Thursday, June 14, 2007

I'm Back

So, now I'm home again. Here's what I missed:

Representative Scott Garrett took the opportunity to follow the news that the GDP grew at the slowest pace in five years to send out a Garrett Gazette saying how great things are with the economy thanks to the tax cuts. Not mentioned in the Gazette were the facts of the unfair competitive advantage the cuts provide foreign companies, or the fact that there is growing concern within economist circles that phantom GDP may be artificially inflating the strength of the economy. Also, Garrett neglected to mention his vote against 10 years of tax cuts for small business owners.

On a positive, it seems the hotly debated Homeland Security funding bill will have an amendment to allocate funds based on risk, a primary recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, and Garrett sponsored the amendment to get it in there.

Both Kevin O'Toole and Steve Oroho won their primaries. O'Toole's victory was the straw that broke the camel's back as far as Guy Talarico's time as Chairman of the Bergen County Republican Organization. Oroho notched his second victory against Garrett's preferred candidate, and has built a strong coalition of moderates and classic conservatives that is reshaping the power balance in Sussex. Assuming O'Toole and Oroho both win, they have very big shoes to fill in the State Senate for their respective parties and constituents.

And on a final note, Garrett's press secretary Will Holley has been hired to handle media for Mitt Romney in South Carolina. One of the biggest gripes since I first started following Garrett was that you could almost never find quotes or statements or anything regarding his thinking when voting on our behalf. Basically, before Holley came on board Garrett's website was about as useless to constituents as ice cubes are to Eskimos. I'm not sure when Holley will be leaving Garrett's office, but Holley's work was light years beyond what we had before (even when he was spinning) and he will be missed.

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