2018 is here! Wow!  Was it just a week ago we were celebrating some great election news from NJ?  Time to sit back, and smell the roses, right? Wrong!  We are already in the 2018 electoral cycle.  Have you received your first election flyer from Leonard Lance yet?  If not, you will find it in your mailbox shortly.  Congressman Lance knows he will be in the fight of his life.

 His future will be in OUR hands.  Did you hear of Elizabeth Warren’s response to the question, “who is the leader of the Democratic Party?”  Her response was “the grassroots”.  You better believe it.  The only way we will be able to replace Congressman Lance with a Democrat will be through a massive, district wide, disciplined and highly coordinated Get Out The Vote campaign, no matter who our final candidate is.  It is going to be on US, the grassroots.

 Why do I say to that?  Well, close inspection of the result of last week’s gubernatorial race returns showed that in NJ7, with a turnout of about 35% of voters, some 14 000 more people voted for Kim Guadagno than voted for Phil Murphy.  If that had been the Congressional race, Leonard Lance would be back in office.  There will be no Trump/Clinton race next year.  It is likely that our scandal-plagued senior senator will head the ticket.  

 At the grass roots level, I know that many people have absorbed that lesson, and are already thinking about how to increase voter turnout, how to get an edge.  For example, I came into contact with Kristin Sanborn, from Summit, NJ.  Kristin is compiling a comprehensive set of spreadsheets, documenting every vote recorded in each of the last few elections in every district, in every township in every county in NJ7.  I can testify that it is dusty, dry, unglamorous work, But that information can help to build outreach into all corners of the district, to build local organizations, town by town, ward by ward.  And if we can connect those communities, share our learnings, our talents, our enthusiasm, our commitment, then just maybe we can send one big collective message to Washington.  

 And the message will be, NJ7 Citizens voted for Change.  And WON!!