On November 3rd 2009 conservatives have a major opportunity to advance their movement in New Jersey with Chris Christie and the Citizens For Assembly.

Why Chris Christie for Conservatives?
I heard arguments why Chris Christie is not the perfect choice for a conservative vote. I have heard arguments that Chris Daggett may be better. True or not Daggett will lose tomorrow. Corzine can win and if he does a big loss for conservatism in New Jersey when conservatives are on a precipice for a great opportunity to advance in New Jersey with Chris Christie despite any doubts.

Conservative Fight In New Jersey Is Not Just This Gubernatorial Race
The conservative fight for New Jersey is a longer term effort that transcends this Gubernatorial race. The fight requires conservatives in the State to focus on the local school boards, townships, cities, counties and the State legislature.  These are the places where the battles are manageable and will make a more sustained change; so much so they can influence candidate choices in future Gubernatorial races and in Washington where problems for the Country are dire.

Chris Christie will have a chance to respond to conservative pressure and he can be measured on the results. That pressure is best channeled into local and State elections for however long it takes. Here  conservatives need to weed out moderates and liberals and replace them with conservatives ideally  through the Republican party, but a Conservative party if that is what it will take.

Citizens For Assembly – A Running Start On November 3rd
Tomorrow you have a running start if you look at the Citizens For Assembly candidates on tomorrow’s ballot for your district. They are the tea party, citizen activists who said they had enough and see their only alternative is to drop what they are doing and band together under a Common Sense Pledge to become candidates in an attempt to remove deeply entrenched Democrats around the State. Conservatives need to take this concept Barry Funt started and use it as guide.

Way Back Machine: Ross Perot
Billionaire Ross Perot on national television dazzled us with charts and graphs about the finances of Washington the other parties found not worthy to share with the voters. This was alluring enough for the only vote I regretted in Presidential elections. Clinton won, Perot lost and the regret was to follow.

Only months later a tax was imposed on Social Security beneficiaries if they decided to go back to work. We would not want seniors motivated to work. Over a certain amount they would lose dollar for dollar in their check.  This affected my widowed mother who came from a family who worked into senior years. She would throttle back and be relegated to work at generally low paying tasks to stay under the threshold. A big misuse of talent gained over a lifetime.

Soon there were the private meetings headed by Hillary Clinton to orchestrate the take over the health industry of the United States. We fought it back but like the poisonous vines we have here in New Jersey they grew back and have us in a death grip.

New Jersey conservatives help Chris Christie and Citizens for Assembly in and then we begin our next advance. The work is easy: go vote tomorrow and remind all fellow conservatives.

Long shot rivals Rev Clenard Childress (I), Barry Funt (R) and Herbert Glenn (R),  report great results and positive momentum in their heavily Democratic New Jersey district races. Matt Freidman from PolitickerNJ.com on 10/27/2009 asked the candidates at the NJ State House about their chances.

Long Shot NJ Assembly District Candidates Express Optimism At NJ State House 10/27/09

Democratic  Controlled Districts With Worse Crime and Economic Opportunities
Childress and Glenn are running in NJ Districts with long term chronic government run problems such as education that provide the foundation for high crime, lack of economic opportunity and corruption.  Both NJ Assembly Districts are controlled for decades by the Democrat party. There apparently is a reluctance on the constituents to change this in the voting booth.  However Childress and Glenn are working hard this year to break that trend.

Voters Are Uniformed About State Representatives
In Childress District 34, covering Clifton City,  East Orange,  Glen Ridge,  Montclair,  and West Paterson, the Democratic incumbents are Thomas P. Giblin and Sheila Y. Oliver. Giblin was elected to the Assembly on November 8, 2005.  Oliver was elected in 2004 and in 2010 and may has enough votes in the Assembly to be elected Speaker in 2010.

Childress points out what he sees as lacking voter knowledge of State representatives that have control over their futures and current plights:

“They know their council person, they know their mayor, they know their governor, they may know their State senator … they depend on party line … the assembly people [running] … .”

Here is the full comment from Rev. Childress

Republican Support Expanded For Long Run Districts
Herbert Glenn says in District 28 covering Belleville,  Bloomfield,  Irvington and  Newark has seen an uptick in Republican support.

“I have gotten significant Republican support. The [Republican] campaign has done a number of things to reach out to my community … that has not happened in a long time.”

