Rep. Holt used the Internet to field questions from three sites, including the Lambertville Public Library.
By: Audrey Levine
LAWRENCEVILLE Rep. Rush Holt (D-12), an advocate for using the latest technology, took his own advice when he used the Internet to announce his reelection campaign with a live announcement and online question-and-answer session May 22 at Rider University.
He discussed several issues he plans to focus on during the campaign, including domestic spying and using alternative energy sources to preserve fossil fuels for the future.
The 12th Congressional District he represents includes portions of Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth and Somerset counties.
"If re-elected, I will continue to listen, weigh the evidence, take tough stands regardless of political fallout and think ahead to deal with issues before they become crises," he said to an assembled crowd of about 40 students and political figures at Rider’s Bristol-Myers Squibb Center for Science and Technology.
Instead of merely taking questions from the participants at Rider, Rep. Holt turned to the Internet and fielded questions from people at three different wireless Internet hot spots around central New Jersey Panera Bread in Freehold, the Lambertville Public Library and the Plainsboro Public Library.
"I am using the Web to show that this job depends on soliciting input from all over," Rep. Holt said after the event. "This is the way politics and governing should be done, with more outreach."
Using the weblog, or blog, www.bluejersey.net, participants asked Rep. Holt about adding a paper backup trail to electronic voting machines and bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq. Those joining him at Rider University could see the questions and the congressman’s responses projected on a screen at the front of the room while he sat a computer typing out replies.
One woman at the Plainsboro Public Library asked whether it would be possible for Congress to pass legislation requiring legal immigrant workers be paid the minimum wage.
"There has been some discussion of setting a minimum, but I suspect that in any proposal that might find its way to the floor for a vote, there will not be good wage protection," Rep. Holt responded in the blog. "More generally about immigration we need a practical and humane path to earned citizenship. We need a more reliable system for keeping track of those who want to come and those who enter the U.S. We need to have laws that are enforceable, and then we must enforce them."
Rep. Holt said he welcomes comments or questions about his work in Congress and emphasized he will respond to any mail he receives.
"It often seemed that congressmen were out of touch with the people," he said. "This is a representative government and for me to represent you, I need to hear from you."
Rep. Holt of Hopewell Township is making his fifth bid for the House of Representatives. He was first elected in 1998.
His Republican opponent is Joseph S. Sinagra of Helmetta.
Mr. Sinagra is vice chairman of the Helmetta Republican Party and is CEO of My Plumber Inc. He is employed as a facilities manager by Miele in South Brunswick

