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The Middlesex County Republican organization line for Congress in New Jerseys 6th district will go to Sue Kiley, who is now the clear frontrunner in her bid to unseat 18-term incumbent Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-Long Branch), the powerful chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee.

Kiley, a Monmouth County Commissioner and former Hazlet mayor, defeated former U.S. Food and Drug Administration official Rik Meta by 112 to 54 vote, 67%-32%, at the Middlesex GOP convention on Saturday.

Middlesex County Republicans showed up with real energy to beat Frank Pallone and Bonnie Watson Coleman and build on the gains we made across New Jersey last year, said Middlesex County GOP Chairman Rob Bengivenga. I am proud of their efforts and grateful to all who participated. I look forward to working with our strong slate of common sense conservatives for victory in November.

Mehta said he remains in the race to take on Pallone and is now reviewing what an off-the-line race might look like.

I have too many supporters in Middlesex to walk right, Mehta told the New Jersey Globe.

She has already secured the organization line in Monmouth County after winning their convention last month with 67% of the vote.

Earlier this month, Kiley won a Middlesex GOP screening committee vote by a similar 2-1 margin.

Former Republican National Committee staffer Thomas Toomey and 2021 Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Gregg Mele are also vying for the chance to take on Pallone. Mele received two votes, and two ballots were voided.

Mehta moved to Iselin earlier this year after dropping his bid for the GOP House nomination against Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) in order to run against Pallone. He was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in 2000 against Cory Booker and had won organization lines in Monmouth and Middlesex. He holds the record for the most votes ever received by a GOP statewide candidate in New Jersey.

In the next-door 12th district, Republican Darius Mayfield won his third organization line in his bid to unseat Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing).

He defeated Nick Catucci, a filmmaker, 53 to 3, a landslide 95% victory.

Mayfield scored convention wins in Mercer and Somerset counties earlier this week.

Continued here:
Kiley wins Middlesex GOP line for Congress in bid to oust Pallone - New Jersey Globe | New Jersey Politics

Aspen has long had a working lumberyard at its entrance, which is strangely incongruous with its environmental proclamations. The 10.5-acre edifice to trees that are no longer alive and are soon headed to construction projects in the area belies both the communitys aspirational legacy of climate leadership and palpable disdain for growth and development. It has been an ironic welcome from the vantage point of Highway 82, notably for drivers stalled in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

The site was targeted in 2008 for land banking, where the city paid an absurd $18 million with no appraisal at the top of the 2008 real estate market to acquire a property that would someday address the communitys future subsidized housing needs. Here we are, 14 years later, and that someday is today.

Despite community outcry for a formal housing needs assessment before proceeding, plans for 310 subsidized housing units, comprised of one, two and three bedrooms, moved one step closer last week. The Lumberyard is slated to become more of the same, but this time with individual mudrooms and storage units, balconies, high-quality interior finishes and multi-story townhouse-style floor plans. For whom? Its anyones guess.

Most alarming, however, is the pathological focus on parking. Cost be damned, the plan includes 432 parking spaces, both underground and surface, the equivalent of 1.4 cars per unit. Scheduled for groundbreaking in 2024 with initial phase move-in in 2027, we are officially building a massive new subsidized housing project at Aspens traffic choke-point, replete with parking for a fleet of vehicles necessitating a new traffic light and poised to bring our traffic problem to its literal breaking point.

Does the city really believe that hundreds more cars entering Highway 82 at that juncture wont have an impact? And what about air quality? What ever happened to our bold Climate Action Plan, formerly known as the Canary Initiative? Have we forgotten our lauded goals to promote environmental stewardship and lead climate action efforts throughout the Roaring Fork Valley in partnership with leaders across the state and around the world? How quickly we subvert our community values when building more subsidized housing.

Aspens efforts toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions and goals of a low-carbon future are laughingly incompatible with the current plans for the Lumberyard, regardless of employing sustainable materials and electrified buildings. Why wouldnt we attempt to live our community values, not just virtue signal them? We could actually have something physical to show the world, since we always assume everyone is looking to us as the great example. Isnt it finally time for Aspen to create a modern, dense, green, sustainable, car-less community, along the transit route, that addresses the communitys needs (workforce housing) and exemplifies its values (climate action)?

Strangely, Councilwoman Rachel Richards recently spoke out to extol the virtue of cars, and defended residents of the Lumberyards need for (at least) one per household, despite Aspens robust, existing regional transportation system, our vast network of trails, and the potential for innovative and contemporary intermodal solutions.

But perhaps most hypocritical was an exchange with Councilman Ward Hauenstein. When asked why such an avowed environmentalist had not even asked city staff about a car-free option, if for no other reason than consideration and contrast, he pointed to public outreach. Yes, feedback from subsidized housing aspirants who expressed their desires for what they want for themselves on the public dime. It is his belief that, and I quote, not listening to what people want is authoritarian.

