District 27 Assembly Election - Up for Grabs?
Thank you for the summary. Very helpful. I have been seeing a lot of advertising from Q Rim, but was not able to discern any substantive info from them.
I do not see how a District with Millburn, Livingston, West Orange and MSO are going to vote for a "Christian Conservative"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27th_Legislative_District_(New_Jersey)
Thanks for letting us know there are potentially real alternatives to the Career Politicians we have had in office for so long.
I need to look into these further:
http://damienforliberty.com/index.php
https://www.facebook.com/hetrickforliberty
It kills me to vote for members of either machine, but, in the absence of a progressive alternative, I will probably cast my ballot for the lesser of several evils.
This state's government is in desperate need of serious change.
I told the Jasey/McKeon people they could put a sign on my front lawn, when they called and asked, as I had been a past supporter. I still support them, but when their lawn sign showed up, I could not believe how bad it is. It's dark red lettering on a black background. You can't read it at all at night, and it's barely legible in the daytime. I hope they fire their campaign manager and get some new signs pronto.
Forgive me for my ignorance but what have Jasey and McKeon done for the district? What are their accomplishment during their current term?
LOST said:
I do not see how a District with Millburn, Livingston, West Orange and MSO are going to vote for a "Christian Conservative"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27th_Legislative_District_(New_Jersey)
Millburn and Livingston each voted for Chris Christie twice, so they are capable of voting for a conservative. More importantly, District 27 changed about 3-4 years ago due to redistricting, and it now includes heavily Republican/conservative areas in Morris County:
maplewoodsteve said:
The district, which was reliably progressive in the past, became far more balanced with the addition of conservative Morris County towns during redistricting a few years ago. The district now includes Caldwell, Chatham Township, East Hanover, Essex Fells, Florham Park, Hanover, Harding, Livingston, Madison, Maplewood, Millburn,Roseland, South Orange, and West Orange.
Also, Q Rim is not identifying himself publicly as a "Christian Conservative" in his prolific campaign materials, at least in any I have seen, and not all voters take the time to research and vet candidates carefully. So I am happy to share what I have learned in my own research.
And finally, social conservatives tend to be very good about showing up for elections in "off" years, so I am happy to do my part to encourage everyone else to join them at the polls this year.
He's got a pretty fancy website: http://qrimnj.com/
The other Republican candidate's site is: http://www.selenforassembly.com/
The incumbents: https://www.facebook.com/McKeon-and-Jasey-for-Assembly-1478584555779879/timeline/
xavier67 said:
Forgive me for my ignorance but what have Jasey and McKeon done for the district? What are their accomplishment during their current term?
MDonoghue said:
I would ask the same questions as xavier67. I wrote letters to each of them last year regarding school funding and did not even get an acknowledgment or response from either.
I had written to Mila Jasey for help with disability discrimination several times. I was finally contacted by one of her assistants who listened to me and said she'd be back in touch. Of course, she didn't get back in touch and I called twice more to follow up and my calls were ignored. I'm very glad she doesn't represent me any longer and that I don't have to vote for one of her opponents.
maplewoodsteve said:Millburn and Livingston each voted for Chris Christie twice, so they are capable of voting for a conservative. More importantly, District 27 changed about 3-4 years ago due to redistricting, and it now includes heavily Republican/conservative areas in Morris County:
Maybe they are capable of voting for a Republican running as a moderate against an extremely unpopular incumbent the first time and a virtual nobody the second time.
But if this guy you are talking about is really a hard right "Christian Conservative" it's up to his opponents to expose that to the voters.
Just a few points to make here regarding some of the comments in this thread.
First of all, it does not really matter what Jasey and McKeon have "done for us". It's very hard for anyone to get anything done for an individual municipality. It's more about what their opponents would do "to us". If SOMa was represented by Republicans, we would have no representation at all in Trenton. Q and his cohort would spend all of their fledgling political capital pandering to their base in Morris County that put them there. We would have no advocate.
