After Democrat's easy victory, practice saying, 'Governor-elect Phil Murphy'

Cartoonist Dave Granlund puts the spotlight on Muslim-hater Steve Bannon, President Trump's chief strategist, who is both physically and philosophically repulsive.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Democrat Phil Murphy is expected to win the Nov. 7 election to replace the widely unpopular Governor Christie.

Murphy, a wealthy former ambassador and Goldman Sachs executive, got more than twice the number of votes than his nearest Democratic rival in Tuesday's primary.

With 93% of the vote counted, Murphy had 228,889 votes, compared to Jim Johnson, who received 102,812 votes, according to The Record of Woodland Park.

Murphy will face Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who easily won the Republican primary.

Christie, Trump

"I reject completely the us-versus-them leadership that defines [Gov.] Chris Christie and [President] Donald Trump," Murphy said on Tuesday night. 

As governor, Murphy will inherit the same Democratic majority in the state Legislature that Christie has stopped dead with more than 500 vetoes.

The Democratic nominee has pledged to tax wealthy residents and corporations, and close tax loopholes exploited by Wall Street bankers.

We're likely to see the Legislature approve a $15 minimum wage, fully fund education, restore the pension funds of state workers and legalize marijuana.

And he's also expected to reverse course on the environment and mass transit, both of which Christie tried to destroy.

Lower taxes?

As Christie did during his successful 2009 campaign, Guadagno has promised to lower local property taxes -- the highest in the nation.

But that amounts to a Big Lie, given New Jersey's 565 inefficient home-rule communities that have historically resisted consolidation or cooperation with their neighbors.

Almost ever town, no matter how small, has its own police chief, fire chief, superintendent of schools and other officials -- layers of wasteful duplication.

Christie succeeded in placing a 2% cap on property tax hikes in 2011, but that didn't prevent the levies from going up.

In 2016, taxes rose 2.35%, and property owners paid an average of $8,549, according to NJ.com. Many state residents pay more than twice that.

In Hackensack -- one of 70 communities in Bergen County, the state's wealthiest -- 44% of the property taxes go toward supporting the schools.

Englewood, which has some of the highest property taxes in Bergen County, is a classic two-sides-of-the-tracks community with few white students in the elementary and middle schools, and a downtown with many vacant storefronts.

Food coverage

In The Record's Better Living section today, freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson's recipe for pasta with plenty of artery clogging bacon and butter appears under this headline:

"Bacon, pasta and breadcrumbs -- 

what else do you really need?"

I'd say, a good heart doctor.

On Tuesday, the Better Living editors urged readers to jump into their cars and sample the food options at Woodbury Commons, a discount mall that is a 43-minute drive from Hackensack. 

Before you die

On Sunday, the editors warned readers they are going to die soon, and must sample 27 meals or drinks before they go.

The article on the Better Living front was headlined:

"SUMMER BUCKET LIST

 FOR NORTH JERSEY FOODIES"

Of course, maybe the editors were saying two items on the so-called bucket list -- a fried Texas Weiner with chili and chopped onions at Libby's Lunch or a cheeseburger at White Manna -- could kill you.

Last Friday, Better Living urged readers to go on another road trip to try Asian Indian restaurants in North Brunswick (a 60-minute drive from Hackensack), Somerset and Franklin Park.

Since 2010, 500-plus vetoes show clearly it's Governor Christie's way or the highway

In Dave Granlund's cartoon, dictator and Syrian war criminal Vladimir Putin is sitting pretty despite probes into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign and election. 

On the campaign trail, Donald J. Trump promised to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act on his first day in office, but ultra-conservative Republicans wanted even more drastic cuts than proposed in the bill that was withdrawn by House Speaker Paul Ryan. "Well, we took a stab at it," killing the patient, the GOP says in this cartoon from Rick McKee.

Cartoonist John Cole notes that President Trump and his surrogates, Counselor Kellyanne Conway and Press Secretary Sean Spicer, have turned the nation's capital into "Lie Lie Land."

 -- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

From his very first veto and such major unilateral actions as killing the Hudson River rail tunnels, Governor Christie laid the groundwork for the "banana republic" New Jersey has become.

Today's Page 1 story in The Record focuses on comments by a federal judge about Christie's 2013 re-election machine, which led to closing of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge, triggering five mornings of gridlock to punish Fort Lee's Democratic mayor.

On Wednesday, when she sentenced two of his former allies to prison, U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton noted that at the time of the lane closings in September 2013, Trenton under Christie sent out a clear message:

"You are either with us or against us," and that anyone perceived to be against the administration faced retribution, she said.

Lee Cortes, a federal prosecutor, noted:

"The use of government power at a publicly owned bridge to create traffic ... just to mess with one person [Fort Lee's mayor] ... are the actions out of the playbook of some dictator of a banana republic."

Early signs

But signs that Christie demanded his way or the highway were clear as early as 2010, his first year in office:

He delayed the biggest mass-transit expansion in decades and used leftover money to fix roads and bridges; pulled out of a multi-state environmental initiative, and started vetoing or threatened to veto every bill passed by the state Legislature's Democratic majority.

Among the GOP bully's vetoes: A tax surcharge on millionaires, and a phase-in of a $15-an-hour minimum wage.

For the most part, The Record's coverage focused on politics, not issues, and Staff Writer Charles Stile ignored the mounting number of vetoes in column after column polishing Christie's image as a "bipartisan compromiser."

That quality, Stile argued time and again, could propel Christie into the White House.

Alas, when the Bridgegate scandal broke, Christie's bid was dashed. 

Then, in February 2016, Christie endorsed Donald J. Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, leading The Star-Ledger and five other New Jersey dailies to call for the governor's resignation.

The Record never joined that chorus.

Starving seniors

Editor Richard A. Green's choices for the front page continue to bewilder readers.

Today, he runs a story bemoaning Trump's proposed cuts to Meals On Wheels programs for seniors, many of whom are shut-ins or disabled (1A).

That appears above the fold, but below the fold seniors and other readers are told they "must" try eight restaurants, including three of the most expensive in Bergen County (1A, 10BL and 11BL). 

Maybe, Green is suggesting that after the Meals on Wheels program ends, vans can be retrofitted to carry seniors in wheelchairs to $100 dinners at the Saddle River Inn, Ho-Ho-Kus Inn & Tavern and Cafe Panache.