Search query: new jersey

Rule number one in effective communication is to establish the relevancy of the topic to the audience. Why should they care? How does it affect their quality of life? Truthful accounting might do just that. For one measure of the states’ quality of life, we turn to the recent work done by Ballotpedia, a “collaborative encyclopedia designed to connect people to politics.” The site focuses on providing a comprehensive and non-partisan analysis of numerous candidates and political efforts. The Lu

New Jersey is holding two elections this year: the general elections for the state Legislature and the governorship and a special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat left open by the loss of Senator Frank Lautenberg. With the end results already predictable, more attention should be given to the three flaws of the current system: low participation, little competition, and high costs. The primary elections for the gubernatorial race were held on June 5, allowing members of the Democratic Party

spirit of america / Shutterstock.com The New Jersey Legislature goes on summer recess most years for all of July and August. In the weeks preceding this break, members of both houses increase their activity, attempting to vote on legislation before two months go by without any possibility for action. This year, the state's legislative body attempted to address issues of gun control, rent control, and campaign finance reform. All these issues remain unresolved but perhaps the biggest political

President Obama signs healthcare reform in 2010 // Credit: Reid.senate.gov Can a state unilaterally suspend the operation of ObamaCare within its borders? Of course not. That measure would violate the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. We fought a Civil War over that question. What if two states banded together to suspend the operation of ObamaCare within their common territory? Can they do that? The answer remains the same. No. But let's try this. Let's have those two states - and others

In 2012, states with higher taxpayer burdens had a lower recovery in home prices. The American dream is to own a home, and it’s every American’s dream that the price of his/her home rises continually. Of course, there are many reasons for a change in the price of any single house—the local housing market, a neighborhood renovation, the construction of a nuclear power plant—but there are also broad statewide trends, which leads to an important question: Can political decisions influence the pri

Credit: Wikimedia Commons The United States Supreme Court is expected to rule on the Defense of Marriage Act (Windsor v. United States) and California's Proposition 8 (Hollingsworth v. Perry) in the next few days. There is a good possibility the decision on these two cases will be reserved for last. The Washington Post offers an easy to follow graphic on the potential rulings and what the implications would be for each decision. It also provides status for marriage rights in each state. Check

An IVN article revealed the top five states with the highest number of registered independent voters. Surprisingly, a majority of these states still have primary elections that disenfranchise this growing segment of the population. Massachusetts, Alaska, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Connecticut lead the nation with the highest percentages of independent or no party preference voters, hovering between 43 and 52 percent. However, despite the fact that in each of these states independents are mor

Friday, June 14th 2013 was flag day, a day which tends to go uncelebrated, and about which most people know very little. This post will be a brief detour from my continuing series on the different facets of the Kiera Wilmot Bottle Bomb story. It looks long, and it is, but most of it is pictures.  As you look through the various images included here, I hope you will contrast the actual origins of the U.S. flag, as it was originally adopted by the Founding Fathers, and contrast that with the nic

Out of the 28 states that record party affiliation upon registering to vote, Massachusetts, Alaska, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Connecticut have the highest percentage of independent or no party preference voters in the country. Unaffiliated voters in Massachusetts and Alaska are the majority with about 53 percent of voters in both states declining to register with a party. At the top of the list is Massachusetts with 53 percent of registered voters declining to state a party preference. Out

Eugene Parciasepe / Shutterstock.com Newark Mayor Cory Booker self-identifies as an “independent Democrat.” When he declared his official entry into New Jersey’s special election to fill Frank Lautenberg’s vacant Senate seat on Saturday, he explained that if elected, he would seek to “bring people together…actually get into the complicated difficult messy arena and take on the difficult challenges, work in uncommon ways with conviction and courage.” While this language is aimed at the entire s