Whose soap-box is it? Burney blame-game compels Dan's response.

Burney claimed to have been left out, though it wasn't so.

With all the serious stuff going on in Plainfield and the world, Councilor Rashid Burney had to go and kick off his 'NO-BLAME CAMPAIGN' for civic improvement by throwing a hissyfit, BLAMING Dan for not giving him star billing in CLIPS' Sunday headline (see Burney email and Dan's response here).

Burney's tantrum, combined with some whiny (and unpublished) comments by various supporters of laissez-faire in Mayor Robinson-Briggs' policies and in defense of the selling OUT (not to mention the possible selling OFF) of Plainfield's true interest by various and sundry 'public servants' lead me to the conclusion it is time to define yet again whose SOAP-BOXES CLIPS and PLAINFIELD TODAY are.

Today, I take up CLIPS. Tomorrow will be PLAINFIELD TODAY.

C L I P S

A little background. CLIPS got its start way back in 2005, when I was still a city employee, as an INTERNAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER for City Council and administration members, keeping them abreast of news items about Plainfield appearing in the media and available for reading ONLINE. It became a BLOG in November of that year (see the first post here).

When I retired, I continued it in the same vein -- gathering together news items about Plainfield or of interest to Plainfielders (from my perspective) -- as one of my two PERSONAL BLOGS.

Over the years it has grown and changed and as Council members and others have joined the local blogosphere, I have tried to keep abreast of the wealth of expression Plainfielders engage in.

Having run a successful mail-order business (in historic preservation, which is what brought me to Plainfield in 1983 in the first place), I try to craft the 'headline' at the top of each post in such a way as to encourage readers to 'tear open the envelope' to get at the news.

Reader 'Rob' has sometimes zinged me for thus luring him with the headlines, but he has never complained the articles weren't worth reading or didn't supply what the teaser copy promised (though perhaps not in the exact way he expected).

I'd like to think that's part of what makes CLIPS interesting and draws constantly increasing numbers of readers.

But Blogger, the platform on which things run, had a limitation until recently in the amount of text that could be put in a headline. That limitation forced me to choose the most interesting stories from that day's blog posts, prioritize them, and condense the gist of them to fewer characters than even Twitter allows (140).

Recent improvements in Blogger have relieved that pressure somewhat, but I still try to keep the headline to about three lines of text, so as not to overwhelm the 'skimmers'.

There is no contract between Dan and the bloggers. I just am happy to steer traffic to each and every one when they have a fresh post. I try to give Councilors a hit in the headline (by the way, Councilor Burney is the only Council member who DOES NOT send me a courtesy heads-up email to advise they have a new post), but even so their posts may be judged to be not as gripping as one of the other regular bloggers -- which is why you see Bernice, Olddoc and Maria prominently featured every day.

In any event, to get to ANY blogger's post, the reader has to go down to the green typeface paragraph where the bloggers most recent posts are featured. The only way folks would have gotten to Councilor Burney's post from yesterday's CLIPS would have been to go there -- just like any other day. So, Burney wasn't overlooked, nor was he cheated of those readers who would want to follow what he says, despite his complaint about 'a small line in the middle' (about which he never previously complained).

Burney added a clarification (if not a correction) to his post.

Did Burney's post merit marquee treatment?

As editor-in-chief I didn't think so.

The 'no-blame' pledge is an interesting concept (not well-grounded in American history, I might add), but if you read Burney's post carefully, it's more focused on him and his patting himself on the back for 'working with everybody' than on proposing how he is going to actually TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR MAKING IT HAPPEN in Plainfield.

Secondly, I've had experience of Councilor Burney and his support of the Citizen Campaign's ideas.

Take, for instance, the CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY ACT, which was supposed to make volunteering for, and serving on, Plainfield's many boards and commissions easier and more transparent. Can Councilor Burney explain why it is still not in force -- after several years -- WITHOUT BLAMING anyone?

Editorial call? An interesting post, but no headline cigar.

I overhead a mother whose young son was throwing a tantrum in the supermarket the other day. Gripping his arm tightly and steering him toward the checkout, she said through clenched teeth, 'Just wait 'til you get home, young man'.

We're all adults, and I don't have to threaten Concilor Burney with what will happen when he gets home. He'll only have the blog's readers to face.

Will that be punishment enough?

---

• Plainfield Today: "Councilor Burney accuses Dan of snubbing his post. You be the judge."

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Primary 2010: Time to move on

Signs of 2010's contested Democratic primary.

