New Jersey Republican Senate candidate Andy Unanue has a problem.

Earlier today, his campaign manager responded to charges that the candidate lives out of state and said that Unanue lives and votes in New Jersey:

"Andy Unanue lives in New Jersey, he votes in New Jersey, his car is registered in New Jersey, he pays New Jersey auto insurance, and his business is in New Jersey. Andy Unanue is New Jersey."

But Andy Unanue told the Star Ledger today that he doesn't live in New Jersey:

"For the past few years I've lived in New York. I'm in the process of moving back to New Jersey."

So if he votes in New Jersey, but lives in New York, isn't that voter fraud?

Cross-posted from Blue Jersey

This is cross-posted and adapted from Blue Jersey to provide some context on the mass GOP-to-Dem party switching taking place in Lyndhurst, NJ that Markos linked to earlier.

In a rare shift in party affiliation, the entire membership of the all-Republican governing body in Lyndhurst will switch from Republican to Democrat tomorrow. Nearly 60% of Lyndhurst's Republican County Committee will become Democrats too.

The party realignment, first reported in PoliticsNJ.com last summer, is far greater in scope than speculated. It represents, perhaps, the most massive shift in Party affiliation of elected and Party officials in a single community in one day. "It's safe to say something like this certainly doesn't happen in politics everyday," said Lyndhurst Mayor Richard DiLascio.

This story is significant, but not because an entire town is switching sides. That doesn't happen in the real world. As is almost always the case in New Jersey, and especially Bergen County, there's likely more to the story.

This month, Blue Jersey tried something new for the netroots with our Think Equal campaign. Often campaigns like these go from video to the web. We went from the web to video. And while our campaign is aimed at New Jersey's voters, it's also directed at the netroots around the country. For this reason, we've been getting some e-mails asking us how Think Equal came together. What inspired us to do this and, more so, how we pulled it off. So here's the story:

(cross-posted on behalf of Jack Bohrer)

Blue Jersey's Think Equal project is up with our third short, and in this one, married and civil unionzed receive unwanted advances at a bar. We make light of the confusion involved in the situation here, but consider the real world hassle of having to explain your lesser marital status. It's not only degrading, it automatically 'outs' a person to an employer or someone he or she feels uncomfortable sharing that information with. It's the legal and real world differences like this that make it so important that we settle for nothing less than marriage equality.

It's been a whirlwind week here in Trenton. The NJ State Assembly Judiciary Committee rushed through a discriminatory civil unions bill after only a few hours of public hearings. The vote was 4-2.

Below is the announcement sent out by the LGBTI-rights group, Garden State Equality just now regarding a rally to take place tomorrow night after the ruling.

The same day state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. voted twice to let Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey keep a $40 million tax exemption, he collected $13,300 in contributions for his U.S. Senate race from 17 company executives and their family members.....including $4,100 from Horizon CEO and president William Marino and his wife, Paula.

Just two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal revealed the latest example of the Kean family's unethical abuses of influence and shady fundraising practices. Tom Kean Sr sits on the board of UnitedHealth Group. On May 1, he participated in a board meeting to consider whether company executives fraudulently granted themselves stock options. That same day, some of the UnitedHealth Group executives whose fate lies in the hands of Tom Kean Sr attended a fundraiser for his son, Tom Kean Jr. Former Republican chairman of the SEC, Harvey Pitt, called the situation "'ill-advised and strange' and something that could be seen as an attempt to influence a witness because of the senior Kean's role on the compensation committee."

It's not the first time the Kean family has unethically used their influence for political fundraising.

It is time for the U.S. to cap the open-ended commitment of U.S. forces in Iraq and to "remove the training wheels" on the Iraqi security forces.  The sooner the Iraqi security forces believe they are fighting for their country, the sooner they help stop the sectarian violence. Until that happens, the fledgling Iraqi government will continue to rely on U.S. forces to keep them from making the difficult decisions and taking tough actions. It is time for the Iraqis to step up to the plate.

         6/06   4/06
Menendez  43%  (40%)
Kean Jr   36%  (34%)

Democrats and Republicans support their party's candidates by 74%-11% and 75%-12% respectively, and independents voters break 37%-35% for Menendez.

At this stage, the voters aren't buying Kean Jr's message. By 41%-23%, voters disagree "with Kean's claim that Menendez is an unethical party boss." And there's more bad news for Kean Jr: by 49%-24%, "voters agree with Menendez' claim that Kean is a "George Bush Republican" who would support Bush Administration policies."

Incredibly, with just 48 hours left before the filing, Stender is just $15,000 from crossing the March 31 Viability Threshold; that's the number (and it's big) set by national organizations like DCCC and Emily's List to consider you viable for funding on a national level. This is huge; we need 15 seats to Take Back Congress, and one of them could be the first woman in the NJ Congressional Delegation in years.

