THANK YOU 22ND LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT

I want to take this opportunity to thank all the voters in the City of Plainfield and the 22nd District. I feel I ran a clean campaign, running on issues, having nothing negative to say about neither the Republican Party nor my opponents.

As we all know on an off-year election, we have a very hard time getting voters out to the polls. But the ones that did come out, it is obvious that they still believe in the local and State Democratic Party. Although leadership on the State level will change, I will still be Chairman of Housing and Local Government, and Speaker Pro Tempore. This will be my 11th term as a member of the New Jersey State Assembly.

This whole campaign, whether it was the Mayor and administration, or the Council, I have given them the respect in terms of not getting involved with how they run the City, and I will continue to take that position. My job is to represent the 22nd District, and as Party chairman, to get people elected.

Unfortunately, in reading some of the blogs, I remember the times when I would get upset or respond negatively when someone goes out of their way to ignore my accomplishments and embarrass me. I want to congratulate my opponents, because some of these comments they have no control of. But in a few blogs, they mention I won in the 22nd District by 4,000 votes.

In an off-year, that is a lot of votes. They mention how Linda Stender received 700 more votes than I received. If you look at the results from Middlesex, we ran very close together. If you look at the votes from Somerset County, you will see we ran closely together. If you look at the votes in Linden and Rahway, you will see that we ran very close together.

So if you take the towns, including part of Plainfield, wherein people were letting me know they received calls reminding them that I was no different than Obama and we were the reason why the country is in bad shape; I find this very offensive. These calls were made by a group of individuals who called into Scotch Plains, Clark, and the Sleepy Hollow section of Plainfield.

So if you take away from these areas that these individuals used the race card, then Linda and I received the same amount of votes in the 22nd District. This is nothing new to me; this has been going on for the past 10 years. But I am taking the time now to let the public know that I am well aware, and I cannot fault anyone.

I am very proud to have worked with the New Democrats as well as the Mayor, in putting our differences aside and getting the job done. It is a shame that these individuals have so much hate in their hearts that they cannot even give the City credit for being a part of one the best campaigns run in recent history.

I am hoping that the Mayor and New Democrats do not feed into this nonsense. As of today, I am moving forward in getting our President re-elected.

Four years ago, when these groups felt the same way about Obama, that is when I stopped taking it personal. They need to wake up and smell the coffee. They have a man of color that is the President of the United States, and one of their candidates running for President is a man of color. So it is obvious that when people makes such statements, that the public is not interested in that sort of talk anymore.

Every year, I have been able to win more and more support within the 2nd Ward. This year, I was very pleased with my support out of the 2nd Ward. I might have ran some votes behind Linda Stender, but just the mere fact that my opponent during the course of her campaign mentioned that she was born and raised in the 22nd District, but failed to mention that she lived in Plainfield.

I live in Plainfield; I love Plainfield and am very proud of Plainfield. I hope everyone can continuously come together to move Plainfield in the right direction.

These blogs that try to intimidate and threaten the New Democrats who supported Column A, not just Jerry Green, are insulting to the people of Plainfield.

So to Doc and Rob, it is time to wake up; this is not 1960, and people are tired of hiding behind the ability to turn the clock back. The Democratic Party as a whole will not always agree, but at least we have the county talking about the great job we have done in moving the City in the right direction.

So anyone interested in working to re-elect President Obama, please reach out for me, for I will be putting my energies into that as well as my job in Trenton.

So moving forward, just like today, I will refuse to get into the gutter and get involved with that sort of politics that the national Republican Party is into. This shows you what they will do to a man if he is not the pick of their choice.