LoBiondo on congressional matters, both foreign & domestic
Wednesday, September 7, 2016 • The Hammonton Gazette • Page 3
CONGRESS, from Page 2
state legislation for the takeover
regarding all the benchmarks they
need to meet. I think the two together are really making people
very uneasy and nervous. When
you add in the ballot initiative on
a north Jersey casino, if all three
things go sideways then this is catastrophic news. I don’t think
there’s any way to sugar coat it or
soft sell it. It’s almost as bad as it
gets. I spoke to the mayor a few
nights ago, and he’s very optimistic. He thinks they’re going to
be able to meet what they have to
meet. The real fight for the initiative will start next week, millions
of dollars will be spent by both
sides on this. If Atlantic City can
keep its own autonomy and the
ballot initiative fails, I think that
you’ll see an uptick in what happens there. There are people on the
sidelines anxiously awaiting to see
what happens. If these ballot initiatives for north Jersey casinos
pass, I don’t think they’ll put much
more into Atlantic City. On the
positive side, Bart Blatstein took
over the [Playground] Pier, and
that’s supposed to be doing very
well. I’ve talked to a number of
people who have said that the
rooms at the Showboat are pretty
full, and they’re doing a good job.
You have Stockton’s Atlantic City
campus and the whole section
that’s going to be developed
around the campus so that’s very
positive. Everybody has their fingers crossed.
Q. Among the committee’s
that you serve on (House Armed
Service Committee, House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence), what are some of
the most important things happening right now?
A. Most members are on two
committees. I sought and was
granted a waiver six years ago that
allowed me to be on a third committee. Transportation and Infrastructure is an important
committee, and while I did chair
Coast Guard for 12 years, I had the
opportunity to seek and receive the
chairmanship of the aviation sub-
DiMeglio Septic,
Est. 1975 ~ DEP 03261 ~ Paul DiMeglio
committee. I talked ab