Murray Sabrin, The New Jersey Primary and Online Poker: Jenny Woo Talks to the Senatorial Candidate

New Jersey Republican State Senatorial candidate Murray Sabrin recently sat down with Gambling911.com reporter Jenny Woo in time for the New Jersey Primary to discuss everything from legalized online poker in the state to his relationship with Presidential candidate Ron Paul to how he will look to fix New Jersey's ailing economy.  He even discusses the Sue Simmons flap (she's the long time New York anchor who blurted out the "F" word live on television during what she thought was a taping for a news teaser).  With the state primary being held today (June 3), it's important now more than ever to get his message out there. 

Sabrin's message is clear: "People should have the freedom to do anything that's peaceful, whether it's gambling, whether it's taking care of their children's healthcare without the government mandating more and more vaccines."

As a State Senator, Sabrin's influence would be felt across the nation.  Like Presidential candidate Ron Paul (who has endorsed Sabrin and attends his fundraisers), he believes to uphold the Constitution the federal government would be a lot smaller, taxes would be a lot lower and people would have more freedom.

Dr. Sabrin is a professor of finance in the Anisfield School of Business, Ramapo College of New Jersey.

Jenny Woo: What made you decide to run for Senator of New Jersey?

Murray Sabrin: I've been writing about, talking about and lecturing about the issues that are taking the nation. The dollar has been declining in value. We have involvement overseas that is unsustainable both financially and politically, so we need to change courses of direction. 81% of the American people want to change it's direction and I am the one who can lead the charge in Washington D.C for free enterprise and limited government.

Jenny Woo:  You ran as a Libertarian in 1997 and received significant support then....Why have you elected to run as a Republican this go around?

Murray Sabrin: Well I ran as a Republican in 2000 in the primary's for the United States Senate. I learned the lesson you've got to get the grassroots support in order to win as a Republican and that's what we've been doing the past four, five months. They know that I'm a leader for physical responsibility. So I'm confident that we'll win the June 3 State Primary. 

Jenny Woo:  What is Murray Sabrin's strategy going up against a New Jersey political force like Frank Lautenberg who has served the state since 1983?

Murray Sabrin: Well Frank Lautenberg has been AWOL on a lot of these important issues. He penalizes people for using the tax code to minimize their taxes, he's been AWOL on the key of economic issues about the dollar and how it's tumbled in the foreign exchange market. He's been AWOL on inflation, he's been AWOL on having a humbled foreign policy. So Frank Lautenberg has been there for four terms and has been less than a good representative for the people that deserve it. He's also one of the most anti business, business people who ever served in the Congress of the United States.

Jenny Woo:  And Frank Lautenberg hasn't won any of his four elections by more than 54% with that 54% being against Doug Forrester. Is there one specific area where Senator Lautenberg seems most vulnerable?

Murray Sabrin:  Well I think the fact that people feel it's time for a change. That's what the polls have indicated. He's been there for four terms, he hasn't really helped the people of New Jersey. He hasn't been a leader on the key issues that I've been a leader on. They will understand that I have the interest of the people of New Jersey on my mind.

Jenny Woo:  New Jersey is Democratic territory but you of all people probably are in the best position to remove yourself from any association with the current Presidential administration, which is now at a record low in terms of popularity. But what can you do to WOO over all those Democratic voters in the Stare and away from either Frank Lautenberg or his Democratic rival, Rob Andrews?

Murray Sabrin:  Well I'm a very strong proponent of civil liberties. I believe that we should have a humble foreign policy, that we need fiscal concerns presently in Washington D.C. That's a message that relates to a lot of Democrats and also the Independent voters who are key to winning your election and I believe I can tap into them because of my strong record on the economy, civil liberties and humble foreign policy.

Jenny Woo:  Charlie Crist here in Florida ran a campaign where his commercials referred to him as a "Ronald Reagan Republican" - completely disassociating himself with George W Bush. It seems en vogue for the Republican party to reference Ronald Reagan whenever possible (ex. John McCain). The party as a whole seems to reflect upon Reagan's Presidency. Is the Reagan message one that you will be injecting into you own campaign?

Murray Sabrin:  It's the message that Ronald Reagan ran on. Getting the government out of our wallets, out of our businesses, out of parents ability to take care of the healthcare needs of their children because there are so many mandates on vaccines. The people are concerned of the consequences of this. So I believe in individual liberty, property rights and having strong support for businesses. And so that's why I will run as a limited government , fiscal conservative Republican and that's the message the residents and people of New Jersey will see.

