Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Influx of black renters raises tension in Bay Area, By PAUL ELIAS

Karen Coleman and her husband, Thomas Coleman, section 8 housing voucher recipients, look out the window of their home in Antioch, Calif., Friday, Dec. 12, 2008. "A lot of people are moving out here looking for a better place to live," said Karen Coleman, a mother of three who moved here five years ago from a blighted neighborhood in nearby Pittsburg. "We are trying to raise our kids like everyone else. But they don't want us here."

ANTIOCH, Calif. (AP) — As more and more black renters began moving into this mostly white San Francisco Bay Area suburb a few years ago, neighbors started complaining about loud parties, mean pit bulls, blaring car radios, prostitution, drug dealing and muggings of schoolchildren.

In 2006, as the influx reached its peak, the police department formed a special crime-fighting unit to deal with the complaints, and authorities began cracking down on tenants in federally subsidized housing.

Now that police unit is the focus of lawsuits by black families who allege the city of 100,000 is orchestrating a campaign to drive them out.

"A lot of people are moving out here looking for a better place to live," said Karen Coleman, a mother of three who came here five years ago from a blighted neighborhood in nearby Pittsburg. "We are trying to raise our kids like everyone else. But they don't want us here."

City officials deny the allegations in the lawsuits, which were filed last spring and seek unspecified damages.

Across the country, similar tensions have simmered when federally subsidized renters escaped run-down housing projects and violent neighborhoods by moving to nicer communities in suburban Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles.

But the friction in Antioch is "hotter than elsewhere," said U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development spokesman Larry Bush.

An increasing number of poor families receiving federal rental assistance have been moving here in recent years, partly because of the housing crisis.

A growing number of landlords were seeking a guaranteed source of revenue in a city hard-hit by foreclosures. They began offering their Antioch homes to low-income tenants in the HUD Section 8 housing program, which pays about two-thirds of every tenant's rent.

Between 2000 and 2007, Antioch's black population nearly doubled from 8,824 to 16,316. And the number of Antioch renters receiving federal subsidies climbed almost 50 percent between 2003 and 2007 to 1,582, the majority of them black.

Longtime homeowners complained that the new arrivals brought crime and other troubles. In 2006, violent crime in Antioch shot up about 19 percent from the year before, while property crime went down slightly.

"In some neighborhoods, it was complete madness," said longtime resident Gary Gilbert, a black retiree who organized the United Citizens of Better Neighborhoods watch group. "They were under siege."

So the Antioch police in mid-2006 created the Community Action Team, which focused on complaints of trouble at low-income renters' homes.

Police sent 315 complaints about subsidized tenants to the Contra Costa Housing Authority, which manages the federal program in the city, and urged the agency to evict many of them for lease violations such as drug use or gun possession. Lawyers for the tenants said 70 percent of the eviction recommendations were aimed at black renters. The housing authority turned down most of the requests.

Coleman said the police, after a complaint from a neighbor, showed up at her house one morning in 2007 to check on her husband, who was on parole for drunken driving. She said they searched the house and returned twice more that summer to try to find out whether the couple had violated any terms of their lease that could lead to eviction.

The Colemans were also slapped with a restraining order after a neighbor accused them of "continually harassing and threatening their family," according to court papers. The Colemans said a judge later rescinded the order.

Coleman and four other families are suing Antioch, accusing police of engaging in racial discrimination and conducting illegal searches without warrants. They have asked a federal judge to make their suit a class-action on behalf of hundreds of other black renters. Another family has filed a lawsuit accusing the city's leaders of waging a campaign of harassment to drive them out.

Police referred questions to the city attorney's office.

City Attorney Lynn Tracy Nerland denied any discrimination on the part of police and said officers were responding to crime reports in troubled neighborhoods when they discovered that a large number of the troublemakers were receiving federal subsidies.

"They are responding to real problems," Nerland said.

Joseph Villarreal, the housing authority chief, said the problems in Antioch mirror tensions seen nationally when poor renters move into neighborhoods they can afford only with government help.

"One of the goals of the programs is to de-concentrate poverty," Villarreal said. "There are just some people who don't want to spend public money that way."

Tensions like those afflicting Antioch have drawn scholars and law enforcement officials to debate whether crime follows subsidized renters out of the tenements to the suburbs.

Susan Popkin, a researcher at the nonprofit Urban Institute, said she does not believe that is the case. But the tensions, she said, are real.

"That can be a recipe for anxiety," she said. "It can really change the demographics of a neighborhood."