Second, Q has designed his web site as if he is a common sense moderate, attempting to attract the independent and undecided voters and obscure the truth about him. His base, the hard right, knows what he is, and needs no convincing. I have seen his printed literature and talked with his people. He is a hard right Christian conservative, who is way out of touch with SOMa.
Finally, we really need Mila Jasey. She has significant leadership roles in Trenton and has been an advocate in the past. Several years ago, she opposed A-2586, which would have allowed Seton Hall to bypass all of our zoning and planning boards and build whatever they wanted, wherever they wanted, with zero oversight. That bill was championed by the former Chairwoman of the Higher Education Committee in the Assembly, who was from South Jersey and had no private colleges in her district. Ms Jasey opposed it, and she is now the chair of that committee. Her continued presence would help to prevent the tragedy to South Orange if that bill ever again saw the light of day. She is also a resident of South Orange, so we know we can count on her advocacy when it counts.
xavier67 said:
Forgive me for my ignorance but what have Jasey and McKeon done for the district? What are their accomplishment during their current term?
Ask them at the next debate.
Uhh....never mind
http://savejersey.com/2015/09/ld27-democrats-jasey-mckeon-no-show-at-livingston-debate/
The question posted is, What would the Republican/conservative/libertarians DO TO US?
It was either today's or yesterday's Ledger editorial that brought up the votes on bills that had majority and even 100% Republican backing in the assembly. The billed passed. Then they were vetoed by Christie. Those same Republicans upheld Christy's veto.
Do you really want even more of the same $hit handed to you on a paper plate? Then continue to vote for Republicans.
maplewoodsteve said:
This year's election for the District 27 State Assembly seats could be interesting. It is an "off-year" election (no major federal or state wide offices on the ballot), so turnout is expected to be quite low, and every vote will count. The district, which was reliably progressive in the past, became far more balanced with the addition of conservative Morris County towns during redistricting a few years ago. The district now includes Caldwell, Chatham Township, East Hanover, Essex Fells, Florham Park, Hanover, Harding, Livingston, Madison, Maplewood, Millburn,Roseland, South Orange, and West Orange.
Because it is a seriously contested, low turnout election, every vote will be important. Please plan to vote on Tuesday, November 2. (In addition to the Assembly race, there will also be the BOE election and the Maplewood Township Committee election.) Deadline for new voter registrations is Tuesday, October 13. Deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is a week before the election (or the day before if you go in person to the County Clerk's office in Newark). Details here:
Mila Jasey and John McKeon are the long term Democratic incumbents. They are being challenged by Republicans Wonkyu "Q" Rim and Tayfun Selen, and Libertarians Damien Caillault and Jeff Hetrick.
[Disclaimer: I am a strong support of Mila Jasey and John McKeon, and a strong opponent of Q Rim. However, I have tried to be accurate in representing below what I could find online for each of the candidates, but the emphasis has been on matters important to me.]
Mila and John have been strong and consistent advocates on progressive issues, and are leaders on environment and public education issues in the statehouse. Of particular interest to me, they have been strong, consistent, proactive advocates for every LGBT-positive bill introduced in the legislature over the past decade. They have sponsored or co-sponsored almost all of them.
Just because a politician is a "leader" on an issue doesn't necessarily mean that someone should support him or her. Paul Ryan is a "leader" on budget issues but I don't think many in SOMA would endorse Ryan if he were running for office here.
To my knowledge Jasey hasn't condemned the unfair distribution of state aid. In other words, she sides with Asbury Park, Hoboken, Jersey City and overaided exurbs against SOMA.
I cannot comprehend Mila Jasey on state aid. By 2008 even many Democrats, such as Jon Corzine, realized that the Abbott "Parity Plus" doctrine was unsustainable and completely unfair to poor non-Abbotts. The School Funding Reform Act of 2008 (SFRA) was supposed to be the solution to this unfairness.