Jenny Woo:  Now onto the economy. You have a PhD in economic geography from Rutgers University. Looking at the economy in the state...it seems that New Jersey is nearly broke if it's not already. It's among the hardest hit states in the devastated housing market. Do you see the economy as the single most important issue concerning New Jersey State residents and if so, shouldn't you win by default?

Murray Sabrin:  The economy is very important. Inflation is accelerating, people are having a hard time making ends meat because of gas prices, food prices, and all the other necessities which are much greater than the government tells us it is. We have a housing crisis of unprecedented proportion. So we do justice by bringing back into the economy. When I explain it to people around the state they understand it and they say you're the type of person we need in Washington because you have the backgrounds, skill and knowledge to help us, help the economy get on an even keel again instead of the up and down that we've been experiencing for so many decades.

Jenny Woo:  The economy, housing crisis, pain at the pump….but how big a loss has it been for the state of New Jersey since the Sopranos went off the air?

Murray Sabrin:  Hahaha. I didn't watch the Sopranos. I'm a big CSI fan. Las Vegas and all the CSI's. They do a really good job of showing how science and technology can be used in good detective work.

Jenny Woo:  I mentioned pain at the pump. My publisher didn’t know how to pump gas until he moved from New Jersey to Florida. It’s the only state that doesn’t have self-serve gas stations yet to my understanding, New Jersey has among the lowest gas prices in the nation, lagging 16 cents below the national average, according to a report by The Times of Trenton. Inquiring minds want to know why this is but we also want to know what Senator Murray Sabrin is going to do to keep it this way. So if Jenny were to move to New Jersey I would be able to keep my Mitsubishi Montero.

Murray Sabrin:  Gasoline taxes can be a blessing and a curse. I've been driving around the state, (well not me personally but my aide) but the roads are in horrible shape in the state of New Jersey. It shows you another example what the government is suppose to do well. They need to be keeping our roads in top notch condition. Gasoline prices are reflecting a whole host of issues. We don't have enough drillig here in the United States which has the advantage of exploding all over the world because the economies are growing faster than the United States. We have a risk period because of the tension in the mid east. And of course the dollar is declining and oil is priced in dollars so when the dollar goes down in value, oil prices go up. So I would be a strong advocate of again putting our fiscal house in order and stopping the inflation which would drive down oil prices.

Jenny Woo:  Everybody is going green. What’s your contribution to the planet Earth? Without lecturing me on driving a Mitsubishi Montero please lol

Murray Sabrin:  Well the thing is I've been doing a lot of reading on this subject and there are some prominent scientists and climatologists including the founder of the weather channel, John Coleman, who says "man made global warming is one of the biggest scams in history". "That this is a natural phenomenon", according to some experts. That it takes place in regular cycles because of the sun which has a major impact on our climate and so we shouldn't get too carried away about global warming if it's indeed a natural phenomenon. But given the high price of energy today, anything that you can save by conserving is a blessing not only for the use of energy but also for you pocket because things are expensive. I just heard that heating oil prices are over $4 a gallon. That's going to hurt family budgets next winter. So we hope we have a mild winter which will be something that global warming would contribute to if we have a milder than usual winter, in which would of course be good for people's pockets. But again there are some people that believe that we should not get carried away or try to alter our behavior because of global warming which seems to be another part of the earth's heating and cooling that's been going on for hundreds and thousands of years.

Jenny Woo: New Jersey has some of the highest property taxes. My plan would be to abolish them all together but I’m not running for State Senator. What is your response to the high property taxes in New Jersey, especially in light of today’s housing crisis?

Murray Sabrin:  Property taxes in New Jersey are driven by decisions made by the Supreme Court which sources the state government distributed a lot of the gaming tax money, which is called the property tax relief fund, to the urban districts which haven't had good funding in the past years. And so, suburbans get very little back in the taxes that families pay as state aid and so therefor that drives the public property taxes to fund the schools. So I would advocate and have advocating that if the state is going to fund public schools it should do on a dollar for pupil bases rather than having these urban districts take up a lot of the revunue that comes from the state income tax. I think that's basically unfair and of course then I'm proposing for suburban families or even urban families is federal tax credits so they can send their kids to a non govermental school because parents should have some tax relief from the federal government because they are paying so much in state taxes that I think that's a basic question of fairness that parents get relief if they want to educate their kids out of the public school system.

Next, Dr. Sabrin discusses his message to make online poker and gambling legal, Ron Paul and more.  Continue Reading Here