National

Interesting. A NJ think tank -- New Jersey Policy Perspective -- has a report out the shows that while subsidies to NJ businesses have surged under Governor Christie's administration (subsidies that are billed as economy boosting), NJ's economy has remained pretty sluggish. According to this report, $4bn worth of subsidies had been awarded to businesses in the past four and a half years by state authorities under Christie – more than three times the $1.2bn in subsidies that were given out in the prior 10 years. Got that? That's $4 billion dollars worth of corporate subsides for this result:

So I guess this is happening now. If I get some pledges, and Mrs. (not as) Liberal (as me), doesn't kill me - I guess I'll have some news to announce. For the record - if John Carney paid a crumb's worth of attention to the Democratic base, this wouldn't be necessary. I actually had high hopes for Carney, but there is no more room left for hoping for the best. He is a complete and total sell out. His constant overtures to the obstructionist Republicans are hard to swallow, but you can chalk that up to a warm and open personality. Doing the Koch Brother's bidding is the last straw, however. It isn't an issue of style. Now he is openly working against the interests of middle class Delawareans. This country has moved to the right over the past 20 years because the GOP has primaries which force the party to pay attention to the base. The Democrats don;t have primaries, so Democrats like John Carney are free to utterly ignore the legitimate concerns of the Democratic base.

I think I have to primary John Carney. Not because I want to be in Congress, or be a O’Donell type spoiler and risk throwing the seat to the Republicans. John Carney will easily beat me in the primary. But I want to do it to just have a chance to tell him to his face that he is wrong to take $300k from the financial services industry. That he is wrong to enable the Tea Party like he does by giving “bipartisan” gloss to all the bullshit they are pulling. That he is wrong to use his seat to benefit billionaires like Pete Peterson at the expense of Delawareans he is supposed to be representing. What’s the filling fee? I would surely lose – but if I could just tell him to be a Democrat to his face it might shame him into thinking twice about being the Republican's boy on the other side of the isle. Even if is didn’t, it would make me feel better.

Well, it's reaction day. Cantor Day. Brat Upsets Cantor. Sounds like a headline out of a failed Bar Mitzvah. Anywho, our dear friend Unstable Isotope asked last night on Twitter if the Cantor defeat was bigger than the Castle defeat. I answered Cantor is bigger because we all saw Christine O'Donnell coming, Palin endorsed her, the Tea Party Express got involved in the campaign, Castle got very nervous and went negative, and a poll from PPP five days before the election showed Christine in the lead. You can't say that about this Brat guy. Here is some reaction from the punditry....

A new Public Policy Polling survey conducted in Rep. Eric Cantor's (R-VA) district last night finds that both Cantor and the GOP House leadership are "deeply unpopular" but... interestingly and perhaps somewhat connecting, comprehensive immigration reform "is actually quite popular in his district."