July 21, 2008 - 9:25am
News

Zimmer 'outraged' over Lautenberg's Springsteen fundraiser

Calling a published report that Democrat Frank Lautenberg used political connections to buy 40 premium tickets to a Bruce Springsteen concert for $108 and resell them to campaign donors for $1,500 “an outrage”, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dick Zimmer wants the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to give him forty equivalent seats to distribute to “real Springsteen fans at face value, rather than fat cat political contributors.”

“Bruce said, ‘it’s hard to be a saint in the city,’ and apparently it’s not so easy to be a saint after 24 years in the Senate either,” said Ken Kurson, a spokesman for the Zimmer campaign.

EDITOR can be reached via email at editor@politicsnj.com.

Comments

isn't reselling illegal?


isn't reselling illegal? It's effective ticket scalping right?

07/21/08 10:41 am

That it is


NJ limits the resale of tickets to 20% more or $3 more than the face value of the ticket, whichever is greater. So if these tickets are $108 each, the most the good ticket-scalping Senator can resell them for is approximately $130.

07/21/08 11:01 am

Frank is ... a rock fun!


84-years old and still rocking! These seats are in the front so Frank will not have problems with hearing the music. Do not call it scalping, illegal at that. It is a constituency service that Frank will provide. After all, you cannot buy these tickets anywhere, can you? NJ is really lucky to have a Senator like that. He takes care of us!

07/21/08 11:31 am

concert with grandpa


who wants to go to a concert with an 84-year old?

07/21/08 12:02 pm

Zimmer shouldn't waste his energy.


Zimmer cannot deliver the Republican Wing of the Republican Party and therefore will lose. It's Not His Party!!!

 

"A society that puts equality . . . ahead of freedom will end up with neither." ~ Milton Friedman.

07/21/08 12:28 pm

It is not illegal


If this is the best Zimmer can come up with than he is in deeper trouble than everyone thinks

07/21/08 12:58 pm

Born in the USA ?


Lautenberg and Springsteen selling out the working Men and women of NJ to illegals how ironic.

07/21/08 1:01 pm

Born in the USA ?


Lautenberg and Springsteen selling out the working Men and women of NJ to illegals how ironic.

07/21/08 1:01 pm

exemption from law


Nonprofit and political organizations are specifically exempted from the scalping law.

07/21/08 4:15 pm

exemption from law


Nonprofit and political organizations are specifically exempted from the scalping law.

07/21/08 4:15 pm

cc stern AND umdnj, ashcroft..includes but not limited to.


Zimmer is "outraged." Let's see: Can we think of important things we could be "outraged" about? FL buying tickets to resell for his campaign? As my students used to say, "Are you kidding me?"

07/22/08 8:45 am

There is one thing to be more outraged about.


How about the fact that through all the years FL has been in the Senate, NJ has always always been among the lowest for returns on the money it sends to Washington. Billions more for a corrupt school building program, a Transportation Trust Fund with no funds left, and billions in debt...and we keep sending him to Washington and get nothing back. Except perhaps some overpriced Springsteen tickets.

07/22/08 8:02 pm

The fossil is now a scalper


Lautenberg is such a tool. This moron is so detached from reality it amazes me how the press gives him a free ride or buys into the ridiculous spin of Roginsky who hasn't won a competitive race in this decade.

Vote Column - All the way!

07/22/08 8:46 pm

This is silly season


Are all the people posting poor like me-can't afford a shore house? That's what is sounds like-GET SOME RICH FRIENDS --GO TO LBI--THE HAMPTONS--THE VINEYARD--CAPE COD-REHOBOTH-BOB TORRICELLI'S HOUSE--Just go the hell away until September!!!!

07/22/08 8:48 pm

Faux Outrage


I am not a particular fan of FL. Frankly, I think NJ could do alot better. But until we can break the stranglehold these legacy candidates have on our election/nomination process, which progressive Dem's are actively engaged in (and public campaign financing would eliminate), we are screaming in the dark.