Despite the fact that today marks two weeks since Plainfield's contested Democratic primary was resolved by Democratic voters in favor of Rebecca Williams, I continue to get comments on blog posts from those who are disappointed at the outcome.

It seems that comments on Plainfield Today during the campaign were considered as an important way to get the candidates' points of view across, especially given the different approaches of the candidates to feedback (Burney -- see here -- did NOT take comments; Davis -- see here -- DID; as DID Williams -- see here).

Whether or not anyone was swayed by comment-lobbing on Plainfield Today is impossible to tell.

At any rate, Williams clearly carried the day, as can be seen by reviewing the district-by-district results (along with maps) which I posted online (see here). With 21% of registered Dems in the two wards voting, there is simply no disputing that the voters have spoken, clearly and forcefully.

Now is the time for those who are true Democrats to do as Rashid has done --

...[I] congratulated [Rebecca] on her win for the Plainfield City Council seat for the 2nd and 3rd wards.  I pledged to her my support in her fall campaign...

-- and pledge their support in the fall campaign (see his full post here).

I hope that those who are disappointed will grow to appreciate the strengths Rebecca Williams will bring to the table if she is elected, and that they will not hesitate to challenge her to represent them as well as Rashid has. Fair-minded people may even be surprised to find that she is likable, capable and reliable, qualities that might have a familiar ring.

Whether or not they support Rebecca, there is ANOTHER ALTERNATIVE open to them: Blogging.

Plainfield is distinguished by its rich blogging milieu (find me another community of any size in New Jersey that has TWENTY-ONE folks blogging on a more-or-less regular basis!). There is certainly room for more bloggers at the table -- whether or not they are Rebecca supporters.

So, if anyone feels impelled to blog, they are welcome and I will treat them on CLIPS just as I do all the other bloggers commenting on the life and times of Plainfield, NJ -- providing only that they post on at least a quasi-frequent basis (I am the decider, as GWB said).

But there is one alternative that is now officially closed off.

I will not be posting any more comments regarding the 2010 Dem Primary.

Trust me.

---

• Burney Campaign Blog:  "Congratulations to Rebecca Williams"
• Plainfield Today:  "2010 Dem Primary: District-by-district results"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Assemblyman Green throws Burney under the bus

Burney was Green's hand-picked candidate in the Primary.

Those who wonder just how low Plainfield Democratic city committee chair Assemblyman Jerry Green can go need look no farther than his 'Post-campaign Thoughts' post of Wednesday (see here).

Less than twenty-four hours after the polls closed, Jerry declares that Burney, his personal pick for the Wards 2/3 at-large candidacy, did not have the support of many regular Democrats who felt he [Burney] had not been supportive of them in the past. Here are Jerry's exact words --

...[i]n fact, Rashid most likely would have won [had Don Davis not run]. Many of my supporters would not support him because he is a New Democrat and they felt he was not committed. They said other than his commitment to the Obama effort; they felt his support for the Democratic Party was very soft.

Taking this all into consideration, along with the fact that the Regular Democratic Party were not impressed with any of those running in the primary, there was a low turnout, just ask our neighbors in 3-10 and 2-11. I respect the fact that Rebecca Williams has won the Democratic primary, and I have to accept the fact that many of my supporters could not bring themselves to support a candidate that they felt has not been supportive of them in the past. [Emphasis added -- DD]

Decent folks will feel sorry over the fate that has befallen Rashid.

Whether or not one sees eye to eye with Rashid, he has been loyal to Assemblyman Green for the last five years (since the 2005 primary election) and must have swallowed his convictions more than once to support (or at least not oppose) initiatives the Assemblyman wanted to see move forward. He certainly deserves better than this for having been, in Jerry's favorite phrase, a 'team player'.

Now, with a slur on his Democratic bona fides, Green has essentially banished Burney from the regular Democratic organization.

That is a sad commentary on the 'democracy' of the local Democratic Party, but such is life under the ham-fisted leadership of 'Boss' Green.

Of course, it will not be lost on readers that Jerry is probably writing with an eye to one potential reader -- County Dem chair Charlotte DeFilippo, to whom he must once again admit (and justify) yet another drubbing at the polls.

---

• Jerry Green's Page: "Post-campaign Thoughts"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Last-minute Burney email shows chauvinistic tin ear

Burney turned his home into a campaign billboard.

Plainfield Democratic candidate Rashid Burney sent the following email blast at 10:34 AM on primary election day.

