Was 2016 presidential election the 'closest' in half-century? Hillary Clinton said to win popular vote by 2 million-plus

The New York Times front page on Saturday reported President-elect Donald J. Trump "cast aside" Governor Christie as the head of his transition team. On this rack at Starbucks Coffee on the Hamburg Turnpike in Wayne, below, The Record of Woodland Park is displayed at the bottom.

Editor's note: This post has been expanded to discuss the departure of the restaurant reviewer as part of the biggest downsizing in The Record's history.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front page today declares the presidential election was "America's closest ... in more than half a century."

But on Friday, The New York Times reported Hillary Clinton won the popular vote "by a substantial margin."

"By the time all the ballots are counted, she seems likely to be ahead by more than 2 million votes and more than 1.5 percentage points ...," Op-Ed Columnist David Leonhardt reported.

"She will have won by a wider percentage margin than not only Al Gore in 2000, but also Richard Nixon in 1968 and John F. Kennedy in 1960."

Clearly, America's electoral system is broken, contributing to Clinton's defeat in the antiquated Electoral College.

As unprecedented protests continue in Manhattan and around the country (A-1), you won't find any discussion of the broken electoral system or voter apathy in The Record.

Instead, the paper has been filled since Thursday with story after story trying to explain why people voted the way the did, and speculating on what President-elect Donald J. Trump will do once he takes office on Jan. 20.

Today's paper

The editors ran not one but two columns by the insufferable Mike Kelly, who goes on and on about "my own journey to listen to ordinary voters" (A-1), and how in March, "I set out to interview ordinary voters who had been out of work for more than a year" (O-1).

In his Page 1 column, Kelly says last Tuesday's election was "America's closest ... in more than half a century."

But how can anyone call an election close when 4 of 10 voters or more stayed home?

CNN reports working-class whites gave Trump the White House, but that voter turnout hit a 20-year low. 

In fact, the wacko racist billionaire -- who has inspired more than 200 hate incidents since the election (A-1 and A-10) -- got fewer Republican votes than Mitt Romney, John McCain and George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, according to CNN.

Voter apathy also affected Clinton, who got fewer Democratic votes than the party's previous presidential nominees going back to 2000, but did just barely beat her husband's turnout in 1996.

CNN says its vote totals were valid as of Thursday, but will be higher by the time all vote counting is completed in mid-December.

Governor Christie

As The Record has done since Governor Christie took office in early 2010, Staff Writer Dustin Racioppi tries to put a positive spin on the latest setback for the GOP thug -- his being demoted to one of Trump's vice chairmen for the transition (A-1).

Racioppi, who is assigned to cover the governor, once did a story on how many vetoes the GOP bully used to thwart the Democratic majority in the state Legislature.

At the time, it was more than 300. But he never did a follow-up, even after Christie passed 500 vetoes. 

Fat lady sings?

Staff Writer Elisa Ung tells readers today she is "moving on" after reviewing 400 restaurants in the last nine years, as well as writing a Sunday column and an unknown number of items that promoted -- not dissected -- restaurants (BL-1).

Her Corner Table column today confirms Ung wrote about restaurants superficially, and rarely bothered to find out whether the food she sampled and recommended to readers was naturally raised and free of antibiotics, growth hormones and other harmful additives.

Her last review on Friday was a rare exception. She reported Viaggio Chef Robbie Felice serves pork from Berkshire pigs and free-range chickens.

Squid with butter

She claimed she was giving Wayne's "new Italian spot" the highest rating for a Passaic County restaurant in her nine years at The Record (3.5 stars out of 4 stars), because it presents food "as it's cooked in Italy."

But she puzzled readers when she praised the seemingly inauthentic fried calamari served "with a lemon-butter sauce."

And as in nearly every one of her 400 reviews, she raved about a few of Viaggio's desserts, though in her column today she tells readers, "Don't order dessert," which she noted "is almost always underwhelming and, too often, gross."

The biggest laugh line in that last review was her complaint about "hard metal chairs that dig into your sides."

After eating so many high-calorie desserts, many the problem is Ung's sides, not the chairs.

Ung is one of The Record staffers affected by the biggest downsizing in the 121-year-old paper's history, put into motion by the Gannett Co.