However, most of the above comments slamming the Senator for co-mingling fundraising and concert tickets escapes me. Where was the outrage when George Bush and Karl Rove used the White House, our House, the "Peoples House", for a "Media Day" with exclusively conservative (as in lieing through their teeth) radio commentators? Where was the outrage when the likes of Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity and the rest were welcomed past The White House gates to "catapult the propaganda" of the Republican party just before the mid-term election, free of charge from The White House lawn. And where is the outrage that Christie Whitman started us down this slippery fiscal slope that will be the yolk around our kids necks for longer than we care to admit.

You are correct that we are one of the few states that pay more into the federal system than we get back. You would think that we could leverage that position to our advantage. You would think that we could lead the nation with progressive policies that would break this log jam; but instead, like a pack of hungry wolves, we react to the red meat of our Editor and thereby deamean ourselves to a group of angry hecklers, easily manipulated and of little affect.

07/23/08 1:53 am

No...pretty real outrage


Progressive policies like adding billions to a program that has already misspent and misappropriated billions? Like forcing towns in the most densely populated state in the nation to add housing, ensuring an increase in urban and suburban sprawl? Progressive policies like running a trust fund into the ground that was established to build and maintain roads in a state that has some of the most heavily travelled roads in the nation? We've had a decade of those kinds of progressive policies, seven years under one party rule, and its only getting worse. FL will do NOTHING to help, and the NJ Dems don't seem interested in changing things much because they are in power and they have a good thing going. While their stated agendas may be different the way Cody/Lautenberg/Corzine run their buisness is alot like the way DeLay/Frist ran theirs.
As far as the White House media day, no one will confuse Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity for investigative journalists. Just like no one should confuse Olberman, Chris "thrill up my leg" Matthews, or the New York Times (how's the research on McCain's affair going?) for unbiased media sources. Bush did alot of things wrong, but the question for the Dems is, will they do better or will they do the same, just from the other side.

07/23/08 9:56 am

So Bring back Bret Schundler


dust him off and I'll donate to/volunteer for his campaign. Don't send him back to the pergatory of Jersey City politics.

I think the only reason Bret lost was because he was caught flat footed on the abortion issue. My wife wouldn't vote for him solely, on that issue. NOW, WE ALL KNOW WHAT A RELIGIOUS ZEALOT LOOKS LIKE (albeit for purely political purposes). And it ain't Bret.

So stop whining, get off your duffs and do something. And yes the Democrats are doing something. We elected Corzine because we thought we knew what he stood for. We were wrong and I apologize for that. But do not dismiss the active and engaged uprsing against Boss Joe and Pay to Play as inconsequential. There are elected democrats, I would include Bill Codey (your going to kill me on this one I know), Corey Booker, Ron Rice Jr., Real Bergen Democrats and others who are trying but need help, Not from Democrats or Republicans but from Americans. Find a Grassroots orginization that works for you and get invloved in the process. Start showing up regularly at your town councli and/or local political club meetings. Look out for the authoritarians in either camp.

I'm not a devout Democrat or Rebulican. Frankly I could care less whether there is a D or and R after your name. My only dog is this fight are my kids. Again, and I mean, Best regards.

07/23/08 11:06 am

Every New Jersey Resident has some dog in the fight...


Voting for someone like Codey and hoping that your kids will have a better future in this state is, in my opinion, a direct contradiction between the action and the intended outcome. Codey has been part of our ballooning budget deficit for years. He and Corzine have given billions away to the Abbott districts with little to show for it. And yet, they seem completely happy to do it again and again. Property taxes are driving families out of this state. Increased taxes on buisnesses are driving jobs out of the state. While the origins of the problems may not have begun with the Corzine administration and Codey's reign in the Legislature, those two have only made this state's decline accelerate. And what no one is prepared to say is that things have not hit bottom yet for New Jersey. Sticking to people like Codey doesn't make any sense if you want to change the direction we are headed.

07/23/08 12:20 pm