Rutgers

Getty Images Photo

President Bush now has lower approval ratings in New Jersey than Richard Nixon did in May 1974, three months before he resigned the presidency

George W. Bush’s job approval ratings among New Jersey voters is at the lowest point in his presidency.  A new Quinnipiac University poll has Bush at an upside-down 18%-78%, worse than his 22%-75% numbers in a June poll.  Bush is now upside-down among Republicans, 45%-48%.  And in heavily Republican northwestern New Jersey, which includes Morris, Hunterdon, Somerset, Sussex and Warren counties, the 43rd president is at an upside-down 24%-71%.  Among African Americans, Bush's positive job approval does not register; his negative is at 95%.

In New Jersey, Bush is now less popular than Richard Nixon was three months before his 1974 resignation.  An Eagleton-Rutgers poll had Nixon’s job approval at 19%-76%.

A new Quinnipiac University poll gives President George W. Bush has an upside-down 26%-70% disapproval rating among New Jersey voters, who say (62%-34%) that going to war in Iraq was the wrong thing to do.

State Sen. Raymond Lesniak doesn’t have as much trouble with a deal to keep Rutgers football coach Greg Schiano as he does with the “secrecy and lack of transparency” that surrounds the deal.  “Rutgers University, as the state's flagship higher education university, has an obligation to be accessible and accountable not only to the students attending the school but to the taxpaying public that subsidizes most of its operations,” Lesniak wrote in an op-ed that appeared in The Star-Ledger.  “In the case of Schiano's contract, not only should the terms have been disclosed, but they should have been touted by an administration seeking to find cost-effective ways to increase the national profile of Rutgers football. “  Click here to read Lesniak’s Op-Ed.

Eighteen women have served in the New Jersey State Senate: Mildred Barry Hughes (D-Union) in 1966, Jerry English (D-Union) in 1971, Wynona Lipman (D-Essex) in 1972, Anne Martindell (D-Mercer) and Alene Ammond (D-Camden) in 1974, Leanna Brown (R-Morris) and Catherine Costa (D-Burlington) in 1984, and Martha Bark (R-Burlington) in 1997. Diane Allen and Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) took office in January 1998, Barbara Buono and Nia Gill in 2001, and Teresa Ruiz, Dana Redd, and Sandra Cunningham in 2007.

Ellen Karcher in January 2004, and Loretta Weinberg the following November. Jennifer Beck defeated Karcher last November – the first time one woman unseated another.

On the day Gov. Jon Corzine announced he would lead a campaign to raise $30 million in private donations for renovations at Rutgers University Stadium, football coach Greg Schiano was meeting with the University of Michigan athletic director to discuss the coaching vacancy, according to a Star-Ledger report.  Update: Schiano said today that he will stay at Rutgers.

 Senator Nicholas Asselta, (R-1), has sent a letter to the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center asking that they study the economic impact, land use ramifications, political governance, finance and social policy implications as it relates to the potential sale of the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and Atlantic City Expressway. A copy of the letter is attached.

Senator Thomas Kean, (R-21), a former member of the Dartmouth crew team, issued the following statement regarding the decision by Rutgers’ athletics to eliminate six sports as a budgetary measure. The sports are men’s heavy and light weight crew, men and women’s fencing, men’s tennis and men’s swimming and diving.

Freedom of speech is one our most cherished rights ­ one our troops fight every day to defend.  The right to free speech makes us the great country we are.  Unfortunately, it also means that people can say ignorant, hurtful and demeaning things as Don Imus did about the Rutgers Lady Scarlet Knights.  As we¹ve seen time and again, the right to speech is no guarantee of “wise speech.�

WATSON WATSON COLEMAN: RUTGERS WOMEN B-BALL TEAM
DISPLAYS CLASS, CHARACTER IN PRESS CONFERENCE
Assembly Majority Leader Calls for FCC Sanctions against Imus and His Producer

(TRENTON) - Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman, the highest ranking African-American in the state Legislature and a fervent supporter of the Rutgers University women's basketball team, today commended the student athletes for "displaying their true dignity, respect and character" in response to the racist and sexist commentary of radio talk show host Don Imus and his producer Bernard McGuirk.