Dennis Kucinich

A poll released today by Rasmussen Reports confirms what a Monmouth University/Gannett poll showed earlier this week: that John McCain and Rudy Giuliani are in a dead heat in New Jersey.

Bluewave volunteer Ana Maria Cardenas collects ballots in the Unitarian Church Tuesday night in Montclair.Barack Obama won a big victory at the BlueWaveNJ straw poll tonight, receiving 170 votes (41%) against 99 for Hillary Clinton (24%) and 94 for John Edwards (23%).  Dennis Kucinich received 30 votes (7%).  Seventeen voters were undecided.

Speaking to a Unitarian Church crammed with members of the progressive Montclair Democratic organization, Newark Mayor Cory Booker represented Obama, while State Sen. Nia Gill spoke for Clinton, State Sen. Joseph Vitale for Edwards, and North Jersey activist Stuart Hutchison for Kucinich.

During the question and answer session, which was moderated by veteran Newsweek journalist Jonathan Alter, Booker and Gill traded shots as representatives of the two presidential frontrunners. 

Gill sought to amplify Clinton's basic argument that she is more experienced than Obama.

"If you do not control the apparatus of government, your ideas are over here and government is over here," said the Montclair-based senator and trial attorney. 

After all the emails and phone calls back and forth regarding ballot drawing procedure, Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin said he couldn’t believe the way it turned out for the Democratic presidential candidates in Essex.

The Barack Obama campaign made a statement Monday as the Democratic Party's tallies of signatures to get presidential candidates on the ballot in New Jersey showed Obama smothering the Hillary Clinton campaign, by almost 2,000 votes.

There are many players on the Democratic Party team, and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is one. But when it comes to leadership, Obama is the man, says Booker. 

Monday, December 10th is the state Division of Elections' deadline for petition signatures required to get the names of presidential candidates on the New Jersey primary ballot on Feb. 5th.

Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich may be a non-entity in the official polls in New Jersey, but his supporters made certain their candidate was the first Democrat assured of getting on the ballot. According to the Division of Elections, Kucinich, and Republican candidates Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain all have the requisite signatures to be on the primary ballot.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul, a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination Susan Berkowitz of Parsippany has been on the street in front of the Morristown Green every Friday evening for six years, protesting war in the Middle East.

As part of her activist efforts, she attends nearly every area march or action. In Lincoln Park this summer she made cranes for peace for little Newark girls and walked after the 2004 presidential election from Pedro Francisco Park to the southern end of Broad Street to place shoes on the steps of City Hall in honor of the American dead.

"Where are you from," she's asked.

"Brooklyn," she says.

Figures.

"And I moved to Newark when I was 11," she adds.

It used to be that some had aspirations that a 24-7 media would lead to a general uplift in the culture, arts, and political understandings of the people. Such a promise seemed to fulfill Thomas Jefferson’s admonition that a people could not be both ignorant and free.  But what is happening is disappointing.  First, the major non-cable networks have moved their resources out of nightly news.  If one examines, for example, CBS Evening News with Katie Couric one will see a 30-minute show that gives us 22 minutes of news, but a good part is soft news which is entertainment not enlightenment.  Then CBS and the other two networks wonder why the number of people watching their news has significantly dropped over the years.