Glenn’s Democrat opponents are Ralph R. Caputo and Cleopatra G. Tucker. Caputo served the Assembly 1968 – 1972 and returned in 2008 which in this reporter’s opinion smacks of a retirement appointment. Tucker in the seat since 2008 and replaced her deceased husband who held the seat since 1994. How can there be hope without real change?

Chris Christie Impact
Glenn also sees a deeper impact coming from the NJ governor race. Particularly he sees Daggett weak on effort and Christie making significant effort.

“Dagget hasn’t really put enough effort into local community politics which is the real responsibility towards making those changes happen … “

“I think Chris [Christie] really respects that and he sees that is an important factor.  He has driven his campaign bus up to the community to visit members of the neighborhoods. He has really made an effort in terms of being a Republican candidate to prove that we have a movement here that is not going to be challenged by defeat or victory.”

Here is full comment from Herbert Glenn

Democrat Control From The Economic Troubled to Affluent Districts
Childress and Glenn are in Democrat controlled areas of NJ with serious economic problems that are the worst in the US. Barry Funt challenges a Democratic controlled district that has some affluent communities.  Funt is the heavy Democratic controlled District 27  that covers Caldwell,  Essex Fells,  Fairfield (Essex),  Livingston,  Maplewood,  Newark,  North Caldwell,  Orange,  Roseland,  South Orange,  West Caldwell and  West Orange. It almost makes you question if Democrats work to siphon money from producers to areas where it is well intended but serious wasted through corruption.

Taxes and Likeability Factor Of John McKeon
Funt claims his chances are greater than anyone gives credit as winning.  He points out that one of his opponents John McKeon, also mayor of West Orange, is not liked for raising taxes and other financial maneuvers to increase debt to residents.

“I think we have a way better chance than anyone is given us soley because John McKeon as the mayor of West Orange is not liked. … He’s taxed everyone out their homes. He raised taxes so much in West Organge that Dick Codey had to move to Roseland.” [See “You wouldn’t keep the taxes down!” Dick Codey To John McKeon While Taking Bows For $1 Million to Roseland]

“He’s [McKeon] been involved with a whole bunch of issues there. This most latest issue bond issue for Edison village … . He tried to ram a $40 million dollar bond issue through the town. This was a West Orange issue … effectively to bailout some failed development … . Two hundred people stormed the town council meeting and tried to stop this.”

Here are Barry Funt’s full comments

Funt’s opponents are Mila Jasey and John McKeon. Mila holds her seat since vacated by Mims Hackett on September 10, 2007. McKeon has served in the Assembly as Assistant Majority Whip in 2004 and 2005, and has been the Assistant Majority leader since 2006. He also is mayor of West Orange having a dual role covered by a grandfather law passed in the Assembly remarkably while held office.

Voters in these heavily Democratic Party controlled and troubled districts need to look at the Citizens for Assembly candidates and their Common Sense Pledge.

ObamaCare protesters strongly voiced disappointment with Chris Christie campaign energy on key issues. The protest rally held at Leonard Lance’s office to push the US House Representative to broaden opposition to the health care legislation, drew interest from a RNC worker assigned to solicit Christie volunteers. Protesters were quick to point out issues that are underplayed by the campaign.

Billy Baer Holds Blank Sign Summing Up 2009 NJ Governor's Race

School Vouchers Not Just Inner City Issue
One protester got feedback from Christie representative that he was promoting school vouchers with inner city efforts. This limited approach was unacceptable as school problems in inner cities impacts all New Jersey residents in the form of taxes.

The Citizens for NJ Assembly candidates have school choice as one of the 10 points on their Common Sense Pledge. Many are running in districts that do not have the destroyed NJ inner city schools yet back school choice ideas like vouchers.

Morristown Tea Party recently ran an educational program on school choice in a part of New Jersey with generally good schools.

Cavuto Reveals Strong Christie Tax Solutions Supporters See Underplayed In Campaign
Linda Gerisi pointed out she was excited about Christie’s tax ideas but would not have know about them if it were not for the Neil Cavuto interview on Fox.

“He was terrific. … He actually said what he was going to do in order to cut property taxes”

Corzine who made his fortune on Wall Street at Goldman Sach’s actually declined to appear on the Neil Cavuto show with Christie. Cavuto asked Christie if he would raise taxes. Christie said flatly no.

“I will not raise taxes on the citizens of this State [New Jersey] which is already the highest tax burden State in America worst than New York, worst than California. … John Corzine is going to raise taxes.”

