NJ Assembly Committee to consider Earle bill today

We certainly hope everyone had a safe and prosperous Thanksgiving weekend, but it is immediately back to business for NOPE this morning, with our political liaison Elaine Mann and a team of supporters in Trenton to lobby the Assembly's Military and Veterans Affairs Committee to pass A-4159, which would require the State Treasurer to conduct a full and much-needed assessment of the financial and security ramifications of the civilian housing plan at Earle.

This, in our view, is the first big step toward what we hope will be a successful campaign to pass this legislation in both the New Jersey House and Senate (companion bill S-3017, sponsored by Jennifer Beck and Joe Kyrillos and co-sponsored by Sean Kean) and prevent the DEP and DOT from issuing any construction permits to the Department of Navy ahead of the Treasurer's study. In short, passage would pose a significant roadblock to the DoN's housing plan.

A-4159, co-sponsored by District 12's Caroline Casagrande and Declan O'Scanlon (one of four Assembly members on the Committee - the others are Jack Connors (D-7, Delran), Cleopatra Tucker (D-28, Newark) and Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D-5, Camden)), will be discussed this morning at a 10 a.m. meeting, according to the NJ Legislature website, and we will keep you posted once we learn about the details of the meeting from Elaine and our other attendees.

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TURN IN YOUR NOPE POSTCARDS: Since we only were able to confirm details of this Assembly meeting on Friday, we ask that anyone with the sets of five postcards to start turning them over to their NOPE counterparts or to drop off signed copies to the drop points at Colts Neck Town Hall and the Recreation Center, or Tinton Falls Borough Hall ASAP. We most certainly will need the WHITE POSTCARDS for our next trip to Trenton, when S-3017 is taken up by the Senate Committee and we lobby that day, and will otherwise look to mail the other four-color postcards in bulk sometime within the next 7-10 days. With some 4,000 sets of postcards outstanding, we figure to conduct this campaign well into the first quarter of 2010, but need the white postcards ASAP for our next day in Trenton.