WINNERS
Matt Alexander
The fictional personality posited by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind Poll is nearly just as well known as Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop or former Goldman Sachs CEO Phil Murphy. In this week’s poll, Alexander received 18 percent name recognition, compared to Murphy’s 26 percent and Fulop’s 25 percent. That’s not bad, for someone who doesn’t even exist. Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3), for his part, has good comparable name ID but not exactly a high favorable rating.
LOSERS
Cory Booker
The junior senator from New Jersey will helm a New Jersey fundraiser next week for the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. But his prospects as a vice presidential candidate look grim in the aftermath of powerful Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) declaring his opposition to Clinton running on a national ticket with a senator from a state with a Republican governor. Greedy for a majority, Reid frets about Gov. Chris Christie selecting a Republican as Booker’s replacement.
Chris Christie
The New Jersey Governor absorbed another poll this week that shows his approval rating down – way down, at 26%, according to Fairleigh Dickinson University/PublicMind.
Hillary Clinton
It was a bad week for the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, as a Fairleigh Dickinson Poll found that if the election were held today, over half (57%) would support Sanders over Donald Trump (33%). Beset by an email server controversy, the former Secretary of State still bests Donald Trump by double digits, but her lead is cut to 48-37.
Tom Kean, Jr.
Senate Democrats this week failed to support a bill by the Senate Minority Leader that would reform the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Kean wanted his fellow senators to affirm Gov. Chris Christie’s conditional veto of legislation (S708) and bring the senate’s legislation into alignment with the New York version. It didn’t happen.
Twitter user @dubenezic
In a hateful tweet, the New York Mets and Donald Trump fan write of Hoboken Councilman Ravi Bhalla – who is a Sikh, “How the hell did Hoboken allow this guy to be a councilman? Should’t even be allowed in the U.S. #terrorist.” Bhalla responded with: “Sir, I am born & raised in America. You clearly don’t know what it means to be an American. #ignorant.”
Beth Medrash Govoha and Princeton Theological Seminary
An appellate court ruling this week prevented the Orthodox Jewish yeshiva in Lakewood and the Presbyterian seminary in Princeton from receiving state grants ($10.6 million and $645,323 respectively), a decision hailed as “a groundbreaking victory against government sponsorship of religion,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.
