Blog - NJ7 Citizens for Change

Women of NJ07 Discuss the Ford-Kavanaugh Hearing

We asked women in NJ07 to share their thoughts about the Ford-Kavanaugh hearing. This is what they wrote:

Thank You Dr. Christine Blasey Ford-From the Women of NJ7 Citizens for Change

Yesterday, Brett Kavanaugh screamed at ALL WOMEN. He showed us who he is and WE BELIEVE HIM. This man does NOT have the JUDICIAL TEMPERAMENT to be SCOTUS. We can do better! Thank you, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford for your courage and your composure under fire. We are grateful and proud that you sat before that prejudiced cadre of privileged white males, cowards who refused to engage directly with you. Shame on the toady white woman who did their bidding. We especially thank you for letting us know with complete certainty that this white male cabal will do anything, yes anything to preserve their power. We now know that they are willing to appoint a hard drinking, sex predator frat boy to the highest court in the land. Because you came forward, we have seen his High School yearbook and heard from others who have encountered him along the way. We know that he's willing to lie under oath about his exploits and we know that much of his judicial record remains hidden. Thank you for bringing home the fact that this fight we are in is REAL. Thank you for coming forward to bolster our resolve to end this national nightmare. What will we do? We will march, knock on doors, raise money, write postcards, run for office and even form Super Pacs until every last privileged white male is gone from the halls of power. We were already mad! You ain't seen nothing yet. Hear us Roar!!!!!! Lynda Feder and Sara Miller NJ7 Citizens for Change

Dave Pringle Speaks Candidly About Congressman Lance

Having known and worked with US Rep. Leonard Lance since 1992, it was not easy deciding to run against him last year. Nearly three decades ago both Lance and I were newly promoted to jobs in Trenton, he as a member of the NJ Legislature having worked for the quintessential bi-partisan moderate Gov. Tom Kean, me in my mid-20’s, as a public interest advocate before the same legislature. For most of the next two decades Lance served with honor in the Legislature. He was a champion on the environment and fiscally responsible, even when that wasn’t popular in either party. He successfully took on Governors. Whitman and McGreevey for their poor borrowing habits and bad land use decisions. In 2000, he was one of only two NJ legislators (the other being Senator Loretta Weinberg) to score a 100% on Clean Water Action’s scorecard. He took on the precursors to the Tea Party wing of his party to champion the 2004 Highlands and 2007 Global Warming Response Acts. These actions often came at considerable risk to his career – he lost a promotion to chair the Appropriations Committee at one point.

A Teacher for Tom Malinowski

Honesty, humility, integrity, the pursuit of knowledge, consideration of others, and hard work. These were the values my parents and teachers instilled in me as I grew up in the 1960s and 70s. They were presented as American values. Sadly, as a teacher, I see each of these values seriously endangered in today’s America—even in my classroom.

The Silence of the Lance

Lance is silent on the moral train wreck in the White House. And he is silent on Republican policy. Why? Does anyone really doubt that the White House is in the grip of a malignant narcissist, who is incompetent, unprincipled, and unethical? Why is Lance silent? Because, while the rest of us are riveted by the White House spectacle, Lance and his colleagues are enacting a conservative revolution, but they want no discussion of the implications. So he is silent. He knows the damage the tax cuts have done. He knows the benefits went to the top 1%. He knows that the next step is to go after your entitlements. In a federal budget in which military spending and interest on debt payments are rising, there is nowhere else to cut. So he is silent. He knows that healthcare is under serious threat. He knows up to 52 million Americans with a pre-existing condition couldbecome uninsured. So he is silent. He knows that our environmental policies have been shredded to favor fossil fuel companies. He knows what climate change and declining air quality mean for the health of our kids and grandkids. But he is silent. He knows that the Supreme Court has been highjacked. He knows what Kavanaugh’s appointment will mean for women’s rights; for gun safety; for the powers of the President. So he is silent. He knows that an assault on our public school system is coming. He knows that the Koch brothers and Betsy Davos and their ilk see “privatization” of education as the next frontier. And he is silent. He knows there is no money left for infrastructure, that Trump would love to torpedo the Gateway project. So he is silent. He knows his political future is tied to the Congressional Leadership Fund SuperPac and their ability to drown the midterm campaign with fearmongering and disinformation. So he is silent. And he will be silent on November 7, because we will rise up in a Blue Wave that will send him sprawling onto the retirement beach of his choice! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! #RememberinNovember #NJ07