The lawsuit is the first in the nation to successfully challenge electronic voting machines..."Despite clear evidence that New Jersey's voting machines are insecure, the other branches of government failed to take appropriate action. That is why the Court stepped in," [lead counsel Penny] Venetis added.

The same voting machines used by almost all of New Jersey's five million registered voters have been found too insecure to use and have been de-commissioned by California, Ohio, Nevada, and New York City. New Jersey does not check the software of electronic voting machines to determine whether they have been tampered with or whether they are faulty.

For this month's podcast, we sat down with Congressman Rush Holt to hear his thoughts on the upcoming State of the Union, political blogging, NSA domestic spying, rising energy costs, the President's upbringing (hint: it involved immersion in oil) and more.

On Medicare Part D: "I'm not going to accuse them of designing it to fail - although that thought has crossed my mind."

Holt answers the question: "Where are the Democrats?" and shares his thoughts on how to regain a Congressional majority.

If you're already subscribed to our feed, the podcast should download for you the next time you start up iTunes. If you have iTunes (free download) and haven't yet subscribed, just click the button below to subscribe to our feed. Otherwise, you can access the mp3 file directly through this link.

[Background: This is huge news. Laurel Hester, a 23 year veteran of the Ocean County prosecutor's office has lung cancer which has spread to her brain. The state passed a domestic partner law that allows (but does not mandate) counties to grant domestic partner benefits to county employees. Laurel has asked for the right to pass her pension benefits on to her partner, who may otherwise lose their home without it. Months of protesting, attending freeholder meetings, and public education have finally paid off. You can find out more background info on the situation here.]

"This is one of the happiest days of my life...I feel like David conquering Goliath." said Laurel Hester on Saturday morning.

After nearly a year of refusing to grant Lt Laurel Hester the right to pass her pension benefits on to her partner, Ocean County's freeholders will finally grant Hester her dying wish when they vote on Wednesday.

A 7th county (Camden County) in New Jersey will pass domestic partner benefits tonight. A 24 year veteran of the Ocean County prosecutor's office has lung cancer that has spread to her brain. Her dying wish is that her pension benefits be passed on to her partner, who will otherwise not be able to afford to keep their home. Ironically, we have the bigoted Ocean County freeholders who have stubbornly refused to grant her that wish to thank for the advancement of gay rights in New Jersey.

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Thanks to everyone who voted and to all ten of the nominated blogs. There is so much good talent out there that it was difficult to pick just one.

After a week of voting, the New Jersey blogosphere has spoken and we are proud to announce the winner of the highly coveted and prestigious Screaming Carrot Award for Best NJ Blog of 2005:

The Opinion Mill by Steven Hart

Asked for comment, Hart said "I promise to use this carrot only for good, never for evil. Well . . . hardly ever. Maybe once in a while, but not as a regular thing, no way, no how, nope."

We're all relieved.

On Aug 18, 2005, Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R) said he would return a $1000 contribution that Jack Abramoff made in June of 2001. But unbelievably, the day before, on Aug 17, 2005, Abramoff made a second $1000 contribution to LoBiondo.

Rep. Jim Saxton (R) already returned a $1000 contribution that Abramoff made in 2001, but Saxton also received $1000 in 2003 and $1000 in 2004 from Abramoff. Maybe the 2001 money was a bribe so they are giving it back, while the rest of the money was just influence peddling so they are deciding to keep it.

Rep. Mike Ferguson (R) still hasn't returned the $1000 he got from Abramoff.

State Senator William Gormley (R) also got $1000 from Abramoff in 2000 when he was running for US Senate.

And how could we forget? Abramoff also gave $5000 to the New Jersey Republican State Committee.

By my calculations, the NJ GOP and elected officials have received at least $12,000 from Abramoff but only promised to return $2,000. Even the ones who did say they would return contributions aren't returning the full amount. Nice.

The New Jersey blogosphere is growing and full of talent. We'd like to recognize that talent by awarding the highly prestigous Screaming Carrot Award to the finest Garden State political blog.

To that end, we'd like you to nominate your favorite NJ blogs in the comments below. You can nominate as many blogs as you want, including your own. You might want to point to one or two particularly good posts. Nominated blogs should deal with New Jersey politics, though not necessarily exclusively. Just because the author of a blog is from NJ does not qualify it as a "NJ blog".

We'll accept nominations through December 31st, and then we'll put them up for a vote.

New Jersey's domestic partnership law allows each municipality and county to decide whether to grant their employees domestic partner benefits. Laurel Hester, a 23 year veteran of the Ocean County prosecutor's office, is dying of lung cancer and her partner will lose their home if she cannot receive Laurel's pension benefits. In response to the situation, the Asbury Park Press editorial board urged both Ocean and Monmouth County's freeholders to pass domestic partner benefits. Since Laurel's request, Mercer and Union Counties approved domestic partner benefits as a direct result of Laurel's plight.