Dispatches from M.Emory Layne – Give Me One Good Reason

By Emory Layne

Campaign signs for the local Democrats have appeared around town recently, now that the full slate was finalized with the addition of Larry LaRonde.

It’s odd, since the Democratic incumbents rushed through legislation limiting the time allowed for campaign sign displays (during a period when the Republican slate was full and ready for campaigning), only repealing that portion of the new sign ordinance when Robert Gatto and the NJ-ACLU pushed back against the First Amendment free speech violations, shortly before the Democratic slate was full and ready for campaigning.

Hypocrisy.

If you put a campaign sign in front of your house, you’re publicly supporting those candidates, and so far, I haven’t seen a lawn with both Democratic and Republican signs on it.  Putting a sign out means encouraging passersby to vote for that slate too.

So I’m asking for one good reason to vote for the Democrats, from the people with Democratic signs.

The candidates themselves aren’t giving that reason. Their campaign flier is essentially a photocopy of the same one reproduced every two or four years – same rhetorical handling of the same issues (“stabilize but never reduce taxes, obtain grants, address property maintenance violations, revitalize downtown, seek shared services”) and no mention of Villa Maria, identified waste in Borough Hall spending and self-dealing by Borough employees.

At the first Meet the Candidates Night in May, they boycotted and sent paper proxies with the same repetitive nonsense. At the second Meet the Candidates Night in August, Stabile and Giordano attended and restated the same mantras, adding bits of information that were, at best, confusing and, at worst, lies, i.e., Stabile claiming Borough Hall renovations are “not over-budget.”

They don’t participate in open discussion on this blog. There’s been an endless complaint that this blog is “partisan,” yet representatives of “the other side” have strenuously avoided joining in the intelligent discussions here.

And while blogs and webpages are free to start and easy to use, the Democrats don’t have one; they haven’t even created an uncontested, totally partisan forum in which to present their views.

Since the candidates won’t give the voters one good reason to vote for them, I’m asking residents who have put Democrat signs on their lawns to step up – real name or blog name, I don’t care. I just want the one good reason.

Not gossip reasons, like in past years, about why not to vote for Republicans. Some of the randomist unfounded gossip lines: prior GOP candidates allegedly “wanted to tear down all the apartments in North Plainfield,” were “racists; anti [insert racial category here],” or – my favorite – “had a drinking problem.”

None of these “reasons” dealt with important issues. But the gossip started somewhere, if not with the Democratic candidates, then their supporters. I need more than a lawn sign or a whispered rumor to influence me to vote for those candidates.

Please write in, with a thousand reasons, or one. I don’t want to argue your point either. I just want to hear it. If you “don’t trust” the blog editor, send your message to me at emorylayne@comcast.net.