2007 Election Summary

Written by: Paul Eisenman on Nov 8, 2007 6:58 PM EST

2007 Election Summary

The 2007 election campaign ended on Tuesday with mostly predictable results. The statewide turnout of about 35% is fairly typical for an off-year election in which the highest office on the ballot is a Senate seat in the State Legislature.

For Bergen Grassrooters, the biggest story was the election in District 37. After a bruising primary period in June, when BCDO Boss Joe Ferriero threatened to run a slate of candidates against them, Loretta Weinberg and her Real Bergen Democrats easily won re-election, Loretta by a 75-25 margin. Her running mates Valerie Vainieri Huttle and Gordon Johnson also won, although Gordon appears to have received a mild slap on the wrist—in the shape of fewer votes than Valerie—for his acknowledgment that he had given almost $2,000 to the perennial presidential candidate and convicted felon Lyndon LaRouche over 2005 and 2006. To their credit, Loretta and Valerie did not defend him blindly, expressing disappointment about his judgment and pointing instead to his excellent voting record in the Legislature.

If you read our endorsement notice a few days ago, you know that the Bergen Grassroots Steering Committee concluded it could not endorse the Democratic candidates for Freeholder and for Senate and Assembly in the other Bergen legislative districts because it is overwhelmingly apparent that these officeholders and candidates count their loyalty to Joe Ferriero well above their obligations to their constituents. We think we proved that during the campaign. The three Freeholder candidates won, as did the Paul Sarlo slate in District 36 and the Robert Gordon slate in District 38. In 39, incumbent Gerald Cardinale, an easy-to-define conservative, defeated Democrat Joe Ariyan by some 12 points, despite tons of money "wheeled" into the district by Ferriero and others.

In another very expensive contest in Monmouth County, considered to be the top of the card in New Jersey this time around, Democratic incumbent Senator Ellen Karcher lost her seat to Republican challenger Jennifer Beck. As in the Cardinale-Ariyan campaign, the GOP was outspent 6 to 1, but the Republicans candidates won by a comfortable margin. In both cases, very little of substance was discussed.

In Englewood, Charlotte Bennett Schoen won handily, continuing a circumstance in which our good guys dominate governmental life while...

In Bergenfield, the Real Bergen Democrats slate of Tim Driscoll for mayor, Bruce Carlson for re-election to the Council and Barry Doll for Council won handily, simply certifying their miracle run in the June primary, when they whipped three Ferrierocrats, earning the nomination of the Democratic Party. Thus begins a new life of transparency for the residents of Bergenfield. Good for them.

We were disappointed that two candidates we supported in Hasbrouck Heights—Carol Skiba for Mayor and Helayne Weiss for Council—were unsuccessful. We know they'll continue the fight, particularly Carol, who has told us a number of times she wants Boss Joe's head on a plate. I'm confident she's not a quitter.

We also have an active interest in Edgewater, where the Independent Coalition for a Better Edgewater fights tenaciously with a Mayor and Council dominated by Ferrierocrats. Last night, our guys won one of three seats, creating a new balance of 3-3 on the Council. Unfortunately, the Mayor, chief of the Ferrierocrats, provides the deciding vote, but this is a feisty, civic-minded group and I'm confident we'll be hearing from them again.

I assume you all know that the public questions One and Two were defeated. Question One tried to tie up one penny of the sales tax for property tax relief and Question Two sought to use public funds to underwrite stem cell research. Both lost 54-46. Question Three provided funds for open space projects for one year. It passed by a 53 to 47 margin. Apparently, the voters seemed to be saying: "Don't ask us about how to manage money until you have the economy in order." Fortunately, they made an exception in favor of their surroundings, going against the trend of the other two by approving funds to continue preservation of open space. Question Four asked us for permission to remove the words "idiot" and "insane" from the New Jersey Constitution. It passed easily, of course, but the fact is that about 40% of our state's voters said "no," which tends to trivialize all the other "no" votes. If they didn't read Question Four, can we be certain they read the others? Paul Eisenman's letter to the editor in the November 8, 2007 edition of The Record raises the question.

Finally, we'd like to set the stage for the months ahead by reporting something Loretta said in a recent candidate debate. As reported in Charlie Stile's column in The Record, she said, "I want my party to start having a platform again. I want my party to start talking about things that are important. I want my party to be about something other than a moneymaking machine so that they can go on New York, Philadelphia television. I want us to talk about issues, what we stand for and why we stand for it." Charlie added, "Unfortunately, that kind of sentiment didn't play much of a role in this fall's campaign, in which New Jersey Democrats spent close to $40 million in special-interest cash to retain majority control of the Legislature. And some experts doubt that it will help to shape the agenda of the next Legislature, either."

One cannot second-guess Mr. Stile's pessimism; past performance supports it. But Bergen Grassroots has plans for our home county that will begin to free us from the dictatorship of the pay-to-play system and we expect to see substantial progress toward our goal in the months ahead.

The Bergen Grassroots Steering Committee

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Location: Bergen County, NJ