Do Our Leaders Need a Time Out?

When children’s behavior crosses the line from playful to rambunctious or even dangerous, parents place them in Time Outs. The action is designed to end – at least temporarily – the offending behavior. It also gives children time to ponder the repercussions of their actions.

After following the back-and-forth that took place this week between the Governor and a State Legislator, we now can make a good case for placing some of New Jersey’s leaders in Time Outs. Although healthy debates are an essential component of democracy, the exchanges we witnessed this week simply are unacceptable.

Political Parties Are Not the Only Winners and Losers in Redistricting

Next month, after we learn what New Jersey’s 40 Legislative districts will look like when the State Apportionment Commission completes its work, we also will get a sense of which political party fares better under the new map.

But the biggest winners in the redistricting process – at both the Legislative and Congressional levels – sometimes are not the parties themselves, but individual lawmakers.

That’s what resulted from the redistricting that took place after the 1990 Census – and it could happen again this time around. The scenarios are somewhat similar.

Not Quite March Madness

For followers of media and politics, several interesting programs and events are on tap this month:

March 8: Net Neutrality & Journalism: The End of the Internet? The End of the Fourth Estate?

• A Discussion with Josh Silver, who co-founded Free Press with Robert W. McChesney in 2002.
• Rutgers University Student Center, New Brunswick, 8 p.m.

March 11: NJ Political Science Association Annual Meeting

• Panel Discussions on Governor Christie, Polling and Redistricting
• Eagleton Institute, New Brunswick, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

March 13: Gridiron Club Sunday Reprise

• Well-known journalists spoofing politicians
• Renaissance Washington (.D.C) Hotel, 3 to 6 p.m.

March 15: The Jersey Sting hits the bookshelves and authors Josh Margolin and Ted Sherman will be doing a series of events to promote their book about corruption in NJ

March 19: New Jersey Communication Association Conference

• Bergen Community College, Paramus, 9 a.m.