Definding NJ Against All Odds, Rich Lee


New Jersey often is the butt of jokes and the target of harsh criticism. Sometimes the comments that come our way are unfair. But at other times, it is not too difficult to understand why the rest of the country takes a dim view of the Garden State. Consider these recent news items:

A New Jersey couple who named their son Adolph Hitler made international headlines when a local ShopRite refused to put the boy’s name on a birthday cake.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an emergency appeal from a New Jersey man who claimed that President-elect Barack Obama is not qualified for the presidency because he was not born in the United States.

After the Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading of National Lampoon stock and accused chief executive officer Daniel Laikin of stock manipulation, the media reported that National Lampoon's largest outside stockholder, besides Laikin and his fellow insiders, is the New Jersey Division of Investments.

Not that any of this is new. Recently, while reading Lawrence and Cornelia Levine’s book on Franklin Delano Roosevelt, I could not help but notice that the authors noted that although Roosevelt received thousands of letters commending his fireside chats, there also was some negative feedback, including this comment from a New Jersey resident: “I wouldn’t urinate on you if you were burning at the stake.”

Rush: There Is "Higher Principle" In Demanding a Black Sen.


Your Money: Top 10 Business Stories of 2008

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Monday, December 22, 2008

50 Ways to Improve Your Life in 2009!

50 Ways to Improve Your Life in 2009! U.S. News staffers present 10 ways to take stock of your life and financial future.

What’s All the Fuss Over Obama and Rick Warren?

President-elect Obama should be able to select whomever he wants to deliver the Invocation during the Inauguration! I could think of many other preachers that I would rather hear, but this one is not my call!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

CNN's TJ Holmes



We Can't Let This Bank Fail, Rich Lee


I am departing from my usual topics today to take part in an important and innovative campaign to increase public awareness of the need to keep our food pantries well-stocked. As part of Blogging Out Hunger, bloggers from all over New Jersey are posting information today about the increased demand being put on the food pantries in our state and how everyone can help.

More than 35 million Americans, including 12 million children, either live with or are on the verge of hunger. In New Jersey alone, an estimated 250,000 new clients will be seeking sustenance this year from the state's food banks. But recently, as requests for food assistance have risen, food donations are on the decline, leaving food bank shelves almost empty and hungry families waiting for something to eat.

The situation is dire, no more so than at the Community FoodBank of New Jersey (CFBNJ), the largest food bank in the state, where requests for food have gone up 30 percent, but donations are down by 25 percent. Warehouse shelves that are typically stocked with food are bare and supplies have gotten so low that, for the first time in its 25 year history, the food bank is developing a rationing mechanism.

As the state's key distributor of food to local banks – serving more than 500,000 people a year and providing assistance to nearly 1,700 non-profits in the state – the stability of replenishment of the CFBNJ is essential to ensuring that individuals in need have access to food.

If everyone could just do a little, it would help those in need a lot. To help, people can:

- Make a monetary contribution: Visit www.njfoodbank.org.
- Donate food: Drop off a bag of food at your local food pantry.
- Organize a food drive: Just call 908-355-FOOD.
- Help "Check Out Hunger:" Look for the "Check Out Hunger" coupons at your local supermarket and donate. No donation is too small.

Below is a list of participating blogs. Given all the layoffs and citbacks at New Jersey news organizations this year, blogs are likely to become an even more important means of obtaining information in the Garden State.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Details Emerge On Accused Louisiana Klan Killer’s History


Special to the NNPA from the Southern Poverty Law Center

(NNPA)-Raymond “Chuck” Foster, the Ku Klux Klan leader who was arrested Nov. 11 for killing a woman following a backwoods Klan initiation ritual, has a history of Klan activity dating back at least to January 2001.

Foster, 44, was the founding Imperial Wizard, or national leader, of the Southern White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a Klan faction that formed on January 1, 2001, in Watson, La.

During the next three years, the group developed chapters in three other states while maintaining a low profile with the exception of a single incident in 2003 when a White Knights official in Ohio, Jeremy Parker, drew attention by posting instructions for making a pipe bomb on the Internet in response to a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration.

“Sure would hate to see anything happen,” he wrote.

In 2004, the Southern White Knights had active chapters in Savannah, Ga., Homosassa Springs, Fla., and Marion, Ohio, as well as the founding chapter, which by that time had relocated to Denham Springs, La.