Yet Mila Jasey and John McKeon voted AGAINST SFRA. You'll have to ask them why. (Codey voted voted for SFRA)
https://votesmart.org/bill/votes/16824#.VgxC3flVhHw
Mila Jasey was the most prominent backer of Interdistrict Choice, a program where the state pays for students to attend school outside of our district. This program is very expensive on a per student basis - $11,000 per student - and had exponentially increasing costs from 2010 to 2013, when costs grew from less than $10 million a year to over $50 million a year.
When costs hit $50 million and the overall aid distribution could not be increased, Chris Christie made one of his few responsible decisions on state aid and capped Interdistrict Choice's growth, a decision Jasey condemned as "ill-advised and short sighted" even though had Christie not capped Interdistrict Choice's growth all the school districts in District 27 would have gotten their budgets cut.
Please note, this program is fundamentally misdesigned in the first place. It is a blank check to underenrolled districts that can easily accommodate new students at minimal marginal cost. Districts with growing residential enrollment, like the SOMSD, could never participate in Interdistrict Choice because (obviously) our residential enrollments are growing and we have to contend with that. And yet districts with growing enrollments, like the SOMSD, are the ones that have the most acute need for more aid.
Once kids start switching into these underenrolled Choice districts their residential districts lose students and start accepting Interdistrict Choice students (if they didn't already). This creates a shuffling of students which just triggers more and more state money. Almost all the districts in Warren County and Cape May participate. Cape May has gotten more aid out of the state in the last few years (while everyone else is flat-funded) even though Cape May's student population has fallen.
I cannot comprehend Mila Jasey on charters either.
She used to be a backer of charter schools. She was the primary author of the bill which allowed private schools to convert to charters. This law cost the SOMSD $200,000 when St. Phillips in Newark became Phillips Academy Charter School since there were 17-18 SOMA students enrolled at St. Phillips who were then grandfathered in. Ironically, the cost per student the SOMSD pays for students at Phillips Academy Charter School is much higher than the tuition there when it as a private School.
After years of supporting charters, Jasey changed her mind and recently authored a bill to put a moratorium on charter school expansion and authorizations. The Newark City Council condemned this bill 7-2 and there was a protest at Jasey's Maplewood office. Hey, charter schools are controversial in urban areas too, but pro-charter people living in urban areas were livid that a suburban lawmaker, whose own district's population has access to good schools, would try to block expansion of something they wanted.
Jasey also supported bills to ban outsourcing, which would have cost the SOMSD hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Jasey and McKeon both voted against Pension Reform in 2011.
So sure, Jasey is a "leader" on education, but you may not like where she is leading.
Q Rim would surely be worse than Jasey on host of issues Jeff outlined above and more. But it's also essential to know what you will get with the candidate you will vote for, and not just vote for him or her because the alternative is worse.
xavier67 said:
Q Rim would surely be worse than Jasey on host of issues Jeff outlined above and more. But it's also essential to know what you will get with the candidate you will vote for, and not just vote for him or her because the alternative is worse.
My vote is usually for the one where the alternative is worse. If I know for certain that I don't want the alternative, then my vote is prevention of that. I'm not sure if I've ever aligned perfectly with a political candidate.
xavier67 said:
Q Rim would surely be worse than Jasey on host of issues Jeff outlined above and more. But it's also essential to know what you will get with the candidate you will vote for, and not just vote for him or her because the alternative is worse.
Steve said:
@JBennett - Where would Q Rim lead us?
I don't know very much about Q Rim so I'm not going to say.
Some of the Republicans have bad ideas on state aid, some have good ideas. Sen. Mike Doherty has a plan "Fair Aid" where every district would get the same amount of aid per student, from the richest to the poorest. I think this proposal is terrible, even if it would be in SOMA's narrow benefit and actually would benefit some very badly aided working class districts like Bloomfield and Belleville.
However, I don't think most Republicans even endorse Doherty's "Fair Aid" idea and other Republicans are more responsible. And Mike Doherty is right about some other big things, like how Jersey City abuses PILOTs and how it is absurd that Hoboken is an Abbott district.
Caroline Casagrande (R-Monmouth) is one of few people in the legislature who has called for a new aid formula and distribution.
