Danger in New Jersey: GOP Senate candidate Thomas Kean, Jr.

[brentspeak]

New Jersey hasn't elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972 (Clifford Chase). But along comes Thomas Kean, Jr., namesake of the popular former NJ governor. He's facing off against Democrat Robert Menendez (who was appointed by Jon Corzine to finish his vacated Senate seat).

Check out some of Kean Jr.'s positions:

http://www.tomkean.com/today/index.cfm?e=user.issues.overview

1) "New Jersey gets the worst return on its federal taxes of any state in the country: only 57 cents of every dollar we send to Washington comes back to New Jersey in federal spending....Lower federal taxes and spending benefit New Jersey more than any other state - because the less we send to Washington, the less we lose to other states. Tom will support lower taxes and spending, so that New Jersey can keep its own money to address the many pressing needs we have here in the Garden State."

(Did you get that logic? Because fewer NJ dollars raised will mean fewer dollars going to other states, NJ will, uh, have more dollars.)

2) "Tom also supports a repeal of the unfair Death Tax that penalizes hardworking Americans for the achievements of a lifetime."

(Evidence that the Club For Growth is running his campaign. Which means they'll be plenty of GOP dirty tricks returning to the Garden State. The Club For Growth was behind the harrasing robo-calling during the 2002 5th Congressional District race; the calls smeared Democratic candidate Anne Sumers on behalf of Republican Scott Garrett.)

3) Free trade.
New Jersey is home to the Newark/Elizabeth seaport, the largest on the East Coast. Tens of thousands of New Jersey jobs depend on the free flow of international trade. In addition, free trade agreements open new markets for New Jersey businesses, and lower the cost of living for all New Jersey families by reducing the price of the consumer goods they buy every day.

(That's right -- there's plenty of NJ chemical companies that are just itching to relocate overseas so as to pay lower labor costs. Thanks, Tom. And BTW, why is he mentioning the seaport? Is it in danger of being closed down???)

4) Tom believes that all New Jerseyans should have access to quality, affordable health care, and Health Savings Accounts give many Americans that opportunity

(HSA's have already proven to benefit mostly just the wealthy, who can use them as another tax shelter. Everyone else -- tough luck, as medical costs continue to rise. (Needless to say, Kean is also against a national health care system, even though that could solve many employers' and average Americans' problems at once.)

Also, Kean won't mention it on his website, but he's in favor of privatizing Social Security. (There's the Club For Growth pulling its puppet strings again.)

5) "In Washington, powerful lobbyists and special interests are buying up political favors and corrupting the business of government. Half measures will not curb the overwhelming influence of money in politics.

(You mean powerful lobbyists and special interests like the Club For Growth?)

6) Throughout the course of this campaign Tom will unveil his plan to reform Congress – so the people of New Jersey can once again regain their trust in government.

(How much more time do you need to think something up?)

The thing about Kean is, his father, who'll be campaigning for Junior, is very popular in this state. That's a big advantage Menendez does not have. Also, he's young and "marketable" while Menendez sure as heck isn't. Menendez also has a reputation as being a machine-type politician, and not too many people beyond his local constituency really have made a connection with him, let alone know much about him.

It's going to take a lot of effort to prevent this seat going to this Bush-lite.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Thomas Kean, Sr is one of the most vacant bags of wind I have

ever seen. That performance on the 9/11 panel was stupefying. Like father like son.

[EST]

4. Damn right!

Kean sr. was such an obvious tool that even I (none to perspicacious at reading people) could recognize him as part of the neo-fascist enablers, BFEE sympathizers.

[vi5]

2. People here in NJ hem and haw a lot and like to complain..

But ultimately, and especially during the Bush years they stick with Dems.

I've been very happy with Menendez and I don't think I'm alone amongst my fellow New Jerseyans.

[brentspeak]

3. Garrett, my idiot congressman, was elected in 2002

It didn't help that Sumers was a weak candidate, though.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

9. In the last two elections...

2004 and this one, the 5th District has been actively ignored and abandoned by the DCCC and EVERY major dem-oriented PAC out there, including EMILY'S List, who would not support Anne Wolfe and thus, ended her campaign.

