At issue is the invitation to the Wednesday fundraiser held at the home of a Healy supporter. The invite to the event asks donors for a $1,000 contribution to attend. Donors have the option of writing the check directly to the Healy campaign or to For New Jersey Families and independent expenditure committee. The invitation states clearly that if the donation is made to the organization "no limits - no pay to play."

?Telling donors who attend the same fundraiser that they can either write checks to the campaign or to this allegedly independent organization shows coordination between the two organizations,? campaign manager John Thieroff said. ?It?s a clear violation of the law.?

When asked for comment, a spokesman for the Healy camp seemed to disavow the invitation.

?We have absolutely no knowledge of solicitations for anything other than Healy for Mayor or Team Healy. Every invitation by this campaign has a paid-for-line and strictly follows the letter of the law. I can?t say the same thing for Steve Fulop,? said Healy campaign spokesman Joshua Henne.

The invitation clearly states "Paid for by Team Healy 2013."


Jeff Brindle, Executive Director of the State Election Law Enforcement Commission said while he cannot comment on any specific instance or accusation, in general an independent expenditure committee cannot coordinate with a campaign.

"That's the law. There can't be any coordination between the two," he said.

Thieroff said the names of contributors to New Jersey Families must be fully disclosed and they must be held to the same contribution limits and pay-to-play restrictions as if they were donating directly to the mayor?s campaign.

?We are truly astonished at the blatant violation of the public trust by the city?s top elected official,? Thieroff said. ?The taxpayers of our city need to know immediately who these anonymous contributors are and what they expect in exchange from this mayor for these donations.?

A search of IRS data brings up one entry for For New Jersey Families. According to documents filed with the IRS, the 527 was formed on January 30 and was registered to Rich Torraca at a MIlltown, NJ address.

An internet search showed a Rich Torraca is employed by Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Calls to Lautenberg's office were not immediately returned.

Torraca did not immediately return a call or email for comment.

Last week, Lautenberg endorsed Healy in his reelection bid.

Read more at http://www.politickernj.com/63611/hea ... ed-question#ixzz2MDYnqxoK
or sign up for a free trial of State Street Wire at http://www.politickernj.com/freetrial

The message Healy would like you to hear is that he's focused on crime.

The unfortunate reality though is that the gun buyback program he touts has been shown to be ineffective at reducing crime. It's great to get guns back - but most of the guns recovered were not going to be used in crime.

By the same token, he can run down to Washington all he wants, but that is not taking the straight-line approach to Jersey City crime. The major issues there are better policing (at least that's what officers say if you talk to them off the record) and long-term community development including education and jobs. Healy has been completely disengaged from each of those issues

These help illustrate one of Healy's big problems. He does not have the ability to think problems through, try a variety of strategies, and run with what works. Because of his limited capacity and focus, he'll throw together something and claim it works. Kind of like his TV ad.

The link to the video within the Politicker article amusingly produces the message "The site's security certificate is not trusted!" The actual ad is located on Mayor Healy's campaign website.

Healy Campaign releases first TV ad
By Max Pizarro | February 27th, 2013 - 10:23am

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy?s campaign released its first television commercial today.

?Our first commercial focuses on Mayor Healy?s aggressive plans to combat crime, his successful efforts to get guns off the streets and his fight to make Jersey City a safer place for all residents,? said Joshua Henne, Healy campaign spokesman.

Healy's ad lands a day after the Fulop Campaign premiered its first two TV ads.

Healy's ad (link to video)

The aptly named crazy denies that he's Healy's lawyer. But he sure sounds like Healy's lawyer...

Funny how he keeps mentioning discredited crap from a decade ago, falsely implying that "someone"(unnamed, unknown, and likely imaginary) from Fulop's first campaign paid a ridiculous price to buy about 8 votes in a dangerous, easily discovered manner.

