This afternoon I had an opportunity to meet with the Republican Gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie. I listened very politely when he was asked what he would do if elected for cities such as Plainfield and the like. After listening to his response, I introduced myself as Assemblyman Jerry Green, representative of the 22nd District.
My first question to Mr. Christie was, “Since no one on a national level has dealt with the day-worker issue, as well as himself being US Attorney for eight years, if elected, what would he do to deal with this problem, which is the number one problem facing the downtown area of Plainfield?” Mr. Christie never gave me an answer. My second question to him was, “With the comments he made regarding affordable housing here in the State of New Jersey, he mentioned that he would build more low-income housing units in cities like Plainfield.”
At this point, I disagreed with him. I believe Plainfield has its share of affordable housing(which includes low-income housing). He never mentioned what type of housing he would recommend for suburban communities, such as like in Morris County, where he lives. This is nothing new to me personally, because low-income housing in suburban communities is not housing units Republican leaders want in their backyards.
I was very surprised to hear from him the lack of a plan in how to deal with cities such as Plainfield. Once these questions went unanswered by Mr. Christie, he decided to walk away. Therefore, it is obvious that Mr. Christie does not have a plan to move cities like Plainfield forward.
One of my opponents, former mayor Marty Marks who is running on the Republican line for the 22nd District, decided to get involved in the conversation. The first comment, which has been one that everyone in the medical industry acknowledges I was not the problem, by him was the closing of Muhlenberg. When it comes down to servicing people and keeping hospitals open, the buck stopped with George Bush, who went to sleep at the switch. It is obvious that the Republicans are trying to use that angle to blame myself, Aswm. Stender, and Gov. Corzine for the closure of the hospital, which is not true.
The second issue in our conversation was school funding. The new formula that I supported that funds education for ALL children, and not just Plainfield, again an issue the Republicans in Trenton did not support, even when it helped children in districts such as Scotch Plains for example. There were just as many students in Scotch Plains that received special education and language barrier support as there were in Plainfield, but these are issues that my opponents and Chris Christie care nothing about.
After listening to the Republican candidates today, they want to paint a picture that the Democrats, not the George Bush Republicans, are responsible for all of the problems resonating in New Jersey. Today I heard no solutions to the problems New Jersey is facing, no plans to be put in place to deal with quality of life issues. Therefore I am confident that the voters in New Jersey, especially those in Plainfield, will see through the negative campaign that will be run by the Republicans here in New Jersey.
I thought by now that the Republicans would have learned their lesson from last year’s campaign. When their whole campaign was run on lies and misinformation. Today, I witnessed firsthand, my opponent who I feel is hoping he can blame the Democrats for all the problems in New Jersey while forgetting about the eight years George Bush took in putting us into this predicament.
Ps
I want to take this opportunity to thank the people in Plainfield and the surrounding communities who have signed up to participate in President Obama’s rally to support Governor Jon Corzine. We have over 400 people who have signed up to be at this rally. Out of the eleven buses leaving Union County, eight of them will be coming from Plainfield. So it is going to take more than Chris Christie showing up in Plainfield to convince the public that they are better off with a Christie/Obama relationship versus a Corzine/Obama relationship. If today’s showing is any example of how the people in Plainfield is going to vote, by the 1st of November, people will see the Corzine/Obama relationship is the best thing here for the people in the State of New Jersey.
Here we have 400 people that want to attend a rally, and today, the only people in the downtown area to meet with Chris Christie were the news media. I am confident that he realizes that coming into Plainfield, as a Republican running for office is a huge mistake.
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