Lance’s Platform A Disaster: Constituents Need Change

What on earth is Leonard Lance running on? Is he proud of legislation that targeted Blue states to limit our tax deductions? Of enabling the likes of Bob Hugin to benefit from extraordinary treatment for the wealthy, while we remain a donor state for Trumpland? Of generating $1 trillion in share buybacks to boost the net worth of the top 1%? Does he strut and swagger about the fact that real wage growth has been flat or even declined since Trump took office? Does he highlight the meteoric growth in the National Debt? Is he saying what Republican deficit spending will mean for Social Security and Medicare? What is his stance on healthcare now? Does he know yet how many of his constituents are on Obamacare? How, exactly, will he cover pre-existing conditions? Is he pointing to Scott Pruitt’s bonfire of regulations that protect our kids and grandkids? To President Trump’s abandonment of fuel economy standards, or the coal emissions rollback? Is he touting his new-found status as a moderate on gun safety? Or does he prefer to run on his 93%, A-, NRA approval rating? Is he supporting Betsy Davos in her efforts to use Federal funding to arm our schoolteachers? Is that the limit of his educational policy? Or is infrastructure his signature accomplishment? No funding for the Gateway Project, other than a set of lottery tickets for funds that MIGHT provide SOME of the money that Trump removed in a fit of personal pique. Is he happy to defend a corrupt administration, led by a President whose defense is to subvert the rule of law and to turn the DoJ into a personal fiefdom to be aimed at his adversaries? Is he advertising the long list of investigations Republicans swept under the rug, and now fear Democrats might instigate? Or is he going to fall back on time-honored Republican tactics of phony press releases, whisper campaigns, character assassination, voter suppression and scare tactics? It looks as though Leonard Lance has allowed Paul Ryan’s Congressional Leadership Fund to make that decision for him. Remember, empty vessels make the most noise. Don’t be fooled. #RememberinNovember #NJ07 #TimeforChange

Leonard Lance Looks Away

Leonard Lance likes to position himself as a man of integrity. Yet he remains silent on ethical issues surrounding his own campaign, and on the moral carnage that is consuming the Presidency. Lance has been substantially outraised by Tom Malinowski in the Congressional race. He was slung a life belt from the Congressional Leadership Fund, Paul Ryan’s SuperPAC, in the form of $2.1 million in media buys. The big donors to CLF are listed here. Personally, I don’t want Sheldon and Miriam Adelson of Las Vegas deciding who should represent NJ7. And if you want to find out who is behind the donors listed as “American Action Network”, good luck. Anonymous donors account for almost half of CLF’s funds. CLF’s first contributions on behalf of Lance feature a scurrilous attempt to paint Malinowski as a supporter of terrorist rights. Further, CLF created a faux-Malinowski website to amplify that message. The Star Ledger called on Lance to denounce this Dark Money-funded jiggery-pokery, but our “man of integrity” claims his hands are tied. Now, two Trump associates, his ex-lawyer, and his former campaign manager, emerge from court as felons, guilty of illegal payments, and tax and bank fraud. Can we just let the Times headline sink in? “PLEADING GUILTY, COHEN IMPLICATES PRESIDENT” “In coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office.” We now know from court papers that as far back as August 2016, the owners of the National Enquirer agreed to identify stories potentially damaging to Trump and his campaign and, when necessary, buy the silence of the women who wanted to tell them, a narrative that has been flatly contradicted by the White House for months. This stinks to high heaven. And the response from our “man of integrity”? Nothing, even when called upon by the Star Ledger. Aesop said “a man is known by the company he keeps.” By aligning completely with an immoral and dishonest President, by wading in the muck with CLF, Leonard Lance tells us everything he would rather we not know about his character. Silent. Weak. Complicit. #RememberinNovember #NJ07

What does white complicity look like?

