Is Closing Parks The Straw That Broke The Camel’s Back?

Here at The Bob & Steve Show we’ve been complaining about government’s response to COVID-19 for the past three weeks on the radio show. This past week we had attorney Mike Mulligan on the show to discuss the fact he has offered to represent, pro bono, members of the clergy cited for holding services during the Lenten Season.

Back on March 16 I wrote a piece comparing swine flu to coronavirus, I wrote in part:

I am no expert, but I do know swine flu was nasty! I remember. Back then I was living with “she who shall remain nameless” and one of her kids got it, then I was infected with Swine Flu. It sucked!

Nobody gave a damn that I had swine flu, not even Bob who was chairman of the Cumberland County Republicans at the time. All he cared about was that I could still do my job. I didn’t tell anyone else and I still did my job – from home.

Some schools did close during the Swine Flu outbreak, but not nearly as many as are closing now for Coronavirus. The school that “she who shall remain nameless” kids went to didn’t close.

People were cautious but not crazy, not like today.

Now the craziest of things has happened. Governor Phil Murphy has ordered all state and county parks and forests closed indefinitely.

For the most part Gov. Murphy has been able to trample all over our civil liberties and almost no one has fought him. Anyone who dared to complain was accused of not caring about others who may come down with coronavirus.

Closing parks might be the straw that broke the camel’s back! Republican Assemblyman Parker Space took to social media to say, “I’ve about had enough!!”

Republican candidate for Governor, former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli posted a video urging Murphy to change his mind:

Frankly, it’s nice to see Republicans finally start to fight back against the trampling of our civil liberties.

Fighting back does not mean we take COVID 19 lightly. It doesn’t mean we don’t find it dangerous. Fighting back simply means we recognize there are other ways to fight the disease. Neither Sweden nor Taiwan are shutting down businesses and trampling on freedom, but they are taking sensible precautions.

Perhaps we could learn something from Sweden and Taiwan. Until then, thank you Parker Space and Jack Ciattarelli for making sense and fighting for us.

Woloshen-Glass Kicks Penna’s Ass Again!

Amanda Woloshen Glass (source: Linkedin)

Here’s a little inside baseball just for fun…

If you missed yesterday’s action in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate Hirsh Singh, by way of flamboyant, fancy-suit wearing GOP operative King Penna, challenged the nominating petitions of Rik Mehta and according to a Mehta campaign press release the challenge was dismissed.

By my count this marks the fourth time Amanda Woloshen-Glass, Mehta’s campaign manager, has kicked Penna’s ass. Penna ran perennial congressional candidate David Larsen’s three failed primary challenges to former Republican Congressman Leonard Lance. Woloshen-Glass ran Lance’s campaigns. Yesterday’s dismissal now makes Woloshen-Glass 4-0 against Penna.

To be clear I do not like campaigns/candidates using petition challenges as a way to get rid of competition. A year ago I wrote that I thought petition challenges were a gutless move:

I get it, challenging the signatures on nominating petitions is a part of political campaigns in New Jersey (and elsewhere). It’s a part of campaigns I dislike. No campaign I managed has ever challenged nominating petitions – that’s how much I despise the practice. I believe working to remove a candidate who meets the requirements to run for an office from the ballot is a gutless move that proves the person challenging signatures on a nominating petition has very little faith in their chosen candidate to win on ideas.

My displeasure with petition challenges, especially Republican against Republican is well documented. After Singh issued a challenge that had Brian Fitzherbert removed from the ballot in the 2018 congressional primary in CD2 I issued a release on behalf of the candidate I was working for, former Assemblyman Sam Fiocchi, it led to a piece on InsiderNJ in which Max Pizzaro wrote:

Republican candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District, former Assemblyman Sam Fiocchi (R-2), assumed the role of elder chastising statesman as he oratorically grabbed whippersnapper Hirsh Singh by the scruff of his neck and laid into him.

Last week, on my personal Facebook page, I shared a link to a New Jersey Globe piece on the deadline to petition challenges and said, “Anybody who challenges signatures this year is a giant douche!”

I guess that means, at least in my book, that Singh by having someone challenge petitions for the second time in as many years is the winner of my giant douche award. He can share it with Penna or the two can go compete in a beauty contest together.

BREAKING: Congressional Candidate Says Bergen Line Goes To Mehta

Rik Mehta

Republican candidate for Congress in CD9 Billy Prempeh announced on his Facebook page, “Due to the COVID-19 outbreak the convention in Bergen County has been cancelled. After much debate Bergen county has decided to move forward with the Policy committee's decision and award the Bergen county lines to Rik Mehta for Senate, John McCann, and myself.”

I’d doubt anyone will complain about the lines for the congressional races, but if recent history is any indication Rik Mehta is about to start getting attacked again on social media and the process will again be attacked as “rigged” or “fixed” and some will complain about “political bosses.”

If those attacks start again I would be left to wonder how the process could be “fixed” only in the counties Mehta wins. The answer would be simple, the process wasn’t “fixed” just like it wasn’t in any of the other counties that went to Hirsh Singh.

The Senate campaign has already become a two person race between Mehta and Singh with Mehta being the clear frontrunner and Tricia Flanagan and Natalie Rivera both content to play the roles of spoiler, but the line going to Mehta in Bergen may in fact be the final blow to Singh’s campaign.