Open Letter to New Jersey Voters

This coming November, the people of New Jersey have a choice to make. We will be asked to vote for who will be the Governor of this state for the next four years. Now to many, this election is no big deal, it is not something they have ever done or think they will ever care about doing. To many the statement echoed most is "they are all the same". As sometimes that may be the case, this election is different. This election, action must be taken or else the slow decline of this state is sure to continue beyond repair.





If there is anyone who is happy with the way that the state of New Jersey has been run the last four years I would love to talk to them. If there is anyone living here who feels that the standard of life in the Garden State has improved over Jon Corzine's tenure I would love to pick their brain and find out how. As bad as things have been in the past, the last four years have brought this state to a new level, to a new low that we can not allow to get worse. Some say that Chris Christie, the Republican candidate running against Corzine brings more of the same, that he is as corrupt as the next person, that he isn't going to be able to make a difference. People are starting to say that they aren't going to vote at all because they don't like either candidate. But these thoughts are so flawed, and they are the kinds of actions (or lack thereof) that will allow this state to continue it's free fall past the fiscal point of no return. The idea that a proven failure is a better choice than a possible failure is ludicrous.



Jon Corzine ran for the office of Governor by campaigning that he was going to lower taxes and help the state of New Jersey get out of fiscal decline and debt because of his financial background and prowess. Instead, what the citizens of this state have gotten is a Governor who several years ago shut all state-run entities, including the casinos, down because he could not pass a fiscal budget through assembly. A Governor who tried to pass a piece of legislature that would hike the tolls on our major highways by nearly 600% over time, when in their inception the tolls were supposed to eventually go away. This Governor has been found to have colluded with the then head of the State Worker's Union, who was at the time also his girlfriend. He has also held back 2008 Property Tax Rebates to help fill the debt in the state budget, and already announced the same will be done to the 2009 rebates. The already ridiculously high alcohol tax has been raised this year, ans property taxes are already planned to be raised in 2010. All of this, while at the same time pandering to the state workers union and teacher's union, without which he would have almost no chance at re-election.



So comes this frightening thought of actually electing a Republican Governor, who during his term as State Attorney has been key in bringing to justice countless public officials on corruption charges. So much of this fear is based on the liberal feelings of most voters in this state. New Jersey is also heavily unionized, most notably the aforementioned teacher's and state worker's unions. And why this fear? It's based on the fact that the Republican party is historically not in favor of pandering to the wants and demands of these unions. But a large part of why the state is in such financial straits is because of the black hole which is union salaries and benefits. The usefulness of unions as a whole, which is a subject in it's own which I will not get into now, has long past us by. Yet for some reason they seem to be a key part of why the great state of New Jersey can not rescue itself.



The key factor in the race for Governor is who is best suited to lead this state in the right direction over the next four years. You can say what you want about one candidate being more corrupt than the other, how this one or that one panders to special interests or takes care of their friends while in office. The bottom line is we have seen what Jon Corzine has done for this state so far. We have seen that he has shied away from confronting his corrupt colleagues, while Chris Christie has brought many of them down. We have seen how Corzine's answer for fixing the hole our over sized government has caused in our budget is to raise taxes for the ever-shrinking middle class, while Christie's plans are to start by downsizing our state government and cut unnecessary spending.



So please, come November make sure that you go out to vote, because without a voice there can be no change. And also remember that you can not predict what someone will do once given the chance, but you can sure know what someone has done over the last four years. Wake up, look around, and see what has been done under Jon Corzine's control, and please do not vote for another four years of it, because chances are we will all be worse off for it in the end...