Nightmare before Xmas

Good morning!

The Clifton dentist on a crusade to expose who ratted him out to the city and forced him to dismantle his big Halloween display is currently my favorite New Jersey story.

Wayne Gangi used the state’s public records law to obtain emails related to the city’s action against him, and he’s been releasing those documents in a trickle in advance of a big reveal on CNN tonight.

“My OPRA Request makes it as Clear as a Bell,  who led the Crusade to bring my vision of SAFETY,  for the CHILDREN OF CLIFTON,  to an end at my home this season,” he posted on Facebook about six hours ago.

Gangi annually features a massive display of Halloween decorations outside his dental office at Grove Street and Robin Hood Road. Earlier this month, he said he was dismantling it because Clifton officials issued fines related to decorations that lined the public sidewalk and extension cords on his lawn.

The records Gangi has obtained so far make it clear at least one Clifton councilman had a bit of a crusade against him.

Many of you may be interested in hour-by-hour updates on early voting in New Jersey. Gangi’s public records releases are genuinely my top interest right now.

Elections: On to bigger news: A new Fairleigh Dickinson University poll has some bad news for President Donald Trump, with just 29% of respondents approving of the job he’s doing and 66% saying they don’t. Trump’s approval is still sky-high for self-identified MAGA voters, but it has softened among conservatives and Republicans in general. “Trump isn’t running for reelection, but he has made himself the face of the Republican Party,” Dan Cassino, the poll’s director, said in a statement. “The fact that he’s this unpopular means that he’s dragging down Republican candidates in a way that a less visible president might not be.”

Health: With federal funding shifts bringing massive changes to public health in New Jersey and nationwide, advocates say the state’s free and low-cost healthcare clinics are going to be more vital than ever. Lilo Stainton today looks at these clinics, the work they do, and the influx of patients they are expected to see as more people get booted off Medicaid. “We’ve already seen an increase in applications in the pipeline,” someone connected to one of these clinics told Lilo.

Trenton: Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a bill Tuesday that allows candidates and elected officials to use campaign cash for certain security measures, a bill with bipartisan support that was introduced earlier this year in response to a series of political killings that left lawmakers fearful.

Criminal justice: A new Rutgers-Eagleton poll says New Jerseyans are divided on the use of automated license plate readers for police purposes. Half are opposed, while 44% are strongly or somewhat in support. Nearly 7 in 10 (69%) back requiring police to get a warrant before searching license plate data, while 66% say this data should be deleted after six months. “New Jerseyans don’t agree on whether they want these cameras in their communities, but they largely agree on how they should be governed if they are there,” said Ashley Koning, the poll’s director.

COVID relief: Katie Sobko at the Bergen Record reports that the Sherrill administration reassigned $100 million in federal COVID relief funding in advance of an end-of-the-year deadline to finally spend this money. The projects receiving funds include sports and rec complexes in the Meadowlands and Middlesex County, projects that will surely help us recover from the pandemic.

NYC: Everything OK over at the New York Times?

Anyway, the answer is obviously on the Staten Island Ferry with the Statue of Liberty in the background.

D.C.: Some good news out of Washington, D.C., with David Lightman in our D.C. bureau reporting that efforts remained stalled to create permanent daylight saving time in the U.S. We return to standard time next week and the U.S. Senate returns to business on Nov. 9, but it appears as though Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton will remain a hero in this particular story by refusing to budge on his opposition to year-round daylight saving time. Cotton’s opposition has helped prevent a Senate vote on this dumb measure.