Partly this is because Freehold Boro is in her district. Freehold Boro is underaided by over $8,000 a student and where a school built for 1100 kids now has 1650 and where 75% of the kids are FRL-eligible.
One of the biggest issues in District 11 is school funding in Freehold Borough. The district's classrooms are overcrowded, and residents say they can't shoulder the burden of paying for the student spike alone.
[Eric] Houghtaling (R-candidate) said Freehold was the third-most underfunded district in the state, but the Legislature had failed to offer any relief. “There’s not enough room (in these schools), and nobody’s doing anything about it,” he said.
School funding has been held flat in recent years.
Casagrande said there was no political will in the Legislature to rewrite the school-funding formula and equitably distribute dollars among the neediest districts such as Freehold.“The children (in Freehold) are grossly under adequacy,” said Casagrande. She called it "maddening" that 31 urban districts, formerly known as Abbott districts, absorb 60 percent of all school funding. “Our school dollars are still fully locked up in who was impoverished in 1986; leadership in both the Senate and Assembly have blocked reforms to redistribute those funds. It’s such an injustice.”
Casagrande is COMPLETELY CORRECT about this. The Democrats oppose aid redistribution just like Christie does even though the beneficiaries would be places like Freehold Boro who are very poor.
I'm impressed that Eric Houghtaling knows Freehold Boro is NJ's third most underfunded district too. Even the awareness of how uneven NJ's aid distribution is rare.
Do you think Christie comes out with his flat-funding budget proposals without getting Sweeney and Prieto's ok? Those guys all vote for flat funding. Please find more me an instance of a Democrat calling for redistribution of state aid in the last few years? They used to call for higher taxes to fund SFRA but with the Pension Crisis they've given up on that and now have no plan on state aid whatsoever.
If there is so much criticism of the incumbents from people who are not Republicans why was there no Primary Challenge?
I just clicked Mr. Rim's website and couldn't find his position on any issues. It says something about putting people before programs but that is meaningless.
LOST said:
I just clicked Mr. Rim's website and couldn't find his position on any issues. It says something about putting people before programs but that is meaningless.
I just clicked Mila Jasey's website and couldn't find any explanations of her positions on issues.
EDUCATIONMila is the Legislature’s leading education advocate, and will fight to keep our public schools the best in the nation. She wants small class sizes, limited standardized testing and the school funding formula followed so all districts get the help they deserve. She also thinks every young adult should have the chance to go to college or pursue a career without piling up debt.
Where are we going to get the money for smaller class sizes?
"Following" New Jersey's school funding formula would require at least another $2 billion a year. Where do we get the money from when we also need to pay another $4 billion a year into pensions? Also, why did Jasey vote against SFRA in the first place?
That's also great that she's against college debt, but where does the money for debt-free education come from?
But, given our choices in November, which candidate is likely to be better for us? It really boils down to that one single question. I submit the answer is quite clear.
Exactly!
JBennett said:Jasey and McKeon both voted against Pension Reform in 2011.So sure, Jasey is a "leader" on education, but you may not like where she is leading.
michaelgoldberg said:
Exactly!
JBennett said:Jasey and McKeon both voted against Pension Reform in 2011.So sure, Jasey is a "leader" on education, but you may not like where she is leading.
Steve said:
But, given our choices in November, which candidate is likely to be better for us? It really boils down to that one single question. I submit the answer is quite clear.
But, what say you
I find it interesting that the two republican candidates are from Morris County. That County may be more Republican but I wonder why the Essex County Republican Party did not assert itself and insist on one of the two positions.
A couple of other interesting facts is that both Republican candidates are immigrants and that they have separate websites.
michaelgoldberg said:
Thanks for letting us know there are potentially real alternatives to the Career Politicians we have had in office for so long.
I need to look into these further:
http://damienforliberty.com/index.php
https://www.facebook.com/hetrickforliberty
The website for the Libertarian Damien lists rather specific positions. He is a true Libertarian, not a Right Winger. In addition to being against economic regulation and high taxes he opposes capital punishment, supports abortion rights, gay marriage and the de-criminalization of marijuana.