The Southern White Knights disbanded in early 2005. Most of its members–not including Foster—resurfaced later that year as the Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a relatively large Klan group that currently has nine active chapters in eight states, none of them in Louisiana.

The woman Foster allegedly murdered, identified by police as 43-year-old Cynthia C. Lynch, was apparently recruited over the Internet to join Foster’s latest Klan group. Media accounts of the rapidly developing story have variously identified that group as the Dixie Brotherhood and/or the Sons of Dixie.

Hatewatch is unaware of any Klan group by either of those names operating anywhere in the country.

However, last year a new Klan group calling itself the Dixie Rangers Knights of the Ku Klux Klan formed in Walker, La., about 80 miles from the rural scene of the alleged murder.
It’s unclear at this point if the Dixie Rangers and the Dixie Brotherhood/Sons of Dixie are one and the same.

Law enforcement officials said that Lynch took a bus from her home near Tulsa. Okla., to Slidell, La., where two members of the “Dixie” Klan group picked her up on Friday, Nov. 7, and transported her to a campground near the Pearl River. At least eight members of the Klan group were present, including Foster.

After a series of rites including the shaving of her head, the Klan members took Lynch to a camp on a sandbar that was accessible only by boat. There the initiation continued. St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain told the Times-Picayune the rituals on the sandbar consisted of lighting torches and “running around in the woods.”

By Sunday night, Lynch had reportedly changed her mind about joining the Klan and wanted to leave the camp. This sparked an argument with Foster, who allegedly pushed her down and killed her with a single shot from a .40 caliber handgun.

According to Strain, Foster tried to dig the bullet out of Lynch’s body with a knife before ordering his followers to set fire to her belongings and get rid of her body.

The next morning, Foster’s son, Shane Foster, 20, and another member of the Klan group, Frank Stafford, 21, asked a convenience store clerk in nearby Bogalusa if he knew how to remove bloodstains from clothes. The clerk, who recognized the men, alerted to local sheriff’s office.

Following a rapid investigation, St. Tammany Parish deputies raided the campsite, arresting five Klan members who had fled into the woods. The elder Foster, who initially escaped, turned himself in later that day.

At the campsite, investigators found weapons, Confederate battle flags, KKK banners, five rank-and-file white Klan robes, and one black Imperial Wizard robe. They found Lynch’s corpse in a weedy ditch about a half-mile from the sandbar.

Chuck Foster has been charged with second-degree murder. His son, along with Stafford and five other Klan members—Random Hines, 27; Danielle Jones, 23; Alicia Watkins, 23; Timothy Michael Watkins, 30; and Andrew Yates, 20—were charged with obstruction of justice.

Although the alleged murder of the Oklahoma woman is the first reported murder of a prospective Klan member during an initiation ceremony, it’s not the first reported shooting or other serious injury.

Klansmen, flames, guns and alcohol is a volatile mixture.
For example, on Nov. 23, 2004, a member of America’s Invisible Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was accidentally shot in the head during an initiation ritual that involved a prospective member being strung from a tree with a noose around his neck, standing on his tiptoes, while Klansmen shot him with paintball guns. The accidental shooting occurred when one of them decided to scare the initiate (who survived) by firing a real gun in his direction and a wayward paintball altered the shooter’s aim.

David Holthouse is a staff writer for the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report.

Martin Luther King, Jr. & The Vietnam War

Jesse Jackson Jr: 'I Had No Involvement Whatsoever In Any Wrong Doing"

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

New Generation Lawyer Steps On The Seen..



Mark G. Davis, Esq. is the proud founder of The Davis Law Firm, LLC. Building this practice has been his dream since childhood. Born and raised in Mercer County, New Jersey, he became dedicated to helping his community by using his selflessness and naturally competitive spirit to represent the disadvantaged, wronged, downtrodden, damaged, and wrongly accused.

After graduating from The Hun School of Princeton, he laid a solid foundation for his legal career by earning a Bachelors Degree in Criminology from the University of Maryland, College Park. Three years later, he emerged from one of the Nation’s elite law schools, The George Washington University, armed with a license to stand in your shoes and go toe-to-toe with State and corporate giants.

He began his legal career as an attorney with a prominent civil litigation firm with offices in both Philadelphia, PA and Princeton, NJ. In that capacity, he gained extensive insight into the defensive strategies and inner-workings of not only major corporations and insurance companies, but their legal counsel as well. This experience allows him to now evaluate and approach each plaintiff’s matter with reasonable anticipation of the applicable defenses and counter-claims.

