Posted by
Resident Advisor on Monday, September 08, 2008 7:02:45 AM
This past Saturday, I attended the New Jersey Chapter's Training seminar for aspiring bloggers. It was a GREAT session in that it was concise, informative and both the convenors and participants were friendly and open. Congratulations to Steve Lonegan and A.O.P. One of the presentors was John Fund of the Wall Street Journal who has just written a book on stealing elections. While I highly agree on his premise (that liberal groups like ACORN intend to steal this election in the urban areas), I do believe that in New Jersey the art of "Election Stealing" goes well beyond the non-profit groups and is systemic and established.
For example, in Essex County we should be prepared for the reality that the Democratic machine will produce several thousand absentee ballots before Election Day. The North Ward Democrats are particularly good at this and will begin their GOTV operations on November 4 with a 1,000-2,000 vote lead due to the absentees. I call it systemic and established because: (1) Fran Adubato is both the Democratic North Ward Chairman and one of the five Board of Elections' Commissioners for Essex County; (2) Carmine Casciano, a silent partner in the North Ward Democratic machine, is the Commissioner of (Voter) Registration for Essex County; (3) A third key member of this group is Joe DiVincenzo, the Essex County Executive, although you'll have to dig deep to find his fingerprints. This group is run by the "Godfather of Essex County Politics" Steve Adubato (Sr).
My point in bringing this out is that while New Jersey has been a blue state for at least 20 years, this year the McCain-Palin ticket could be competitive if it did not have to overcome the dubious absentee ballot' machines in Essex and other urban counties in New Jersey. Stay tuned!