I think the 'psychodrama' and 'self-victimization' characterizations show Burney to be -- as we used to say back in the day -- an UNRECONSTRUCTED CHAUVINIST. Hardly the way to win women's votes -- or those of thoughtful men, either.

Here's the email (the highlighting is Burney's) --

Yesterday's mailing by Jerry Green on Rebecca Williams was Jerry Green's mailing. Not mine.

Rebecca 's campaign has had one theme: "Jerry owns Rashid. Vote for Rebecca". Jerry Green does not own me. He is a powerful force in this City and I work with him when I agree with him. When I disagree with him I work hard to get him to see things my way.

My record on the Council stands for itself. My support of gay rights is well known: I initiated and got passed equal benefits for same sex partners of City employees. I held a fundraiser in my home for the Plainfield Pride Film Festival. I fully supported Ray Blanco from day 1. I would never condone any gay bashing.

Rebecca has tried to make this election about Jerry and there is a lot of hate in this campaign, as evidenced by the mailers and Dan Damon's blogs. At this late date, can we move beyond the Rebecca psychodrama with Jerry? Can we get past the endless self-victimization by Rebecca? I think we must.

My campaign has been about accomplishments, ideas, achievable goals for our City and a strategy to reach those goals:

• Click here to see my vision for Plainfield
• Click here to see my accomplishments
• I am the ONLY candidate willing to speak on our schools. See my goals here.

Please remember, this election is about Plainfield and what we can get done. Will you vote for the person best qualified to move our town forward?

Thank you

Rashid Burney

Speaks for itself, doesn't it?

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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New Democrat Rebecca Williams crushes Burney in primary

Council President Annie McWilliams congratulates Rebecca on her win.

Plainfield's Democratic voters decided overwhelmingly in today's Wards 2/3 primary that they want a candidate who will work to represent the half of all Plainfield voters and taxpayers who live in the two wards, which stretch from Scotch Plains and Fanwood in the east to South Plainfield and Piscataway in the west.

And that is why they chose Rebecca Williams as the party's standard-bearer in the November general election.

Here are the unofficial results --

CANDIDATE	TALLY
WILLIAMS	804
BURNEY	548
DAVIS	197

The consensus at the New Democrats headquarters seemd to be that Plainfield Democratic chairperson Jerry Green should be thanked for the assistance he lent the New Democrat campaign by his ill-starred mailer in support of Burney that arrived in folks' mailboxes yesterday (for an online version see here, where it will live forever).

Signs of the three Democratic contenders
outside Evergreen School.

Councilors Adrian Mapp and Cory Storch, both of whom have been unflinching supporters of Rebecca, helped kick off the evening's celebration.

Among those who came to Williams' headquarters to offer their congratulations were candidate Don Davis and his mother, Marie, as well as Council President Annie McWilliams and her mother Darlene, widow of the late mayor Al McWilliams.

As of 9:30 PM, neither Councilor Burney nor city committee chairperson Jerry Green had called directly to offer congratulations to the victor.

Class act, no?

PS: Those who were impatient about my not putting up comments from Election Day until tonight should be aware that I was working on behalf of my candidate, not pining around my laptop. The comments have all been posted. All.

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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What shall we do with our dead?

The late Bob Ferraro, 'the man with the van'.

After a recent post mentioning the late Plainfield council member Bob Ferraro (see here), I received a comment taking me to task --

Gee Dan, why'd you want to go bring poor dead Bob Ferraro into this? and saying he was not "deterred by facts" ...?

Chatting with the reader yesterday, we traversed the familiar de mortuis nil nisi bonum argument (the original Greek renders more pungently: 'Don't badmouth the dead').

This got me to wondering about what we 'do' with our dead.

I find the most satisfying funerals and memorial services (and I seem to be going to more and more lately) to be those where the full-bodied, in-the-round memories of the deceased are celebrated by those gathered to honor, recall and, perhaps, draw lessons or inspiration from their late friend.

Such was the case when I penned a remembrance of Bob on his passing last December (see here), and I don't think I was bad-mouthing him in the most recent post since I said practically the same thing at the time of his passing, without having kicked up a fuss.

As for the accuracy of citing salaries of one's adversaries, I was criticizing Burney for making an inaccurate claim; in the back of my mind, I recalled having been on the receiving end of a similarly outrageous claim by Ferraro once.

Bob was first and foremost passionate, and he didn't let the facts stand in the way of a point he wanted to make (for another instance, just check my December post).