After this stint with the defense firm, he finally crossed over and began his career representing plaintiffs and criminal defendants under the tutelage of the one of the most renowned and formidable trial attorneys in Mercer County. And as an attorney with the Law Offices of Charles J. Casale, Jr., Esq., he was able to cultivate his skill as a litigator, fighting vigorously to protect the legal rights and entitlements of those needing it the most.

Equipped with the significant resources of his own firm, Mark now takes great pride in answering the community’s call for an attorney:

To not only relate to, but to confidently rely upon;
To actually FIGHT on their behalf and provide aggressive representation, instead of simply "talking the talk";
To believe in their causes and craft persuasive, passionate arguments on their behalf; and
To take each client’s matter personally.



The Davis Law Firm, LLC is a litigation practice committed to providing everyday people with effective, aggressive legal representation throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Exceeding client expectations through favorable results, zealous advocacy, attorney accessibility, attentiveness, and creative lawyering is the rule at this firm – not the exception. We handle all client matters with optimal care, consideration, and intensity from consultation to conclusion.


Regardless of whether your case involves felony/misdemeanor criminal charges, DUI/DWI, traffic violations, personal injury, divorce, child support/custody, or workers’ compensation, the firm will fight vigorously until justice has been served. The frm’s founder, Mark G. Davis, Esq., is well-versed in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania civil law and criminal statutes. And he has already built a solid reputation in the community as an aggressive trial attorney capable not only of outstanding results, but also of keeping his clients satisfied through every step of the way.


At this Firm, our principal mission is to level the playing field that is corrupted far too often by insurance companies, big corporations, and overreaching [or otherwise inept] law enforcement agencies. When the stakes are high and against your favor, you need an attorney who takes each case personally and is ready, willing, and able to stand in your shoes and champion your cause.


When you hire The Davis Law Firm, LLC to protect your legal and/or constitutional rights, rest assured that you’ve chosen wisely.


For more information on each of the firm’s practice areas, please click directly on the links along the left-side of this page.


Contact Your Trial Attorney Today: (Ph) 609.656.9100
(Fax) 609.656.9105
(Email) mdavis@davisfirmllc.com

Bob Johnson Planning New TV Network


"Not Intended to Compete With BET or TV One"


Robert L. Johnson became a billionaire when he sold BET.Robert L. Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, has asked the Federal Communications Commission to approve plans for a new "urban" television network that would cater to a multicultural audience interested in health, lifestyle, education and other issues, a spokeswoman for Johnson told Journal-isms on Tuesday.

Johnson is joined in his application by Ion Media Networks, Inc., which describes itself as "a network television broadcasting company which owns and operates the largest broadcast television station group in the U.S., as measured by the number of television households ION's stations serve."

The new network is "not intended to compete with BET or TV One," Johnson spokeswoman Traci Otey Blunt said. Plans are open and no staff members have been hired, awaiting FCC approval. The network might even produce news programming, she said. The FCC is not expected to act until winter or early spring, after a period of public comment.

The new company is to be called Urban Television LLC. Johnson is seeking permission to share time on stations owned by Ion, which "was born in 2006 out of the ashes of Pax TV, whose guiding genius Bud Paxson spent the previous decade buying up UHF TV stations for use as the linchpin of a family-oriented broadcast network," as Variety reported in September.

Sharing time on the Ion stations is possible with the advent of digital channels, John Lawson, Ion's executive vice president for policy and strategic initiatives, told Journal-isms.

Unlike in previous decades, when "shared time" meant a second radio station might broadcast on the same frequency at night, today the stations simply share different audio channels on the same frequency; so that a second network could broadcast 24 hours a day. The "shared time" concept was originally created to boost minority access to the airwaves, Lawson said.

"Urban, a new entrant in the broadcasting industry, intends to use the newly
licensed, share-time stations to launch a new programming format, including
informational and issue-focused programming that is targeted to serve the needs and interests of African-American viewers and other underserved members of the 42 communities that are the subject of these applications," the request to the FCC says.

Johnson's company would own 51 percent of the new venture and Ion 49 percent.

The plans for the urban channel, first reported on Tuesday by TV Newsday, grew out of talks between Johnson and Brandon Burgess, chairman and CEO of Ion Media Networks, Lawson and Blunt said.

"Burgess, who shows faint traces of a German inflection in his voice from his upbringing and education in Germany, is eager to get back into the competitive game after two years of what he calls 'a transition strategy' at Ion (formerly Pax) of filling the network's schedule with inexpensive older series including 'Mama's Family,' 'Baywatch,' 'Wonder Years' and 'Quantum Leap,'" John Dempsey wrote in his September Variety story.

