Bill Spadea celebrates 31 years with his wife Jodi

For nearly forty years now, my wife Jodi and I have been friends and partners.

We met in college at Boston University in 1987, yes, in the '80s! For the next seven years we were friends, good friends, but didn't have our first date until after I got out of Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island and basic infantry training at Camp Johnson.

Married in 1994 in Providence, Rhode Island, our relationship, partnership and marriage bond has only gotten stronger. After meeting Jodi, many people see why I've used the cliche, my better half, often!

I'm blessed and know it.

From the Marine Corps to Married Life in New Jersey

Throughout our 31 years of marriage, we've lived in Washington DC and Four counties across the Garden State. We started in Cape May County, then moved to Gloucester County, where we bought our first home. Then after accepting a job in Morristown, we moved to Warren County.

I drew a circle around the office and tried to buy within an hour commute of the job.

We settled for a 75-minute+ commute to find a house within budget! In 2004, we moved to Princeton, Mercer County.

A Political Journey Rooted in the Garden State

That was the year we decided to move into the 12th Congressional District so I could challenge Democratic incumbent Congressman Rush Holt. Although technically, you only have to live in the state in which you are running, I wanted to move in so I could add two more primary votes and settle into a place I knew we could represent well in Washington.

Although that race did not work out, I exceeded expectations, and it really launched my career.

Losing is not easy, and yes, I say that fresh off a loss in the recent race for Governor, but with a true lifetime partner, you can overcome life's trials and adversities, and decide together to take on some new ones, stay tuned for that.

We love the challenges of life and enjoy the battles together, knowing that life isn't supposed to be a walk in the park. Challenges certainly make you appreciate the good times and the benefits of being able to wake up and go to sleep every day with your best friend.

Why We’re Staying and Fighting for New Jersey’s Future

We're also happy to have stayed in Princeton to raise our family and build our businesses. Princeton is a great community, diverse, interesting, and full of opportunity and things to do, especially the selection of restaurants.

We have also been blessed to have two great kids and now a son-in-law. If you listen to the show, you know our kids grew up in Jersey, attended and graduated high school in our great public school system, and now live 8 time zones apart!

It's the irony of raising strong, independent-minded kids, they will go out and find their own path!

The good news is that Jersey is pretty much in the middle, with Michael in Southern California and Elizabeth and Charlie in London. The whole family is going to be in Jersey for the Thanksgiving holiday. I'll have a full report on Charlie the butcher's 'three-day gravy'.

Jodi and I love New Jersey and are proud to have made it our permanent home. Although there is a lot of work to do to fix the business climate, the tax and regulatory burden and the spiraling cultural issues brought in by radical woke Leftists, we aren't going anywhere.

We know that if we can solve some of the more obvious problems in education funding, energy production, business overregulation, and infrastructure development, it could be a place where our kids —and yours —come back and settle in to build their own foundations.

It's a great feeling to be able to actually grow roots, dig a foundation (choose your analogy) in one place with one person.

We are happy, blessed and truly looking forward to what God has planned for the next 31 years!

Happy Anniversary to my beautiful bride, here's to what's next!