Cavuto questioned Christie on the over duplication in New Jersey municipality services. Christie pointed to successes in maintaining municipal independence though service sharing.

“We got to get them to share services. We have so many redundancies in municiple goverment across the State and its happening already in New Jersey in certain isolated places. In Brick and Toms River down in Ocean County you have them sharing services and literally saving millions of dollars  for their taxpayers”

Christie goes on to explain how to replicate these successes if he is elected.

“One we are going to give grants out to towns to encourage them to study shared services in their communites and here is the accountability piece .. if you get that study and you can show that you can save money and deliver those services you have two choices. You implement the plan or give me my money [grant] back.”

You can listen to the vocal thrashing of protesters over the weakness in getting these points across.

News 12 New Jersey Strong Bias Towards Corzine
On a related campaign topic, protester John Wycoff, reported his experience viewing News 12 New Jersey.

“The next time they talk to Steele, tell him to get himself back up here … watch News 12 New Jersey for a couple of hours and then file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission ..  they [News 12 New Jersey] are actively compaigning for Corzine.”

[Author's note: Quite honestly I cannot stomach watching any local news channels or their programming, so I will have to take John's word for it. I strongly recommend to delete those channels and you will not miss anything important or enteraining while maintaining a much happier life.]

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The New Jersey Tea Party movement has evolved to the ultimate political action of grassroots citizen candidates running for office.

Barry Funt Tea Party Candidate for NJ Assembly District 27 www.funtforassembly.org

Probably the first of a trend in candidates nationwide, New Jersey has spawned over 40 first time like minded citizen candidates for the 2009 State Assembly elections.

The candidates have grouped  together as the Citizens for Assembly.

Barry Funt, speaking without a  teleprompter at The Morristown Tea Party School Choice event on September 30, 2009, said “No one is a professional politician in this group. We work for a living. Some are … semi-retired.

Barry is a newcomer to politics.  He attended the event for his own interest and was asked to speak after being recognized in the audience. He identifies himself with the Tea Party audience and sees himself as a citizen moved to becoming a candidate for office.

“I’ve never been involved with politics before. I am a Tea Party person just like you guys. I’ve been stirred to action like all you have. I am sure some of you before this tea party movement started – its the first time you ever got out of your chair, couch – I’m that person”

Tea Party activism is only a part of the New Jersey citizen movement. Barry points out, “through out this State people are standing up.” He finds people in communities are taking citizen action on issues of jobs, education and violence outside of the Tea Party movement.

“There are other citizens movements that are happening in urban centers. I go to Newark – Stop the Violence Rallies – there are people taken to the streets who are demanding a better life and to end the violence. … I think these are tea party people in a different name …”

The new grassroots citizen NJ Assembly candidates have adopted a citizen friendly agreement of 10 issues permeating the community movements. The agreement is called the Common Sense Pledge. Read the full story at Common Sense Pledge A Citizen Friendly Contract for NJ. The Citizens For Assembly plus other candidates have the needed seats to implement all of these once in office. All NJ Gubernatorial candidates need to take notice, the next Tea Party may be in the NJ Assembly.

New Jersey State Assembly 2009 candidates have adopted a Common Sense Pledge that outlines a citizen friendly contract for NJ.

Citizens For Assembly In NJ Common Sense Pledge

Announced at the NJ State House on September 30, 2009, the Common Sense Pledge has the trappings of the 1994 Contract for America. Both were announced only a few weeks before the election. The 1994 Contract for America only 6 weeks and the Common Sense pledge just about 5 weeks.

Both also represent the unusual coalition of campaign platform points. The Contract for America was the first time since 1918 a US Congressional election was run on a national level. The Common Sense Pledge unites NJ Assembly candidates at a statewide level. Common Sense Pledge candidates are running under the banner Citizens for Assembly. The Common Sense Pledge elevates state wide government issues above local issues. Local issues have dominated the NJ legislature and resulted in corruption and mismanagement of State funds to the point of fiscal bankruptcy for a decade.

Different from the Contract for America, candidates pledging support for the Common Sense pledge do not need to have a particular allegiance to a political party. Although most candidates are Republican, independents have joined as well. This calls into question the impact on the NJ Gubernatorial candidates. The planks for the Common Sense pledge are grounded in grass roots sentiments that emerged in 2009 at tea party rallies, town hall meetings and other citizen activism events. The appeal ranges from conservatives through to moderates and independents. The latter often voting for such ideas only to find they do not see them implemented. The elected governor will need to contend with citizens and the Common Sense Pledge legislation.

