Don’t Be A Mope, Please Go and Vote!

This is an off year election, and it will prove what the conventional wisdom is.  That is-the few will decide for the many.  And to give a nod to the former Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill, it was he who said that all politics is local.

Voting in an off year election takes work.  Unless you’re a political wonk, you probably don’t know who the candidates are,  and the seats they’re for which they’re running. 

But guess what!  They’re the ones who will decide how you’re your property tax bill will be affected, whether or not you’ll have more neighbors to deal with as open space becomes more of a premium; or any of the minute local issues that come up during the course of any given year.

It takes work….but then again, so does democracy.

In my district, the 12^th, the one overriding issue is that of trying to save the horseracing industry, and the many farms that dot the district, accounting for hundreds of jobs.  We're already in the process of losing one farm, with who knows how many more trying to decide if New Jersey is as viable to their business as it once was.

I realize that horseracing may be a harbinger of days gone by, and that horseracing itself appeals to an “older” demographic”; but to see farms leave the state, along with it the jobs that make up a good part of our economic base, is almost tantamount to Detroit losing the automobile industry. 

That’s why, despite all the candidates giving lip service to my concerns, I’ll still go to the polls in the hope that I’ve made the right choice.

Hopefully you will too!

And besides, the seniors that man the polls serve up that nice Enntemann’s coffee cake, and are always happy to have someone else with whom to talk!