Oh, I see. Not only will the inmates run the asylum, they will design it and we will build whatever it is they want. But it gets better. In a petty attempt to ridicule my political leanings, Hauenstein continued, Forcing governments desires on people is not libertarian. Government injection into real estate transactions is not libertarian. Oh, OK, Ward. How quickly he forgets that we are talking about a publicly subsidized housing project in 21st-century Aspen. And the environment. And a suggestion to simultaneously do the right thing for the community, the planet and local workers who will have an opportunity, not a requirement, to live there.

Its 2022, and of all places, Aspen ought to be noting worldwide trends in post-pandemic community planning, where predictions of reassessments of zoning and development regulations are expected, with an eye toward vibrancy, flexibility and inventiveness. Were lucky our community is located within a national forest, so we have a natural advantage and jump start at strengthening our connections with nature, as much for aesthetic reasons as for mental health. Innovative transportation and alternate solutions will be designed for people and the planet, not cars. The largest disruption will be a focus on intermodal mobility: walking and cycling spaces with public transportation provided as a service. And the move away from cars will enable neighborhoods to expand their public, open spaces into high-performance and flexible uses. With less focus on driving, the Lumberyard has the potential to defy its unfortunate name and location, and instead become the embodiment of Aspens environmental aspirations.

Build it and they will come. And surely the canaries will too. How about we try leading by example?

What is Aspens reticence to do something truly bold, especially something that checks so many critical boxes? Could it be that climate-wise we are just a bunch of virtue-signaling hypocrites? Contact TheRedAntEM@comcast.net

See the rest here:
Milias: Flouting Aspen's climate goals at the Lumberyard - The Aspen Times

(The Center Square) Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a bill this week that cuts the states income tax by small amounts over the next seven years, taking it below 3% for the first time in years.

Indiana currently has a flat 3.23% state income tax.

With the new law passed, that rate will drop to 3.15% in tax years 2023 and 2024, to 3.1% in 2025 and 2026, 3% in 2027 and 2028 and then 2.9% for 2029.

Republican legislators celebrated the cut, which, if other states dont make even deeper cuts in the next seven years, will make Indiana tied with North Dakota for the lowest state income tax in the nation, among states that have an income tax.

Others are asking why Indiana can't go further and eliminate the state income tax altogether.

Nine other states have no income tax, said former Libertarian Party candidate for governor Donald Rainwater this week. Why cant we be number 10?

"We'd like to see it eliminated completely," says Joshua Webb, the Indiana state director for Americans for Prosperity.

Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming each have no income tax.

For most of its history, Indiana had neither an income tax nor a sales tax only a property tax. The state income tax was introduced in 1933, during the Great Depression, and the sales tax was imposed in 1962.

This years state income tax cut was unexpected, even after it was announced that because of increased state tax collections, the state was expecting to have a $5.1 billion surplus. Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bay had said in December and January he wanted to wait until 2023 to consider passing tax cuts when the General Assembly does another two-year budget and would have a better handle on the states economic condition following the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Holcomb had also said publicly he wanted to wait on a state income tax cut.

But the Indiana House moved forward, passing a bill, authored by Rep. Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville, the chairman of the Ways & Means Committee, that provides a total of $1.1 billion in tax relief that comes from lowering the income tax to 2.9% over seven years and also repealing two utility taxes the utility receipts tax and utility use tax.

The bill as it passed the House had also included specific tax relief for businesses in the state, which, in addition to corporate income taxes, also pay an annual tax on all tangible assets owned by the business including all computers, furniture and equipment (with the first $80,000 worth of property exempted).

The House bill would have eliminated the 30% depreciation floor on new business personal property meaning businesses would no longer have to keep paying an annual tax on equipment that was several years old and had no longer retained 30% of its original value.

But that didnt make it through the Senate.

When it went to the Senate, they stripped the tax cuts out, said Natalie Robinson, the NFIB state director in Indiana.

Small businesses affected by the tax include small manufacturers and farmers, who own expensive equipment they may use for a decade or longer, said Robinson.

Read more here:
Indiana cuts income taxes over the next seven years - The Center Square

Incumbent Republican Governor Brian Kemp is set for a rematch against Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams, provided he can fend off multiple primary challenges within his own party.

Four years ago, Kemp narrowly beat Abrams to become governor. His most significant challenge comes from former Sen. David Perdue, who is running with former President Donald Trump's support.

Read more: With Trump's backing, ex-Georgia Sen. David Perdue will run against GOP Gov. Brian Kemp

The governor of Georgia is in charge of the executive branch agencies and signs bills passed by the legislature into law, or can choose to veto them. The position has drawn national attention after the close 2018 race and Trump's opposition to Kemp. Kemp acknowledged that President Joe Biden won the presidential race in Georgia and refused to support Trump's efforts to overturn the election results.

That primary will be held on May 24.The general election will be held on Nov. 8., in whichShane Hazel is running for the Libertarian Party and Al Bartell is running as an independent.