The Common Sense Pledge

The Common Sense Pledge does not apply any particular NJ Assembly District.

Barry Funt Outlines the Common Sense Pledge

The points are targeted at issues cutting across NJ State districts.

1. True property tax reform: End unfunded state mandates and reform the system that causes excessive reliance on property taxes.
2. Cut taxes and red tape: Promote private sector job growth by changing the climate that has forced citizens and businesses to flee our state.
3. Eliminate undue influence: Expand and enforce pay-to-play rules and conflicts of interest law to include special interest groups that take taxpayer dollars.
4. Zero tolerance for abuse of power: End the culture of corruption by stiffening penalties for violators of the public trust.
5. Free choice for affordable healthcare: Reduce state mandates and promote individual choice and competition.
6. Pension reform: New Jersey’s public pension system has been abused and is broken. Make the system simple and fair for workers and taxpayers alike.
7. Citizen Checks and Balances: Require voter approval for future state and agency debt issuances.
8. Election competition: Restore competitive elections by ending campaign laundering (“wheeling”) to encourage regular citizens to run for office.
9. Choice in education: Improve quality and reduce costs by introducing competition.
10. Stop the violence: Government’s primary responsibility is to protect the public. We pledge to devote the necessary resources to end violence in our communities.

Forty one citizens from various walks of life are placing their careers, businesses and lives on hold to run for the NJ State Assembly.  Calling themselves Citizens For Assembly, they joined together on the steps of the NJ State House in Trenton on September 30, 2009 to announce their combined intentions.

Citizen Candidates for NJ 2009 State Assembly at Trenton State House: www.citizensforassembly.com

Every Day People Stepping Up to Fill a Voting Choice Gap

Reminiscent of the 1994 Contract with America that swept Democrats from power in DC, the nature of the candidates reveals a marked difference.

Barry Funt, a candidate for District 27, echos the sentiments of why these candidates are running , “I decided to run for one simple reason, I did not think there was anyone in my district who represents me”.

Some like Mitchell Dobies have stopped running their businesses. Mitchell, who made his decision only three weeks back, said to dedicate himself to this as a citizen his wife has to assume the role of running his business.  Mitchell is only now organizing a web site and other campaign communication activities. In the mean time his business web site The Aqua Short is how you will reach him.

Most districts have Citizens for Assembly candidates further along. Stepfanie Velez-Gentry, a small business owner and working mother of two, choose to bring her first hand grass roots work with community organizations like the Girl Scouts to the process and thinking in Trenton. Stepfanie is running in District 5.

Growing Citizen Activism To Correct Failures of NJ Government

Barry recognizes the disconnect regular citizens are expressing about their elected officials. “We can see this at Tea Parties, health care town hall meetings and other gatherings all across New Jersey as citizen activism enters the mainstream”. Barry in his address enumerated several recent citizen activism events within NJ.  “In Newark hundreds of citizens have peacefully taken to the streets to try to put and end to urban violence.”   “In Secaucus, Hoboken [and] Ridgefield citizens have gathered at city hall to protest the latest wave of political corruption.”  “In Camden, Elizabeth, Newark and Trenton and in too many other cities with failing schools parents have gathered demanding choice in education.”

Barry Funt Outlines Motives for Citizen Candidates and Common Sense Pledge

The Common Sense Pledge for A New New Jersey

The candidates  pledged an allegiance to the Common Sense Pledge that includes popular reform themes such as true property tax reform, school choice and citizen oversight of the NJ Government. These themes represent the sentiments of the grass roots movements dominating town halls and citizen rallies this year. Werner Graf, running for District 15, describes the team commitment to the pledge designed to take New Jersey Government back for New Jersey citizens. “These folks … are your neighbors and together with you they are the new New Jersey.” “Sick of corruption, intolerant of waste, and committed to building something better in New Jersey for our children.” [See related story: Common Sense Pledge A Citizen Friendly Contract for NJ]

Werner Graf Introduces The NJ Citizens For Assembly Movement

Meeting the NJ Citizens for Assembly Candidates

You can read the candidate biographies yourself, available at  Citizens for Assembly web site, and judge how they represent their About Us page statement  “… not about career politicians or more of the same empty rhetoric — it’s about electing legislators who will truly represent regular Citizens.”

Barry Funt Introduces the Citizens for Assembly Candidates