Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Primary Election Day
Primary is the general election in my city,
My state senator has been in office so long, is so powerful, so privileged, so wealthy (million dollar shore house, apt in Soho), that he doesn't even have to disguise his motivations. He wants twenty million to renovate some crappy projects a few blocks from his home in Elizabeth - gang-infested warehouses for the poor - throwing good money after bad when they need to be demolished & replaced with low density housing. He supports school vouchers only because his main political opposition comes from the Elizabeth Board of Ed machine. No regular organization Democrats in other towns support vouchers.
His opposition - the Board of Ed machine - takes millions in state & federal money thanks to liberal legislation & court decisions yet sucks up to our Republican Governor. We have a Ronald Reagan Academy - yup, named for the president who promised in 1980 & 1982 to abolish the Cabinet level Dept of Education but was prevented from doing so by a Democratic congress. That political faction is also too cozy for my comfort with a local evangelical church. They talk like Republicans & expect to eat at the Democrat's table. If they won. this city would have no allies in Trenton.
Update: The insurgents were beaten back, quite badly - 2 to 1 - in the county-wide Freeholder races, but I don't know what the tallies were in Elizabeth.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
My state senator has been in office so long, is so powerful, so privileged, so wealthy (million dollar shore house, apt in Soho), that he doesn't even have to disguise his motivations. He wants twenty million to renovate some crappy projects a few blocks from his home in Elizabeth - gang-infested warehouses for the poor - throwing good money after bad when they need to be demolished & replaced with low density housing. He supports school vouchers only because his main political opposition comes from the Elizabeth Board of Ed machine. No regular organization Democrats in other towns support vouchers.
His opposition - the Board of Ed machine - takes millions in state & federal money thanks to liberal legislation & court decisions yet sucks up to our Republican Governor. We have a Ronald Reagan Academy - yup, named for the president who promised in 1980 & 1982 to abolish the Cabinet level Dept of Education but was prevented from doing so by a Democratic congress. That political faction is also too cozy for my comfort with a local evangelical church. They talk like Republicans & expect to eat at the Democrat's table. If they won. this city would have no allies in Trenton.
Update: The insurgents were beaten back, quite badly - 2 to 1 - in the county-wide Freeholder races, but I don't know what the tallies were in Elizabeth.
Labels: Elizabeth NJ
