Voters largely ignored newspaper endorsements

An Ebola virus advisory from Hackensack University Medical Center urges visitors to the Alfred N. Sanzari Medical Arts Building at 360 Essex St. to "tell a member of our healthcare team if you have traveled to areas in Western Africa."

Meanwhile, the sidewalk was closed in front of Starbucks Coffee and Cosi, the latest phase of construction work that rebuilt the parking lot at the busy medical arts building.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Today's front page story on why GOP radical Rep. Scott Garrett was elected to a seventh term goes on and on, but doesn't mention The Record and other newspapers endorsed Democratic Challenger Roy Cho of Hackensack.

In fact, voters on Tuesday also ignored The Record's endorsement of two Republicans seeking freeholder seats, and its recommendations for a larger nature center in Tenafly and against a constitutional amendment to fund open space. 

Even in races where voters followed The Record's endorsements, I'm sure the editors would have a hard time showing they had any influence, and they certainly didn't inspire a larger turnout than in previous elections.

In effect, The Record and other newspapers did an awful job covering the campaigns, spending too much time on politics and too little on issues.

The Woodland Park daily's adoring editors also spent too much time promoting Governor Christie's potential White House run and too little on the mess he has made in New Jersey (A-1 on Thursday and A-3 today).

Wait until Jan. 3

The GOP won't regain control of the U.S. Senate until Jan. 3, but all I've heard since Wednesday is endless jawboning on TV and public radio about a renewed confrontation between the Republicans and President Obama.

The Record's lead story today is a warning from the Republican House speaker, who seems to think he is running the country (A-1).

So, Obama has nearly two full months to implement changes in immigration and other policies through executive orders, the only way he has been able to accomplish anything in the face of gridlock in Washington.

Rep. Donald Payne Jr., the black Democrat from Newark who was reelected on Tuesday, told WBGO-FM news he fears congressional Republicans will try to impeach Obama.

Restaurant inspections return

Image by quinn.anya via Flickr

How clean is the kitchen that turned out the meal you are being served?

They were yanked unceremoniously from the Better Living section, followed weeks later by a letter to readers from the food editor. Now, restaurant health inspections have reappeared in print, though I couldn't find them at northjersey.com under Food & Dining.

Still, today's list in The Record of Woodland Park is positively skeletal. I counted 52 towns (out of the 90 or so in the circulation area), but most report "no activity."  

There is no explanation or note in the Better Living tabloid for the list's reappearance. But readers are urged to contact their health departments for more information.

Hospitals fight over profits

The nasty fight among three big, profit-making hospitals over the reopening of Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood is back on the front page today.

The lead story -- on conservative and liberal opposition to extending Bush tax breaks to the wealthy -- conveniently omits any mention of Governor Christie's tax break for New Jersey millionaires, despite the state's unprecedented fiscal crisis.

Christie's refusal to extend the Corzine tax on the wealthy is a topic The Record's Editorial Page and news columns have avoided like a plague in recent months, probably under orders from Publisher Stephen A. Borg and his puppet, Editor Francis Scandale.

Rare byline

The third A-1 story today carries a rare byline from Staff Writer Jean Rimbach, who doesn't explain why the paper has never reported before that some police recruits pay their own way through training academies.

Rimbach is one of the pets of Deirdre Sykes, head assignment editor. She is among several local reporters whose low productivity is overlooked by editors and managers. 

Last-gasp Democrats

On the front of Local, Staff Writer Michael Gartland reports on continued hiring by the Democratic majority on the Bergen County Freeholder Board. 

The story doesn't say whether Kathleen Donovan -- a Republican who takes over as county executive in January -- will have the power to rescind the appointments of such lightweights as the mayors of Dumont and Little Ferry.

Italian 'fantasyland'

I'm not sure why Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung considers a dining room that resembles a moonlit Italian square to be a "fantasyland." In Italy, restaurant owners give as much care to interior decoration as to buying, preparing and serving fresh food.

She complains about the service at Bella Notte on a busy night, crab cakes and two of the four desserts she sampled, and gives the Little Falls restaurant only two stars (Good) -- equivalent to her rating of Bahama Breeze in Wayne, a faux-Caribbean chain restaurant.