"Not surprisingly, few people are clamoring for this programming lineup; for the first eight months of the year, only 444,000 viewers, on average, watched Ion TV, which dragged it below the ratings of such cable networks as Animal Planet and Lifetime Movie Network."

Johnson, who founded and then sold the Black Entertainment Television network to Viacom for $3 billion in 2000, now owns the Charlotte, N.C., National Basketball Association franchise, the Bobcats.

"As Mr. Johnson tries to recast himself as a mainstream business mogul, his calendar has become very crowded, thanks to a high-powered push to start and buy several companies. That spree has produced a sprawling portfolio of properties, including a hedge fund, a private equity firm, a chain of more than 100 high-end hotels, several commercial banks and savings institutions, a film company and several gambling ventures," Ron Stodghill wrote last year in the New York Times.

“My tombstone will read: ‘This is the guy who aired rap videos,’ ” Johnson said in that story. “But you know how I deal with that? I put it where it belongs, which is in the pretty-much-irrelevant category.”

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 6 India and Pakistan -- On the Nuclear Threshold


This briefing book contains material from the National Security Archive’s project on U.S. policy toward South Asia, which is documenting nuclear developments in India and Pakistan from the 1950s to the present. The Archive is collecting U.S. government records that illustrate American policies and perspectives. Information is being collected from the National Archives and the presidential libraries, and through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Mandatory Review requests, used to obtain the declassification of now- secret materials. A selective and focused collection of documents will be made available to researchers.

The project is creating a comprehensive history of nuclear developments in South Asia, including weapons programs in India and Pakistan, as well as international efforts to curtail proliferation in the region. Information about factors that influenced nuclear issues, such as the unresolved enmity between India and Pakistan, and India’s perception of China as a security threat, will also be incorporated. The U.S. has generally opposed nuclear proliferation in South Asia, while seeking to preserve good relations with both India and Pakistan. At times, however, its commitment has been questioned, because it has seemed to subordinate nonproliferation policy to other concerns. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, for instance, the U.S. provided massive levels of economic and military aid to its ally, Pakistan. The assistance was widely criticized, because Pakistan was demonstrably importing nuclear-related material, from China and other nations. Few doubted that it was engaged in an active nuclear weapons development program.

China’s role as a leading provider of sensitive technology to Pakistan has repeatedly strained U.S.-China relations, and has complicated efforts to expand U.S.-China trade. The Archive’s South Asia project is using the FOIA to seek the declassification of documents discussing this issue, and other contemporary and controversial topics. Materials collected for this project will, of course, reflect a U.S. perspective. As noted, non-proliferation policy is influenced by other concerns, including competition among the major powers. The Archive’s efforts are directed toward enhancing understanding of U.S. decisions and the issues that influenced policy formulation. The analyst for the South Asia nuclear project is Joyce Battle, who prepared this briefing book. She is also the analyst for the Archive’s documentation projects on the Persian Gulf and U.S. policy toward Iraq. Materials collected for the latter project were published in a document set, Iraqgate: Saddam Hussein, U.S. Policy and the Prelude to the Persian Gulf War, 1980-1994 (Chadwyck-Healey, 1994). She has an MA in Middle East Studies from Harvard and an MS in Library Science from Columbia.



This project receives generous support from the W. Alton Jones Foundation.



Briefing Book Documents
The documents in the briefing book date from 1961 to 1983. In 1961, India had an advanced civilian nuclear program, while Pakistan’s was in its early stages. In 1983, nine years had elapsed since India’s explosion of a nuclear device, and Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program was well under way.

During the early 1960s, India under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru strongly advocated global disarmament, but was apprehensive about China’s nuclear weapons program. India’s concern increased following its October 1962 territorial war with China. The stakes were raised by China’s first nuclear weapons test in October 1964. Many observers thought it increasingly likely that India would respond to China’s actions by seeking its own weapons capability. War with Pakistan in 1965 further alarmed India: it was angered by China’s outspoken support for Pakistan during the conflict, and disappointed by what it viewed as insufficient Western attention to its security needs. The U.S. considered various options that might dissuade India from developing nuclear weapons, including scientific cooperation aimed at enhancing India’s national prestige. It also joined in cooperative arrangements with both India and Pakistan to monitor nuclear and missile developments in China and the Soviet Union. India, for its part, launched a campaign seeking security guarantees to shield it from Chinese nuclear attack, arguing that such assurances might make a nuclear weapons program of its own unnecessary. Various options were proposed: U.S. guarantees, joint U.S.-Soviet guarantees, guarantees from all the nuclear states, British guarantees, or guarantees in conjunction with the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, then being negotiated. U.S. policy makers seriously considered these proposals, although some doubted that they would deter India from developing a bomb.