He was who he was.

It is what it is.

Seems to me NOT remembering our departed colleagues at all, in this age of Twitter, texting and short attention spans, means we doom them to being nothing more than wisps of smoke, dying away as the candle is snuffed.

Is that better?

---

• Plainfield Today --
• "Burney's un-truthiness disappoints"
• "Bob Ferraro, former Plainfield councilor, passes away"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Fences: Are Council members above the law?

Councilor Burney's property is an anchor of the Putnam-Watchung Historic District.

Plainfield taxpayers become outraged at the thought that some property owners get a pass when it comes to city regulations while those without political clout must adhere to the finest points of the codes and procedures.

There have been many incidents (I recall one in recent years when a then-sitting council member was said to have renovated a house without a permit), but one involving Councilor Rashid Burney caused my phone to ring off the hook late Friday afternoon.

Work was under way to erect a new fence on the Kensington Avenue side of Councilor Burney's property, which faces the corner of Watchung Avenue and is an 'anchor' property of the city's Putnam-Watchung Historic District.

Councilor Burney's property is an imposing presence on Watchung Avenue.

When I arrived at the scene, workers could be seen in the yard behind a scrim, painting plain-vanilla stockade fencing a dark green. Stakes had been driven along the sidewalk line from the rear corner of the property some distance toward the front.

The complaint?

It was said that while Councilor Burney had applied to the Historic Preservation Commission for a review and approval of his fence plans (it would involve a determination the proposed fence was 'appropriate'), the approval granted had long since expired.

Checking at City Hall, the historic preservation specialist was out of the office, but I was told the approval had indeed expired, and that Councilor Burney would have to go before the Historic Preservation Commission once again.

Stakes are in place for fencing along Kensington Avenue.

It should be noted that Burney has for a long-time been a preservation activist, having served both on the city's Historic Preservation Commission and as a board member of Preservation New Jersey, the statewide preservation advocacy organization. In fact, Burney takes pains to point the facts out on one of his blogs (see here).

So, TWO QUESTIONS arise, which so infuriate other taxpayers and residents of historic districts who must abide by the rules:

1. Why doesn't Councilor Burney have to abide by the rules and get the proper approvals before having work done?; and
   
   
2. Can the stockade fence being erected in any way be found 'appropriate' for this property, given its integral importance to the Putnam-Watchung Historic District?

Does being an elected official give one privileges to which others -- mere taxpayers -- have no access?

One has to wonder.

Is this 'appropriate' fencing for a historic property of such grand character?

---

• Rashid Burney: "Plainfield - Not Politics: Community Activism"

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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What Corporation Counsel wanted Burney to take down from blog. But why?

Screenshot of Google cache for Burney post.

Plainfield's City Council President Rashid Burney posted his concerns about the Robinson-Briggs administration's proposed layoff plan to his blog last Sunday, November 15.

His original post was altered at 10:16 AM to remove a section at the request of Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson (note that this was on a SUNDAY; Williamson, it seems, is working on the Sabbath).

After outlining some of the plan, Burney takes exception to one element. Here is the section that was removed --

Let me explain. For one, the plan decimates our planning department to the amount of 50%. I guess the argument is that such functions can be taken over by our engineering firm (at "no cost" as was the argument presented two years ago). But here is the problem with that logic:

• 1. They really do not know our town that well.
  
  
• 2. While it makes sense to outsource repetitive tasks, tasks that require planning and tasks that affect the entire city cannot be outsourced readily. Further, the actual costs to us will be much more if not this year, then next year. And far more again, when the right planning is not done right. This is not the first time this department of so few has come under the axe. I fail to see the value of such cuts.

So, Councilor Burney is questioning the wisdom of gutting the Planning Division.

I know that a lot of people out at last Monday's Council meeting were there over the same issue.

The question here is WHY Mr. Williamson wanted these points taken down, in advance of the Council meeting and -- presumably -- before much of the public got to read them.

Fortunately -- or UNFORTUNATELY, it depends on your point of view -- documents posted to the Internet never die, they just go to live in Google's cache.

Hence you, dear reader, get a second chance to read this one in particular.

Why do you think Mr. Williamson wanted this section taken down ...

'For now'.

---

• As I See It (Burney's blog) -- "Is this the right layoff plan for this city?"
• "Google cache of original version"
• "Burney blog after Corporation Counsel intervenes"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Connolly Properties: No 'cheap grace' for public officials

Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs has heard from the tenants of Connolly Properties about their many -- and justified -- complaints.

