Bordentown native amps up local campaign

Incumbent Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th) also eyes area appearances this fall

By Stephanie Prokop, Staff Writer
BORDENTOWN CITY— While millions of Americans tuned in to watch the Democratic National Convention last week, Josh Zeitz, the Democratic candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in the 4th Congressional District, said he is also listening — both to the speeches and to local voters.
    The 34-year-old native Bordentonian, running against longtime incumbent Republican Rep. Chris Smith, said last week he will host forums and attend town hall meetings until the November election to talk to people in the area about issues that are important to them.
    Mr. Zeitz will next be speaking to residents in the Florence area on Sept. 24. As of Tuesday, time of the meeting had not yet been determined.
    Mary Noonan, Rep. Smith’s campaign spokeswoman, said Rep. Smith also plans to meet with residents in the district but his schedule had not yet been finalized Tuesday.
    Further details about his upcoming appearances may be available at www.chrissmith.house.gov.
    “I’ve met thousands of people,” Mr. Zeitz said on Aug. 28 of his visits to parts of Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth, and Ocean counties — portions of which make up the 4th Congressional District. “And I’ve come to know hundreds,” he said.
    Mr. Zeitz, a former history teacher who is now campaigning full-time, said the point of his campaigning all comes down to one question: “Are you better off right now than you were eight years ago?”
    If the answer, is, indeed ‘yes,’ said Mr. Zeitz, he encourages people not to vote for him.
    When asked if he thinks he would be a better choice than the incumbent, Mr. Zeitz responded succinctly that he feels as though “27 years is enough.”
    Issues that are at the forefront of peoples’ minds, particularly in Burlington County, are as varied as the geographic map that the 4th Congressional District encompasses, he said.
    Topping his concerns are the rising cost of health care, and addressing the availability of it to those who can’t afford it.
    “Currently, there are 47 million uninsured people, and the current plans that are available to people are expensive and substandard,” said Mr. Zeitz.
    One of his campaign promises is to purchase his own health care from an independent provider instead of taking the health care options that most $165,000-a-year salaried congressmen have. Adding to that concern, he said, is a collective feeling among a lot of voters that “the economy is crashing down around us.”
    With summer winding down, Mr. Zeitz said his camp has been manning the phones at his campaign’s three offices in Brick, Hamilton, and Bordentown City, reaching out to voters who are undecided.
    He said that his campaign has a lot of college students and senior citizens volunteering in the summer, accounting for a good chunk of the campaign’s approximate 1,000 rotating volunteer roster.
    “It’s really an enormous field operation, and to date, (it) has been tremendously effective,” he said last week, adding that part of that field operation has been reaching out to secure funds to get a mass mailing out in the fall, estimated to cost about $360,000.
    Locally, Mr. Zeitz said that he wants the federal government to address funding problems hampering the cleanup at Florence’s former Roebling Steel Mill site.
    He said that residents are frustrated by the lack of priority that the site receives and he thinks that the property, a Superfund site which closed in 1974, is in need of revitalization.
    He cited the relative recent economic boom that Bordentown City saw after the NJ Transit River LINE train station was built there and said that if enough congressional representation is heard, then Roebling, which also has a light rail station on the line, could be enjoying the same regional connectivity.
    Many young adults have become passionate about getting involved and donating their time to the campaign, he said.
    “This has been (incredibly) positive,” said Mr. Zeitz, who said he primarily considers himself an educator, having taught in classrooms at Cambridge, Harvard, and Rutgers University.
    Mr. Zeitz has said before that he plans on returning to the classroom after any time he spends in Congress.
    Mr. Zeitz said he is determined to live in the district he hopes to represent, and cited the example of Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joseph Biden, who trekked from Washington, D.C., to his home in Delaware almost every night.
    “On the nights when there’s a late vote, I would crash with one of my family members who lives down there,” Mr. Zeitz said, but added that he intends on returning to his home in Bordentown City as soon as he can.
    “If you (choose) not to live here once in office, then you are no longer representing your neighbors, because they are no longer your neighbors,” he said in a previous statement.
    Mr. Zeitz said he mailed a personal letter to his opponent encouraging Rep. Smith to engage in an open debate in each of the district’s four counties, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the historic Lincoln-Douglas debates.
    “The rising cost of food, gas, health care, and education is hurting many working families,” wrote Mr. Zeitz. “People have a right to know how each of us proposes to address these grave problems, and they have a right to challenge us in a public forum.”
    Mr. Zeitz said that the incumbent declined to debate these issues in public, and will instead by focusing on visiting a variety of large and small forums until the election.
    Up next, Mr. Zeitz will be visiting a variety of homes for house parties, town hall forums, and other regional meetings to “engage voters in a serious discussions” about regional and national topics.
    Anyone interested in finding out where Mr. Zeitz will be speaking next can visit www.joshzeitz.com.
The 4th Congressional District includes the Burlington County communities of Bordentown Township, Bordentown City, Chesterfield, Fieldsboro, Florence, Springfield, and Mansfield.