The Embassy in New Delhi viewed India’s overtures sympathetically, while the Defense Department opposed any commitment to India that would alienate Pakistan, a U.S. military ally. In 1967, both President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara supported the concept of guarantees during meetings with a visiting Indian representative. Later that year, U.S. and Soviet officials were still discussing security guarantees, hoping to induce India to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. No agreement was ever reached, however, in part because India itself concluded that such commitments would not guarantee its security in the event of actual nuclear conflict. In May 1974 India tested a nuclear device, although it called the event a “peaceful nuclear explosion.” Its terminology did not forestall censure, both within the international community and from domestic critics. The test had serious consequences: India lost much of the foreign technical assistance that had till then sustained its civilian nuclear program. A Pakistani reaction to India’s test of a nuclear explosive was predicted, and confirmed within a few years. By the mid-1970s, intelligence reports indicated that Pakistan had an active nuclear weapons program, and in 1983 the State Department noted that it had “unambiguous evidence” of this fact. Documents in this briefing book illuminate aspects of the internal debate among U.S. officials, as they attempted to formulate effective policies toward nuclear proliferation in South Asia while protecting sometimes conflicting interests and objectives.

Mayor Steve Lonegan launch campaign for NJ Governor


Dear Today's News NJ,
At 1:00 pm this afternoon, December 1, I had the honor and privilege to launch my campaign for governor of the State of New Jersey. It was great to be joined by more than 60 friends from across the state that came to show their support. The press coverage was terrific.

The first question a candidate should be asked is “Why are you running?” Well, let me answer that as succinctly as I know how. I am running for governor to get the burden of big government off the backs of our taxpayers so every individual can strive to achieve their highest possible potential. This can only be accomplished free of the shackles of high taxes, over regulation and massive government.

As a child growing up in New Jersey, this was the best state in the union to make a living, raise a family, build a business and even retire. New Jersey ranked as having one of the nation’s strongest economy. In 1965 we had the third highest property taxes in the country, but we had no income or sales tax. Back then my dad, a blue collar technician with Honeywell, could save to buy a house, support his family, volunteer for the local ambulance corp., be a Boy Scout Leader and take his family to the Jersey Shore for a week or two during the summer. My mom chose to, and could afford to, stay home and raise her kids on that salary.

Today, families like this cannot afford the things you and I could afford only forty years ago. Any family like mine would require both parents to work just to make ends meet. Why? Because New Jersey’s government has grown far too big and way too costly. Today the average New Jersey taxpayer gives more than 54% to the government. In 1965, than number was just 34%.

New Jersey now has the worst income tax in the nation, the highest property taxes and one of the highest sales taxes. Once the best state for business is now rated the worst.
Everything that has happened to our state is due to one thing - the failure of state government. It’s time to put taxpayers first.

I am ready, willing and able to take on the Trenton leviathan than is destroying our prosperity. I am asking you to join me.

I am committed to changing the course of history and bringing New Jersey back to becoming the nations leading economy. That is a tall order, but we owe this to the next generation.

You and I have had the opportunity to live in a great state. Now it is our responsibility to deliver it to our children in better condition than when we inherited it and offer them the same opportunities.

I hope you will join my campaign. Together, you and I will take back New Jersey.
Join me at our next fund raising event this Sunday, December 7, 2:00 to 4:00 pm at the Carisbrooke Inn, 105 South Little Rock Ave, Ventnor City (Atlantic County). Recommended minimum donation is $100.00 per person. For reservations contact nathan@lonegan.com

On to victory.

Mayor Steve Lonegan.
Republican for Governor

How to support the campaign.

To invest in this important campaign make checks payable to “Lonegan for Governor” and mail to:

Lonegan for Governor
PO Box 461
Bogota, NJ 07603

The maximum contribution is $3,400 per person. Personal, Corporate and PAC checks are permissible. Contributions are not tax deductible.

For credit card contributions:
Link here to Donate

For more information go to Lonegan.com
Paid for by Lonegan for Governor, Inc.
Exploratory Committee