Kemp is the current governorand former secretary of state. On his campaign website, he focusses on the work he has doneas governor on business growth, gun rights, and education, including raising teacher's salaries. He signed at least two bills that drew national attention, including the "heartbeat" abortion bill, which sought to ban abortions after about six weeks and was ultimately struck down,and SB 202, which changed how elections are administered in Georgia.Before his time as Secretary State, Kemp was abusinessman and served in the State Senate.

Abrams is the former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives and ran against Kemp in 2018. Abrams has said she is running on expanding Medicaid, protecting voting rights, and access to education. She is the founder of Fair Fight Action, which has worked nationally onvoting andelection issues, access to medical care andmedical debt in the south. Abrams served 11 years in the Georgia House of Representativesand was known as a bipartisan legislator. In 2010 she was electedHouse Minority Leader.She also has authored a number of fiction and non-fiction books.

Perdue was the Georgia Senator before losing a re-election bid to current Sen. Jon Ossoff in 2021. Perdue has received Trump's endorsement for his false claims that the 2020 election results from Georgia were inaccurate, and he has proposed to create an election law enforcement division. He also wants to eliminate the state income tax, create a parent's bill of rights and pass termadditional limitsfor elected offices. Before his election to the Senate in 2014, Perdue was a businessman, including serving as an executive for Reebok and Dollar General.

Also: Who's running: Where Sen. Raphael Warnock, challengers stand on the issues

Related: Challenges against split of Augusta Judicial Circuit dismissed by Georgia Supreme Court

Davis is a public speaker and activist. According to her website, her priorities include election integrity, religious and medical freedom and opposing abortion.

Taylor works in public education and has worked as a teacher and counselor. Her platform is "Jesus, guns and babies," and she is also running on election integrity and educational issues.

RepublicanTom Williams also qualified to run, but appears not to have submitted contact information. TheChronicle was unable to find any additional information about his candidacy.

Read the rest here:
Georgia elections: Who is running for governor in the 2022 primary and general? - The Augusta Chronicle

One can imagine a just war between a state representing individuals who want to be free and left alone and, on the other side, a tyrannical state aggressor intent on subjecting and looting the libertarian country. If the libertarians win, liberty would increase in the world. But reality is never so simple and war instead typically reinforces, on all sides, the power of the state and the idea that the individual must submit to the collective. War does not bring out the best in all people (contrary to what state propaganda suggests, including the parading women soldiers in Moscow shown on the featured image of this post).

An interesting Wall Street Journal story about the successful resistance of a small Ukrainian town illustrates how war arouses primitive instincts (Yaroslav Trofimov, A Ukrainian Town Deals Russia One of the Wars Most Decisive Routs, March 16), although I admit it is not the most tragic illustration in the history of warfare:

Russian soldiers took over villagers homes in Rakove and created a sniper position on a roof. They looked for sacks to fill with soil for fortifications, burned hay to create a smoke screen and demanded food.

A local woman who agreed to cook for the Russians is now under investigation, said Mr. Dombrovsky. A traitorshe did it for money, he said. I dont think the village will forgive her and let her live here.

In the practice of war if not generally in tribal morality, a traitor is anybody who takes another side than his tribes. But note the other element in the story: she did it for money! I suspect that Mr. Dombrovsky would not have been happier if she had done it for free, perhaps for the cause, and with a big smile. At any rate, money is apparently an aggravating factor (even if paid in deeply depreciated rubles), which corresponds to the reigning orthodoxy among our own academic philosophers.

A moral case can be made that coerced cooperation with the violent aggressors of ones neighbor is acceptable, but not cooperation for the purpose of obtaining personal benefits. But then, isnt avoiding harm a personal benefit? Does it matter that Mr. Dombrovsky, who is a special forces commander, is presumably paid himself? What if the woman had cooked for free and was only paid a tip afterwards ?

We dont know enough about this case to make any serious ethical analysis, but I would bet that Mr. Dombovskys comment reflected a generalized suspicion toward individualist behavior on free markets. If that is true, we are not dealing with the pure war case of a group of libertarians defending themselves against aggressors, but with two more or less authoritarian camps. Not surprisingly, dealing with actual cases is more complicated than with stylized models.

All that seems to confirm the classical-liberal or libertarian idea that an individual usually acts in his own personal interest and that only a minimal ethicsJames Buchanan would say an ethics of reciprocityshould be recognized as a necessary constraint on personal behavior in a free society. (See my review of Buchanan Why I, Too, Am Not a Conservative in the forthcoming Spring issue of Regulation.)

Female Russian soldiers of the Military University of the Russian Defense Ministry march along the Red Square during the Victory Day military parade to mark the 72nd anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War, the Eastern Front of World War II, in Moscow, Russia, 9 May 2017.

Original post:
The Traitor Was Paid to Cook for the Russians - Econlib