Yet crazy never seems to mention the proven crap from four years ago, where multiple members of Team Healy went to jail for peddliing their offices. And the only thing unproven about that scandal is Jerry's involvement. Sure they've got him on video talking about the money. Sure they put his campaign treasurer in jail for taking the money. But they've got a defense. "Jerry didn't know nothing."

Right.

Since this thread is allegedly about Dan being Dan, let's get Mr. Levin's take on his running mate.

1. Dan, what do you think of Healy using your campaign's money to hire bloggers to peddle this slime?

2. Dan, when did you stop knowing that Healy was a crook, and discover that Honest Jerry has been doing a great job all along?

Waiting for the slime gods to deflect again...

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You're far too generous. The reval will redistribute the load of who pays. While it will hit downtown hard, there are lots of folks citywide who will get big increases. While the Mayor's tax-abated friends will skate by oblivious.

But with no more elections to worry about, Healy will revert to form and also put in big a tax increase. Just a guess. Just because he did it after his election in 2005 and after his election in 2009 is no guarantee he'll do it again. Right.

Healy's showing that he's increasingly desperate as his options and his chances dwindle.

As far as the money goes, Healy has admitted that he can no longer raise the money he used to by giving out no-bid contracts. "Financing is difficult. As you know there's been a whole host of pay to play laws passed... I don't really like it." An admission that his only supporters are people who benefit from his official "favors." (HudsonCountyTV.com:
"Full interview with Mayor Healy at campaign kick-off event")

Since Healy can't reward his corporate donors like he used to, he has to strong-arm the people who work for the city - you, know the people he makes layoff, salary, and promotion decisions about.

Remember he was soliciting these contributions from city employees, and then all of a sudden gives out surprise raises. He hasn't filed election reports this quarter. I wonder how many of the city employees who got raises will show up on his contributor list.

Torres is right on target with several of his main points.

First, Healy's going all-negative all the time, to make people disgusted with the campaign and hold down turnout.

Second, the high degree of "imaginative facts" (otherwise known as lies) about Healy's record and about his opponent.

Third, the remarkable number of broken promises from Healy's last campaign. The biggest broken promise? Trust. With so many of his running mates, campaign staff, and administration members going to jail for corruption, his second term was broken at the start, and he hasn't even made an effort to recover.

There's a pretty clear choice in this election.

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In my neighborhood we had better things to do than worry about Healy's location. But we sure didn't see him or anyone else from the city.

It's hardly worth commenting on. Healy is living in an imaginary Jersey City.

Christie thought our money was better used propping up this failure (and the bigger Xanadu disaster in the Meadowlands) than building infrastructure. Just like other crony politicians he made both calls for political reasons, and now NJ taxpayers pick up the bill with LESS THAN NOTHING to show for it.

Atlantic City's Revel casino to file for bankruptcy

By The Associated Press
on February 19, 2013 at 8:54 PM, updated February 20, 2013 at 12:30 PM Print

ATLANTIC CITY ? Revel, the casino many people had hoped would turn around Atlantic City's sagging fortunes, said today that it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, less than a year after it opened.

The voluntary, prepackaged bankruptcy envisioned for late March will wipe away about two-thirds of its $1.5 billion in debt by converting more than $1 billion of it into equity for lenders.

Kevin DeSanctis, Revel's CEO, said the restructuring will give the casino resort more flexibility to operate.

"Today's announcement is a positive step for Revel," DeSanctis said. "The agreement we have reached with our lenders will ensure that the hundreds of thousands of guests who visit Revel every year will continue to enjoy a signature Revel experience in our world-class facility."

Existing management will remain in place, no layoffs are planned, and employees and vendors will be paid as usual, the company said. The restructuring should be completed by early summer, it added.

The $2.4 billion casino never caught on as much as it had expected to, and it remained mired toward the bottom of Atlantic City's 12 casinos in terms of casino revenue. Revel had to line up two rounds of additional financing since August to keep operating....

