The Jaffe Briefing - September 23, 2021
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL – In this super sleepy campaign season for governor, someone please awake the voters. The latest poll shows that nothing has really changed in recent months, with Gov. Phil Murphy still holding the same double-digit lead over GOP challenger Jack Ciattarelli. The governor still has a comfy lead of 51% to 38%, just slightly down from the last Monmouth University poll in August. Translation: despite the TV ads, fundraising and daily campaigning, Ciattarelli isn’t getting a compelling message through. Meanwhile, all of Murphy’s attacks aren’t doing much either.
STATEWIDE – Despite howls of protest from young parents, and sagging poll numbers among the toddler demographic, the governor is holding tight on his unpopular mandate that kids as young as two years old remain masked in childcare. Murphy says, yeah, it’s not easy keeping a mask on the kiddies, “but we’re doing at this point what the CDC recommends, what our neighbors, neighboring states are doing as well.” Why? Slightly more than 2% of positive COVID cases in the state occur among children ages 1 to 4, and children can pass it along. So, force these masks on crying toddlers? No. Meanwhile, get vaccinated, already.
STATEWIDE – New Jersey had a record surplus this year of $10 billion or so, fueled with $6.2 billion in federal aid. Yet the state’s finances are still a disaster? That’s the claim from a conservative think tank, who is not as giddy as Moody’s Investor Services about the state’s financial outlook. Garden State Initiative says there are still some fundamental issues, noting how the state pension fund has been shortchanged for years and there’s a $4 billion loan that needs to be repaid. Meanwhile, the dark and gloomy clouds also focus on state spending, which exceeds inflation, as well as the fact that New Jersey’s taxes are just too damn high, the infrastructure is neglected and the state can’t compete with others for business. Democrats were quick to slam the report as partisan GOP hogwash. Perhaps, but many of these issues are nothing new. They are just being raised during election time.
BRIEFING BREATHER
Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
ATLANTIC CITY – You can say the New Jersey Preparedness Association is prepared for anything. Except, of course, the guy who crashes their conference on Monday morning and makes off with a brand-new EMS response vehicle that was on display. NJ.com reports a 31-year-old Clementon man swiped the emergency truck from a parking lot at Harrah’s and took it through the city for a joy ride, smacking parked cars along the way. He then smashed it through a gate and left it abandoned on the Boardwalk, before simply whistling and walking away. Cops had a surveillance photo and were quickly able to nab this suspect on Arkansas Avenue near the Boardwalk. It’s sure good to be prepared.
ON THE ROAD – The idea of riding a bicycle on the gritty industrial roads between Hudson and Essex counties doesn’t seem the idyllic way to spend an autumn Saturday. But that is the vision with a new bike-and-walk link that is now somehow being planned through one of the most overdeveloped places in the country, creating an 8.6-mile greenway. Pessimistic? Probably, and that is why advocates are planning to bike this Sunday all the way from Newark to Trenton, to urge the governor to fund the plan, NJ.com reports. The link would rely on the old Boonton Line rail, now in private hands. So, figure this is a $90 million or so endeavor, a key reason why a very long, highly-publicized bike trip is so needed.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
BERLIN — When you steal from a kindergarten class, making off with laptop, picture books, cups and glasses, some fish sticks, pasta and a smart speaker for playing children’s stories, prepare to get nabbed, eventually. It took a month for police to come knocking, after the 44-year-old suspect tried to download new stories on the smart speaker. The device sent his home location to the manufacturer, who promptly called authorities. The smart speaker is now back with the kiddies, while there is no fairytale ending for the suspect, concocting his story for the judge.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 1992 that Bradlees announced it will take over Alexander’s department stores in NYC, obviously planning for a very, very bright future.
WORD OF THE DAY
Inchoate – [in-KOH-ut] – adjective
Definition: Imperfectly formed or formulated.
Example: I can’t sleep as the days get shorter; the inchoate shadows hover around me.
WIT OF THE DAY
“Never put passion before principle. Even if win, you lose.”
-Mr. Miyagi, Karate Kid 2
BIDEN BLURB
“In this world, emotion has become suspect - the accepted style is smooth, antiseptic and passionless.”
WEATHER IN A WORD
Scattered