And here is what she proposes --

1. Tenants should learn how to file complaints;
   
   
2. If tenants would organize, she would offer City Hall Library for monthly meetings;
   
   
3. Robinson-Briggs 'expects' to attend the July 17 hearing at which Connolly Properties is expected to appear in municipal court.

That's it.

Good, but not good enough.

When I studied for the ministry, I was deeply impressed by the teachings about 'cheap grace' by the German Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhöffer, brutally executed by the Nazis after he was implicated in the failed 1944 assassination attempt against Hitler.

Bonhöffer got the term from a sermon by the legendary Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church, where Bonhöffer taught Sunday School while a student at New York's Union Theological Seminary.

As Bonhöffer put it, "cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross", in other words, getting off the hook scot free.

Mayor Robinson-Briggs needs to do more. This is no time for cheap grace, for the mayor or for Plainfield.

Mayor Robinson-Briggs and the Council need to address the root problem: failure to have ongoing, planned and purposeful inspections of multi-family rental properties as proposed by the ordinance she and the Council rescinded in 2006.

Inspections with teeth. Inspections that would go a long way to resolving issues with Connolly Properties and other neglectful landlords. Inspections that would help ensure the safety and well-being of Plainfield's 'other half' -- the tenants who make up half the city's residents, but are seldom thought of by elected officials.

Anything less would be settling for cheap grace.

Or, as President Obama would say, empathy is fine, but empathy demands more than this.

---

-- Dan Damon

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Connolly Properties: Something the Mayor and Burney could do

If Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs had not pressed in the opening months of her term in 2006 to dismantle the ordinance requiring annual city inspection of multi-family rental units, it is most likely the Connolly Properties residents would not be faced with the multitude of issues uncovered by Courier reporter Mark Spivey's dogged investigation (see links at end of story).

The ordinance also required the landlord to pay for an inspection every time an apartment turned over, as well as provide floor plans of bedrooms (important in case of a fire, but which might also indicate illegal partitioning of rooms -- including basements and attics), as well as emergency contacts (required by state law, but often honored in the breach), the property owners' actual addresses (often not on file), and fuel oil and trash collection contacts.

A special team was set up within the Inspections Division to handle the process and was even equipped with handheld devices to record conditions in the field and download reports back in the office.

Owners of large multi-family rental properties, of which Connolly Properties is the largest, lobbied against the program.

Ray Blanco, my neighbor and friend who was Council President in Mayor Robinson-Briggs' first year (2006), told me privately that he was acquiescing in the rescission of the ordinance as an 'olive branch' gesture to Assemblyman Jerry Green and Robinson-Briggs, who wanted the ordinance repealed and the inspections program dismantled.

I have no doubt Mayor Robinson-Briggs is genuinely upset over the conditions that have come to light on her watch. But, her pledge to launch comprehensive inspections of all the Connolly properties (see here) smacks of locking the barn door after the horse is out.

Even Councilor Burney, who went along with dismantling the inspections ordinance in 2006, is now calling for 'strong enforcement from the City and [the] state' (see here).

In the spirit of making helpful suggestions that Assemblyman Jerry Green is always advocating, I offer the following:

Undertaking the inspections the Mayor seems to have in mind is probably not realistic, given the magnitude of the task. Far better would be to reinstate a PLANNED inspection program -- annual, with additional inspections of units as they turn over -- and STICK TO IT, rather than a Keystone Kops-style crash program which will go away as soon as the headlines do.

Mayor Robinson-Briggs and the City Council, under the leadership of Council President Burney, would do the residents, tenants and taxpayers of Plainfield a REAL SERVICE if they would reinstate the rescinded ordinance.

---

• Mark Spivey on Connolly Properties --
• 6/29/2009: "Tenants of Connolly properties decry conditions"
  
• 6/28/2009 --
  
• "Connolly Properties target of state DEP probe"
• "Pingry Arms tenants opened the floodgate"
• "Towne & Country residents speak out"
• "Photo Gallery"
  
• "Connolly defends company amid complaints, state investigations"
• There is also an editorial, but of course it's not online yet...
• 6/25/2009: "Workers pump raw sewage onto city street" -- Slideshow here.
• 6/24/2009: "Tenants describe, demonstrate poor living conditions"
• Councilor Burney: "Connolly: Shape up or ship out!"

-- Dan Damon

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Council Reorganization: Council President Burney videos

Rashid Burney, sworn in by Judge Robinson-Gross

Plainfield's City Council reorganized on New Year's Day.

