Hillary Clinton property tax joke a prickly one for New Jersey Dems

The AP reports:

Trying to show solidarity with New Jersey, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday unwittingly stumbled into an issue that Garden State Democrats would rather forget: sky-high property taxes.

Speaking to the state Democratic Party convention, the New York senator thanked New Jersey for moving its presidential primary up to Feb. 5.

"I feel like I'm pretty much an honorary resident of New Jersey," Clinton said. "I just don't want you to charge me any more property taxes on top of what I pay in New York."

While most of the room laughed at the joke, several groans were heard in the ballroom of Bally's Atlantic City. New Jersey Republicans have long railed against the Garden State's highest-in-the-nation property taxes, where the average homeowner pays $6,300 a year in property taxes.

"Hillary Clinton unknowingly reminded New Jersey voters of the Democrats' most glaring political blunder since taking power: a catastrophic 40 percent rise in homeowners' property taxes," said Assemblyman Richard Merkt, R-Morris.

"With a friend like this, who needs enemies?" he said. "I kind of wish she'd spend more time in New Jersey."

Clinton did not mention the latest political corruption arrests in New Jersey, which occurred a day earlier when 11 public officials , 10 of whom were Democrats , were charged in a bribery scheme.

Sopranoland.