The project ran out of money during the recession and had to stop construction halfway through. Morgan Stanley pulled out, taking a $1.2 billion loss on the project. It only got completed with the help of state tax incentives that were approved in February 2011.

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Sounds like you haven't spent much time in police stations or talking to cops. You and Healy just keep chanting more police, yet Jersey City has a much higher police/population ration than cities of comparable size, and cities in our region. And the JCPD has a much lower percentage of cops on the street than comparable departments. That is evidence that our force is poorly-deployed, with trained police officers doing work without much benefit or directly related to their training.

For starters, every precinct has detectives doing clerical work. For starters, the police department has a culture which does not value patrol and "on the beat" policing. talk to cops and they will tell you - privately - that promotions and sweet jobs come not from good policing, but from being "connected" and taking care of business inside the department, not on the street.

Fulop is talking about changing the department's orientation away from HQ and City Hall, and towards our streets and our neighborhoods.

As to your and you buddy crazyforjc's notion that changing the department is too hard, that reflects a lack of vision and lack of cojones. Healy hasn't dared to try Class 2 officers because he doesn't have the guts to take on any controversy that's not forced upon him (like Operation Bid Rig). He would not even think about taking on the union, because his support is so fragile. We've seen this with the financial tricks he pulled to avoid layoffs, without getting anything in return.

Class 2 officers are legal, allowed by state law, and are being used successfully in Newark, Union City, and Hoboken. Fulop is smart enough to have studied this and is clear that the Class 2 officers will not come into town to take highly coveted overtime gigs away from existing officers.

But your position seems to be "let's not try anything because nothing will work." Another Team Healy talking point.

Just the kind of judge you want on the bench. A guy who throws a fit when he doesn't get what he wants, posts private conversations on the web, lies about what they say, and threatens to sue public officials for doing their jobs. Some judicial temperament.

Bravo to the Council for wanting to review judge's qualifications.

Fulop's plan is the kind of clear-headed thinking city government needs. I'm skeptical about the ability to get it all done. But any part of it would be a big improvement over where we are now.

Apparently JCPD ordered the old model of this "Eye in the Sky," which has to be towed into place, and requires manual deployment of stabilizing legs so it won't tip over. That means it's much less functional, and if you try to deploy it on a street rather than in a parking lot, you need to use multiple lanes.

Call me crazy, but I'm sure there are better ways to spend $100k on policing.

By any standard, it's pretty unusual that a mayor who's been in office for more than two terms would not be able to put together a full City Council slate at this stage of the game.

Obviously missing is Ward D - his home neighborhood and his traditional stronghold - where he was counting on Sean Connors. And also missing is Ward F, where his appointed councilmember went down in severe flames in November's election.

Who should the Mayor pick in the Heights and in Ward F? Are there any game-changers out there?

Mr Levin, why do you respond to "trolls" on a trivial issue while ignoring questions about the tainted money funding your campaign and about your policy proposals?

This is disgusting. Healy takes taxpayer money as bribes, then when he gets caught says he'll give the money to charity, and then welshes on that phony promise.

Even if you believe their "accounting" that they only received $16,000, and if every nickel they gave to "charity" was to pay that back, they're still way short. In fact, if you look closely, I'll bet you find that most of the "donations" were actually campaign spending, tickets to banquets and ads in souvenir journals.

What a pathetic wreck.

This one is pretty easy. The Fulop-endorsed candidates are a clear step above the rest in skills, ideas, and the way they have prepared for the job.

Their record of accomplishment is deeper and their involvement with schools is longer than any of the other candidates, except Mr. Youssef the teacher, who if elected would have to excuse himself from voting on any issue of substance due to conflict of interest.

They are responsive, they communicate, and they have already demonstrated that they share a vision and a work-ethic that our school system needs.

This year, it's Marvin Adames, Carol Harrison-Arnold, and Sue Mack.

Are there any more debates? I'd like to see the candidates before I make up my mind.