Here are videos of the remarks by newly-elected Council President Rashid Burney. Since the remarks exceeded YouTube's size limit, Councilor Burney's presentation has been posted in three parts. His remarks expand on his pledge to the residents of Plainfield that the 2009 Council will concern itself with TRANSPARENCY IN GOVERNMENT and ECONOMIC REVITALIZATION (see his blog post here). In addition, he outlines some of the LEGISLATIVE AGENDA he proposes for the Council this year. Owing to the length of the proceedings, my poor little camcorder gave out just a few seconds before the end of Councilor Burney's remarks. Sorry.

---

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---

---

-- Dan Damon

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Obama didn't win Plainfield in November

Despite the overwhelming victory of Sen. Barack Obama in Union County (see table at bottom), Obama did not win Plainfield on November 4.

Barack Obama won Plainfield on the first Tuesday in February, in New Jersey's Democratic presidential primary.

November's victory is the icing on the cake, the fruition of the hopes and hard work that began long before the political establishment climbed on the bandwagon.

And credit should be given where credit is due.

It was Councilor Rashid Burney and like-minded Union County residents, including Plainfield's 'New Democrats' who jump-started Obama's hopes in New Jersey, Union County in particular.

Burney's activism was frowned on at the time by Union County's Democratic political leadership, who were solidly lined up behind Hillary Clinton and remained so until she bowed out of the race. That he and the New Democrats were first in support takes nothing away from all those who worked so hard for the Obama victory in the general election, but it does put that victory into its correct perspective.

And that would have to include crediting the late Mayor Al McWilliams, who first had the vision of 'change we can believe in' for Plainfield, and to whom Councilor Burney and others owe their chance to make their mark in public service.

Councilor Burney's first public service was
election to the Democratic City Committee in 2003.

Thank you, Rashid. Thank you also, all who worked for Barack Obama's success.

And thank you, Al McWilliams, for believing in positive change for Plainfield before anyone else had the vision.

---

President

438/438 100.00%

Under Votes	1349
Over Votes	0
	Vote Count	Percent
Dem - BARACK OBAMA	132,006	63.45%
Rep - JOHN McCAIN	73,967	35.56%
VOT - JEFFREY BOSS	74	0.04%
LIB - BOB BARR	412	0.20%
Ind - RALPH NADER	921	0.44%
GRE - CYNTHIA McKINNEY	140	0.07%
SOC - BRIAN MOORE	20	0.01%
SOC - GLORIA La RIVA	17	0.01%
CON - CHUCK BALDWIN	159	0.08%
SOC - ROGER CALERO	23	0.01%
Personal Choice	292	0.14%
Total	208,031	100.00%

Complete Union County results for all races and public questions are here.

---

-- Dan Damon

Councilman Burney out of step?

PT was honored to be a guest yesterday at Councilor Burney's home for a nationwide kaffeeklatsch with Democratic presidential hopeful Barak Obama.

There were about thirty-five participants, with a good sprinkling of non-Plainfielders, which was refreshing. Elsewhere, PT has some suggestions for Sen. Obama's campaign, based on yesterday's house party.

What intrigues PT is that Councilor Burney may have gone out on a limb here.

The papers have noted that Gov. Corzine will be endorsing Sen. Hillary Clinton for president on Monday (see Saturday's NYTimes article here).

In Elizabeth.

Immediately, that tidbit signified to PT that State Sen. Lesniak would also be endorsing Hillary, if not actually HOSTING the press event.

This seems even more likely upon learning that Lesniak will accompany the Guv on his private jet tonight, in a trip to Cleveland for the Rutgers and LSU women's Final Four encounter (thanks to The Auditor for this tidbit).

And where Ray is, there is Charlotte. PT opines that Union County Dem chair Charlotte DeFilippo will also be there, heartily endorsing 'the peoples' choice' -- along with grip-and-grin photos and lots of red-white-and-blue bunting.

PT predicts no marching bands, tho. After all, even New Jersey has standards of taste.

And...where Ray and Charlotte are, will there be Assemblyman Green?

PT is betting a cuppa java that Green will be there, endorsing Hillary too.

Will this leave Councilor Burney in the embarrassing position of being out of step with Assemblyman Green?

The Assemblyman wants his grip to be ironclad and he does not look kindly on stepping out of line.

Stay tuned.

-- Dan Damon

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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
http://plainfieldtoday.blogspot.com/