Editor's column

In his first message to readers, The Record's new editor, Rick Green, discusses changes that will take place next week (O-2).

But he doesn't confirm Gannett Co. is following through on a Sept. 15 layoff announcement affecting half of the 426 employees at North Jersey Media Group -- publisher of The Record, Herald News, (201) magazine, weekly papers and NorthJersey.com. 

A notice on the front page of the weekly Hackensack Chronicle told readers the paper will continue to be published, but Gannett is folding the Teaneck Suburbanite.

Green also disclosed he has "settled into a great apartment in Nutley" instead of one in Bergen County, the heart of The Record's circulation area.

Should Hackensack official return $93,000 to city?

Rush-hour traffic on the upper deck of the George Washington Bridge this morning. The Record continues to report on unannounced "temporary lane closures" in September that affected drivers entering tollbooths from Fort Lee (A-1), but its transportation reporters ignore the daily nightmare of commuting by car or overburdened mass transit.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

I'm sure I'm not the only Hackensack resident who hadn't heard of Agatha Toomey until last week, when the director of the city's Human Services Department made headlines for denying benefits to a formerly homeless man who was awarded $850 he found on the street.

On Wednesday, Record Staff Writer Hannan Adely reported Toomey is being paid $133,000 a year and has use of a city car  -- the kind of largesse residents have come to associate with Zisa family rule.

In a front-page story today, Adely reports Toomey received "a windfall of $93,000 in a payout for unused benefit time" in February 2011.

And, Adely reports, convicted former Police Chief Ken Zisa, who also served in the state Assembly, received a similar payout of $94,513 "just days before his arrest on fraud charges."

City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono said he didn't know why Zisa's name was on the list of employees who retired or were about to retire.

And Mayor John Labrosse claims Zisa's name was not on the list of retirees he was given (A-6). At the time, Labrosse was a member of a City Council dominated by Zisa allies, who were thrown out of office on July 1.

There has been no explanation for why Toomey makes so much money or why she still drives a city car weeks after officials pledged to review such use.

Should she return the $93,000? That question hasn't been addressed by city officials.

More sloppy work

As if The Record hasn't repeatedly smeared Richard Shoop's name, an A-6 caption on Tuesday "misidentified" his mother, Barbara, according to one of the two corrections on A-2 today.

Shoop is the troubled 20-year-old Teaneck pizzeria employee who went to the Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus on Nov. 4 to commit suicide, firing random shots into the ceiling before killing himself in the basement.

Three columns by burned-out Staff Writer Mike Kelly associated Shoop with mass murderers. 

Furious back pedaling

What are readers to make of an editorial urging an end to all  "the talk" about the 2016 presidential election and whether Governor Christie will be the Republican nominee (A-20)?

It's Editor Marty Gottlieb and his gang of political columnists and reporters who have been feeding that media frenzy for more than a year.

Sensational stories

Also on A-1 today, Debra J. Feldman, 48, a Hackensack woman who disappeared in 2009, may have been the victim of a serial killer, the FBI said.

This sensational story is one of the many Law & Order stories in the paper today, especially in Local, which still had to use three filler photos of minor fires to fill its pages (L-2, L-3 and L-6).

Gee-whiz. A truck caught fire in Secaucus, and a car caught fire in Fair Lawn. And in other fire news, a short-circuit "destroyed" the facade of a Ridgewood building.

You can always count on Deputy Assignment Flunky Dan Sforza to be first with such major breaking news.

Pedal error?

More troubling is The Record's inability to report whether the driver of a car that hit a Trader Joe's employee in Westwood was elderly and mistook the accelerator for the brake pedal, a common problem for older drivers (L-1).

The story says the driver was "a woman who appeared to be elderly," and describes her Toyota Camry, one of the most recognizable cars on the road, as "a beige-colored sedan." 

Second look

The Road Warrior column on Monday was filled with errors, according to the concerned reader who maintains the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

All of the Motor Vehicle Commission issues Staff Writer John Cichowski mishandles "are clearly explained on various MVC website links or can be correctly answered by calling MVC customer service."

Cichowski also reported incorrectly the initial "inspection" of a new car is good for 5 years in New Jersey when no such inspection is required.

See the full e-mail to management and the editors:

Road Warrior skips correct MVC answers