The Jaffe Briefing - January 14, 2022
STATEWIDE – There’s always a story for a politician to tell. The trick is finding the right story. NJ Spotlight notes that New Jersey still has one of the highest unemployment rates of any state, for some reason. Yet Gov. Phil Murphy isn’t talking about the latest federal figures. Instead, he pivoted the story to economic growth, using no specific source of data in his “State of the State” to proclaim New Jersey is topping other states. Later, his office said he was referring to New Jersey’s uptick in gross domestic product. NJ Spotlight’s take: “Cherry-picking favorable statistics… when other metrics may be less flattering is a time-honored tradition for governors.” Murphy has the pulpit for the moment, using whatever stats needed to justify the narrative. (This story generated a whopping 67.5% more interest than yesterday’s lead story.)
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL – Late at night, when it's particularly quiet in the house, Jack Ciattarelli may go back to the spreadsheets, showing, again, in agonizing detail, his narrow loss to Murphy for governor. And what must drive him nuts is that the wealthy towns – typically Republican – went for Murphy. New Jersey Globe reports that rich, well-educated hamlets like Glen Ridge, Mountain Lakes, Tenafly, and Millburn went blue, likely still sickened by four years of Trump. In fact, the state’s 15 wealthiest and best-educated municipalities — with median household incomes and college degrees within the top 25 statewide — voted for Murphy. When Ciattarelli tries again in 2025, he will need to reconstruct that GOP bedrock in these affluent areas, proving, once again, that a vote for a moderate Republican is not the same as a vote for a right-wing looney.
FREEHOLD – The state is slapping the wrist of Monmouth County Commissioners, who secretly gave themselves raises – as valiantly reported in the Asbury Park Press. The Office of the State Comptroller said county commissioners ignored the public process when they decided to give wage hikes to themselves and the county sheriff. The comptroller noted that hiding salary bumps erodes public confidence. And it was stupid to hide, as the commissioners only earned $27,000 and could easily argue a small raise. No comment yet from the all-Republican board, which quietly awarded themselves $3,000 raises in 2020 and bumped up Sheriff Shaun Golden’s salary by more than $42,000 since 2016. There is supposed to be a five-step public process for this kind of stuff. But, to be fair to the commissioners, that process is cumbersome, inconvenient and would then inform taxpayers of their salary raises. And why would they want people to know about it? Sheesh. What a dumb question.
BRIEFING BREATHER
The slogan on New Hampshire license plates is "Live Free or Die." Those plates are made by prisoners at the State Penitentiary in Concord.
METUCHEN – If you are driving along any given commercial street in New Jersey, there’s probably a CVS on the corner. And then a Walgreens on the other. But it now seems like CVS is pulling back a bit on its brick-and-mortar retail game, with plans to close approximately 900 of its 9,900 stores across the country over the next three years. As the company explained it, the closures are designed “to reduce store density and ensure it has the right kinds of stores in the right locations for consumers and for the business.” The CVS in Metuchen shut its doors late last month, with employees likely heading to one of the gobs of other retail chain stores in the nearby vicinity. Of interest: CVS may repurpose some retail locations as community healthcare clinics, filling the growing medical needs of an aging population. And then people can always run to the neighboring Walgreens for prescriptions, shaving cream, chewing gum and whatever else.
IN THE MEDIA
STATEWIDE – Read all about it! (or not). There’s another big hit to newspapers in New Jersey, Gannett ditching its Saturday print editions. Those affected: The (Bergen) Record, Courier News, Home News Tribune, Daily Journal, and the Daily Record. The latest Saturday edition will run on March 5, as Gannett keeps trying to find new ways to squeeze profits, while losing readers. The loss of the Saturday circulation is not a huge loss in journalism, as it is typically the thinnest issue of the week, only read for comics, puzzles and obituaries. But New Jersey Globe makes a good point: Without the Saturday edition, late-breaking news on a Thursday would not appear in the paper until Sunday. Meanwhile, the same news would be all over digital media Thursday, Friday and Saturday, making print newspapers more obsolete than ever.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
FALLS CHURCH, VA. – We’ve said it before; we’ll say it again: Gruyere cheese does not have to come from the Gruyere region of Europe to be sold under the gruyere name. Finally, a federal judge has agreed with us. Fellow cheese fans may recall a consortium of Swiss and French cheesemakers from the town of Gruyeres, Switzerland filed suit after they were denied a trademark. The big argument: fancy cheese producers asserted that gruyere — a mild, smooth-melting cheese used for fondue – has been made to exacting standards in the region since the early 12th century and cheese made outside the region can’t truly be called gruyere. But the federal court disagreed. The court ruled that American consumers – like us – understand the gruyere name to be generic. We, like others, don’t care if it is actually made in Gruyere.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
The signature car chase was never the same after “The Blues Brothers” hit theaters on this day in 1980, destroying 103 cars in the process.
WORD OF THE DAY
Baksheesh – [BAK-sheesh] – noun
Definition: Payment (such as a tip or bribe) to expedite service
Example: Maybe if we send Congress some baksheesh, they’ll send out more stimulus checks.
WIT OF THE DAY
“Washington D.C. is 12 square miles bordered by reality.”
- Andrew Johnson
BIDEN BLURB
“The vice-presidency is not a job designed to enhance your standing.”
- Joe Biden
WEATHER IN A WORD
Gusty