[NOTE: Following the enactment of racist border policies, the discovery of white supremacist flyers and posters throughout our congressional district, and the lack of leadership from Congressman Lance on this issue, we have solicited blog posts from activists and concerned people about the issues. If you would like to add your voice to the discussion, please contact us.] What does it mean for a white person today to look at white onlookers in an old photograph of a lynching? One piece in the recent Racial Imaginary Institute exhibit in New York City On Whiteness asks us this very question. I just visited this exhibit during its final week, and while there were many thought-provoking works, The Wonder Gaze (St James Park) by Ken Gonzales-Day has stayed with me (see his website for the image http://kengonzalesday.com/on-whiteness/). It is a giant photograph of part of an original photograph of a lynching, and we only see the people who attended, or perhaps even participated in the lynching, not the person who was lynched. White people who stand in front of this giant photograph are forced to look in a mirror of sorts. We ask: who are these people? The answers present several challenges that white people must confront if we are to dismantle white supremacy.

Paul Ryan Creates Fake Website to Support Lance and to Deceive Constituents in CD7

Millions of Americans were exposed to fake Facebook ads and posts generated by Russian operatives who sought to influence voter behavior and exploit division in America before the 2016 election. Intelligence Agencies are warning that this will continue and warn it is expected to escalate as we move closer to the midterm elections. The voting public has heard the words “fake news” more than any fair minded person can tolerate. I think we can all agree that enough is enough. We deserve better than this. NJ7 Citizens for Change discovered that GOP House Leader Paul Ryan’s Super PAC (The Congressional Leadership Fund) has created a FAKE WEBSITE at the domain www.malinowskiforjersey.com. This website is deceptively disguised as the true site for his opponent, Tom Malinowski. The purpose of the deceptive domain is to malign his opponent with false claims and more negative ads. The Congressional Leadership Fund is also running attack ads on television.

Silent Acceptance of Racism: Lance and the Trump Administration

Last Saturday night, I was headed uptown on the D train, crowded with other passengers heading home after a night out. As usual, I was struck by the incredible diversity of my fellow passengers. African Americans, Africans, Latinos, South Asians, East Asians, Europeans, chattering, texting, flirting, or just minding their business. No confederate flags, no neoNazis. Just New Yorkers getting along with their lives. Is this so hard? As Rodney King asked, Can’t we all get along? The question came fresh into my mind after watching Spike Lee’s great new movie, “BlacKkKlansman,” on Sunday, the anniversary of Heather Heyer’s death in Charlottesville. The movie “fast forwards” to the horrible events of that weekend to ask how far have we come, how far back have we fallen? Our President is a racist to his fingertips, who managed to find moral equivalence between those who marched under a Nazi flag, and those who chose to protest its presence. A President who a year later could not condemn racism without adding a dog whistle to his supporters who believe whites are the targets of racists. A President whose gesture of reconciliation was to entertain “Bikers for Trump” at his Bedminster golf course. Those who think the President’s words do not have consequences should ask themselves why is hate speech on the rise, why is anti-semitism resurgent? The President emboldens those who, once threatened by the election of an African-American President, are now empowered by his successor’s words and actions. And we don’t have to look far in our district for evidence of a Trump effect. All over Lance country, in Bedminster, Bernardsville, Branchburg, Bridgewater, Chatham, Gladstone, Hillsborough and Morristown, and on campuses at Princeton, Rutgers and Raritan Valley, a racist, white supremacy group has been posting recruiting materials on telegraph poles and street signs. Just as we can be proud that the “Unite the Right” march in DC yesterday was massively outnumbered, so we should be proud of our citizens who responded here by forming the Community Values Coalition to counter this muck. In NJ07, we know the answer to Rodney King’s question. “Yes we can!” Congressman Lance recently shared a few forceless words on Twitter on this subject. Unfortunately, he is consistently unable to directly speak out against the racism in his own party or, more importantly, to this President. His blind eye is how he earned the nickname #WeakStanceLance and this is why our district must vote for CHANGE in November. #RememberinNovember #NJ07