LOST said:
michaelgoldberg said:The website for the Libertarian Damien lists rather specific positions. He is a true Libertarian, not a Right Winger. In addition to being against economic regulation and high taxes he opposes capital punishment, supports abortion rights, gay marriage and the de-criminalization of marijuana.
Thanks for letting us know there are potentially real alternatives to the Career Politicians we have had in office for so long.
I need to look into these further:
http://damienforliberty.com/index.php
https://www.facebook.com/hetrickforliberty
So Damien is against economic regulation. Which regulations would he eliminate? Why? What was the reason those regulations were adapted in the first place? Were they pulled out of thin air or was there a problem that needed to be solved?
I would guess that he would answer that the solution is often worse than the problem.
This year's election for the District 27 State Assembly seats could be interesting. It is an "off-year" election (no major federal or state wide offices on the ballot), so turnout is expected to be quite low, and every vote will count. The district, which was reliably progressive in the past, became far more balanced with the addition of conservative Morris County towns during redistricting a few years ago. The district now includes Caldwell, Chatham Township, East Hanover, Essex Fells, Florham Park, Hanover, Harding, Livingston, Madison, Maplewood, Millburn,Roseland, South Orange, and West Orange.
Because it is a seriously contested, low turnout election, every vote will be important. Please plan to vote on Tuesday, November 2. (In addition to the Assembly race, there will also be the BOE election and the Maplewood Township Committee election.) Deadline for new voter registrations is Tuesday, October 13. Deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is a week before the election (or the day before if you go in person to the County Clerk's office in Newark). Details here:
Mila Jasey and John McKeon are the long term Democratic incumbents. They are being challenged by Republicans Wonkyu "Q" Rim and Tayfun Selen, and Libertarians Damien Caillault and Jeff Hetrick.
[Disclaimer: I am a strong support of Mila Jasey and John McKeon, and a strong opponent of Q Rim. However, I have tried to be accurate in representing below what I could find online for each of the candidates, but the emphasis has been on matters important to me.]
Mila and John have been strong and consistent advocates on progressive issues, and are leaders on environment and public education issues in the statehouse. Of particular interest to me, they have been strong, consistent, proactive advocates for every LGBT-positive bill introduced in the legislature over the past decade. They have sponsored or co-sponsored almost all of them.
Q Rim is a serious social conservative. He has been an officer and public speaker on behalf of the NJ Family Policy Council, our statewide conservative Christian family values organization. NJFPC was perhaps Garden State Equality's chief opponent in the legislature on LGBT rights issues, especially marriage equality. He was also executive director of another conservative Christian political organization, New Jersey Family First. He has opposed gestational surrogacy in the state legislature, and he supports gay conversion therapy ("pray away the gay"). He has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association. He appears to be a fiscal conservative, but has given few specifics. For more.
Tayfun Selen appears to be more of a traditional member of the business wing of the Republican party. He appears to have typical conservative views on budget issues, taxes, and education. He supports Gov. Christie's ethics reforms and proposes term limits for "politicians in Trenton". I could find no information on his positions on social issues.
Damien Caillault immigrated to the U.S. from France in 2007 and became a citizen in 2012. He supports "freedom" on social issues like marriage equality and the war on drugs. He is a fiscal conservative who is unhappy with "all the social benefits that French people have" which he says "hurts everyone, and it hurts the poor most."
Jeff Hetrick is "generally prochoice", with limitations. For example, he supports family notification and consent requirements, he opposes any use of government funds to support abortions, and he supports limiting abortions to the first trimester. He is a fiscal conservative who supports decreasing funding for public universities, state employee salaries and pensions, and Medicaid. He also supports a slight funding decrease for education, environment, healthcare, law enforcement, transportation/infrastructure, and welfare, and does not support "any kind of increase in funding in any area". He supports decreasing or eliminating all forms of state taxes except the sales tax, which he would keep at the current level. He supports same sex marriage, but not the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the state nondiscrimination laws (they are already there).