The 5th is on no Democratic radar. We have been abandoned.

[NJ Democrats]

10. Yeah he is my Congressman too

For 2 more weeks.
BTW, Menendez WILL be re-elected.

[bluestateguy]

5. I'll do Menendez's campaign for him: Kean=Bush. Election over. Thank You

nt

[charlyvi]

6. LOL!

People get paid thousands of dollars for shit not nearly half that good!

[TreasonousBastard]

7. It was destined to be a tough fight...

and they didn't pick up Keane Jr because of his wit and wisdom.

Trade, taxes, and immigration are the three big deals in Joisey now, and Keane is squarely on the winning side of at least two.

Joisey might actually be a net exporter, with state and business agencies working for years to build exports. Thanks to history of ATT, RCA, drug&chemical cos and other cutting edge industries doing their R&D in NJ, there are thousands of small machine shops, chip houses, and other substantial businesses with some awfully good stuff to sell. Just about everyone there is only one or two steps related to a business involved with international trade.

Joisey regularly competes with Connecticut for being the wealthiest state in the union. One or the other is always #1 from year to year, and with that kind of wealth around, taxes are always top of the list in campaigns. Even us poor mortals are caught up in the tax wars and they just run state politics.

Except for taxes, positions don't count for much in Joisey-- what really counts is who gets the vote out. Some counties would vote for Osama if he was on the right party line.

[wiley]

8. What's the Danger?

The son has no balls either. Can't even play in the game.

[tiptoe]

11. A BIG danger is election fraud...in a "HIGH RISK" state (All DRE, no VVPB)

Bush predicts Republicans will retain Congress - Reuters, July 7

CHICAGO (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, trying to boost his standing with Americans, confidently predicted on Friday that Republicans will retain control of Congress in November elections despite his political troubles.

"We will hold the House (of Representatives) and the Senate," Bush said in the first formal, solo news conference he has held outside of Washington. "I'm looking forward to these elections. I think you'll be surprised..."

"Surprised"?...perhaps like one popular Democratic Senator was surprised in 2002 in Georgia?

"...Max Cleland’s Surprise Loss In November 2002, popular Georgia Democratic Senator Max Cleland led by 5 percentage points prior to the election – the first ever conducted entirely on touch-screen voting machines. But then a mysterious swing of 12 percent on election day led to his defeat."
slide 8: ELECTION FRAUD 2004

In a recent 6/15 poll Menendez currently leads Kean 43% to 36%. In a close election, it would take only a "little fraud" to put Kean over the top...maybe in a "surprise" similar to Max Cleland's in Georgia, 2002.

New Jersey shares with Georgia -- and 15 other states identified by Common Cause -- a same "Status of State Voting Systems" relegating those jurisdictions at "HIGH RISK" for "compromised election due to DRE failure" (i.e. malfunction and/or security concerns). NJ has a Voter-Verified Paper Ballot (VVPB) requirement for 2008. But what about the key 2006 elections in the meantime? Are there any plans to implement security provisions for important 2006 elections in New Jersey, that could help swing control of Congress back to Dems...if protection against FRAUD can be secured? ("Fortunately, these steps are not particularly complicated or cumbersome...")

In particular, are there any plans to perform a "parallel election" in New Jersey as per security recommendation #2 from the June 27-released Brennan Center for Justice study, THE MACHINERY OF DEMOCRACY: PROTECTING ELECTIONS IN AN ELECTRONIC WORLD-- Executive Summary?

p.3

SECURITY RECOMMENDATIONS

There are a number of steps that jurisdictions can take to address the vulnerabilities identified in the Security Report and make their voting systems significantly more secure. We recommend adoption of the following security measures:

1. Conduct automatic routine audits comparing voter verified paper records to the electronic record following every election. A voter verified paper record accompanied by a solid automatic routine audit of those records can go a long way toward making the least difficult attacks much more difficult.

