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CRANBURY: Holt hosts town hall forum in Cranbury

By Jovelle Tomayo, Special Writer
   CRANBURY — U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, D-12, held a public town hall-style meeting Saturday in Cranbury during which he talked with residents on various topics.
   Though the meeting room offered room for only 49 people, about 60, including members of the Township Committee, attended the event. The overflow audience listened in from speakers in the building’s hallway.
   Before introducing Mr. Holt, Cranbury Mayor David Cook said town hall-style meetings are a way to help the congressman understand the world, District 12 and what affects citizens on a local level.
   ”Small towns like Cranbury know we need bigger and larger powers than just ourselves,” Mr. Cook said.
   Mr. Cook said Mr. Holt’s office has been helpful and accessible with big issues, including Hurricane Irene. He stressed that if audience members did not have the opportunity to ask their questions during the meeting, they should contact Mr. Holt’s office for a direct response.
   Voters will see the incumbent face Republican Eric Beck, of South Brunswick, in the November election.
   Mr. Beck, a Dayton resident, told the Post in July that in order for him to win the election, the focus must be on jobs and economic growth.
   ”(My opponent) believes only the government can create jobs,” Mr. Beck said in a July 28 interview. “That’s because he doesn’t understand the entrepreneurial class.”
   Mr. Holt said he believes the core of job creation should be in the local sphere.
   ”Clearly, creating jobs is something that has to happen at a community level and a state level, but there are certainly things the federal government can do and, I think, should do to create jobs directly and indirectly,” Mr. Holt said.
   Mr. Holt said the nation must restore the sense it has advanced by balancing competing interests through the ingenuity of the Constitution.
   ”When we’ve got 310 million ideas in this country about how we should spend our time and money, that’s a prescription for either chaos or bloodshed — or both,” Mr. Holt said. “All Americans want an education for their kids so they can have a better quality of life than we had. All of us want to be defended from external foes. All of us want to have clean air to breath and water to drink. There are things that we can do better together than we can do separately, and we’re willing to pay for it.”
   Other subjects that were addressed included values, federal spending and health care.
   Mr. Holt left promptly after the event for another town hall-style meeting scheduled in Ewing, Mercer County.