Jack Hannold writes that if Hillary Clinton is the party's nominee, it may cost them the White House.
To the Editor:
With control of the U.S. Senate at stake, Republican leaders are understandably worried about having Donald Trump as their 2016 presidential candidate.
Democrats hold only 10 of the 34 Senate seats at stake in 2016, while Republicans hold 24. The GOP must win at least 20 of those 34 seats to keep control. That's why, as the Washington Post reported recently, Republican Party officials are quietly making plans to force a brokered convention.
They've seen polls that show Hillary Clinton ahead of Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz nearly everywhere, but also find her to be competitive with the strongest declared GOP candidates in many of the states the Republicans need. These Republican leaders want a different presidential candidate, one who can both win the White House and help the party's Senate candidates.
These Republican bigwigs also assume that their Democratic counterparts will be able to rig the nominating process in favor of Hillary Clinton. And, that's a real possibility.
MORE: Five takeaways from third Democratic debate
The polls that find U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders more popular than Clinton -- with independents as well as both activist and non-activist Democrats -- also find Clinton likely to beat Sanders to win Democratic primaries in most states. The Wall Street Democrats have already secured endorsements for Clinton from many Democratic elected officials.
Don't forget what happened when party bosses engineered the 1968 nomination of Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who, like Clinton, had been part of an unpopular administration.
If Democratic power brokers can make Clinton their nominee, they may lose the White House as a result. If they do, it probably won't be their biggest loss since 1972, but it will certainly be their least surprising one since 1968.
Jack Hannold
Clayton
Add one ballot question for Sweeney
To the Editor:
In Paul Mulshine's Dec. 18 column ("Dems take initiative on referendums") State Senate President Sen. Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, is cited as saying the Republican administration of Gov. Chris Christie is not in tune with the majority of New Jersey residents. This, according to Sweeney, leaves the Democrat-controlled Legislature no choice but to try to put four referendum questions before voters in 2016. (A governor's signature is not required for the Legislature to place questions on the ballot.)
I think it's Sweeney who's out of tune. He wants to raise gasoline taxes to replenish New Jersey's Transportation Trust Fund, even though recent polls show that the majority of residents are steadfastly opposed raising gasoline taxes -- even if those funds can't be use for any other purpose.
If Sweeney wants to follow the will of the people who elected him, why stop at four referendum questions? How about a fifth one asking if the people of New Jersey support a gasoline tax increase?
Personally, I'm tired of Sweeney's same old tune. Raising taxes is the only song he knows.
Carol Rhodes
Barnsboro
Editor's note: Referendum language approved last week by an Assembly committee asks voters to dedicate all current and future gasoline tax revenue to transportation, but voter approval would not itself increase the tax.
BPU shills for fossil fuel industry
To the Editor:
Regarding the state Board of Public Utilities' unanimous final approval Dec. 16 of a contested South Jersey Gas Co. pipeline through the Pinelands, in order to convert the B.L England electricity plant from coal to natural gas:
BPU Chairman Richard Mroz and the other four commissioners are nothing more than shills for the fossil fuel industry. It is pathetic for Mroz to claim to have analyzed all the public comments on the project, and then make the outrageous claim that the comments were all opinions, not facts.
Then Mroz had the audacity to state that the only experts who provided the BPU's little fiefdom with admissible facts were the pro-pipeline ones from South Jersey Gas.
Commissioner Joseph Fiordaliso, who held two public hearings in Upper Township, Cape May County, (where the plant is located) didn't show up for the Dec. 16 vote. Maybe his conscience had trouble doing the dirty deed of voting "yes" before Christmas, and going against the tenets of Pope Francis regarding climate change.
The BPU resembles a criminal syndicate that is unconcerned about the planet.
Steven Fenichel
Ocean City
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