2. Perform “parallel testing” (selection of voting machines at random and testing them as realistically as possible on Election Day.) For paperless DREs, in particular, parallel testing will help jurisdictions detect software-based attacks, as well as subtle software bugs that may not be discovered during inspection and other testing.

3. Ban use of voting machines with wireless components. All three voting systems are more vulnerable to attack if they have wireless components.

4. Use a transparent and random selection process for all auditing procedures. For any auditing to be effective (and to ensure that the public is confident in such procedures), jurisdictions must develop and implement transparent and random selection procedures.

5. Ensure decentralized programming and voting system administration. Where a single entity, such as a vendor or state or national consultant, performs key tasks for multiple jurisdictions, attacks against statewide elections become easier.

6. Institute clear and effective procedures for addressing evidence of fraud or error. Both automatic routine audits and parallel testing are of questionable security value without effective procedures for action where evidence of machine malfunction and/or fraud is discovered. Detection of fraud without an appropriate response will not prevent attacks from succeeding.

Fortunately, these steps are not particularly complicated or cumbersome. For the most part, they do not involve significant changes in system architecture. Unfortunately, few jurisdictions have implemented any of these security recommendations.

p.14

RECOMMENDATION #2:
¦ CONDUCT PARALLEL TESTING.
It is not possible to conduct an audit of paper records of DREs without VVPT, because no voter verified paper record exists on such machines. This means that jurisdictions that use DREs without VVPT do not have access to an important and powerful countermeasure.

For paperless DRE voting machines, parallel testing is probably the best way to detect most software-based attacks, as well as subtle software bugs that may not be discovered during inspection and other testing. For DREs w/ VVPT and ballot-marking devices, parallel testing provides the opportunity to discover a specific kind of attack (for instance, printing the wrong choice on the voter verified paper record) that may not be detected by simply reviewing the paper record after the election is over. However, even under the best of circumstances, parallel testing is an imperfect security measure. The testing creates an “arms-race” between the testers and the attacker, but the race is one in which the testers can never be certain that they have prevailed.

We have concluded that the following steps will lead to more effective parallel testing:
...

Common Cause's election reform report Malfunction And Malfeasance - A Report On The Electronic Voting Machine Debacle identifies in Charts A & B seventeen "HIGH RISK" States -- including New Jersey -- with very hackable DRE Systems lacking paper trails and vulnerable to undetectable Election Fraud (refer here for more background and technical details). Democratic candidate priorities in all of the following high risk states should include focus on implementing Brennan Center for Justice security recommendations in anticipation of "surprises" that Bush alludes to above. They did it in 2004 -- as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr has come around to report and begin litigation in federal court -- and they'll continue doing so unless stopped.

Arkansas <YES>
Delaware
District of Colombia
Florida <YES> -- 2006? 5/25/06: Nelson (D) 56% Harris (R) 26%
Georgia <YES> (Max Cleland "surprise" 12% reversal, 2002, in this HIGH RISK state)
Iowa <YES>
Indiana
Kansas <YES>
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maryland <YES> -- 2006? 4/18/06: Cardin (D) 45% Steele (R) 35%
New Jersey <YES> -- 2006? 6/15/06: Menendez (D) 43% Kean (R) 36%.
Pennsylvania -- 2006? 6/15/06: Santorum (R) 40% Casey (D) 49%
South Carolina
Tennessee -- 2006? 6/13/06: Corker (R) 46% Ford (D) 42%
Texas
Virginia -- 2006? 6/17/06: Allen (R) 51% Webb (D) 41%

"In those states marked “yes” in the chart above, Common Cause recommends voting by absentee ballot, if voters’ only other option in their precinct is a paperless DRE." ( see p 21 for Common Cause recommendations )

Source of Poll Data: 2006 US Senate races

====
A "parallel election" was conducted for a mayoral race in July 2005 in San Diego, whose then "newly appointed Registrar of Voters, Republican Mikel Haas," is currently in the midst of stonewalling attempts for a manual count of the paper ballots and trails in the recent June 6 CA-50 Special Election. (Brad Friedman has spearheaded coverage of Busby/Bilbray.) see: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2725263&mesg_id=2725489

[wiley]

12. Agreed.