Eve Niedergang, Princeton
Election Day (Tuesday, Nov. 3) is less than six weeks away. This year, the race at the top of the ticket here in Princeton is for state Assembly, a race that many people — even regular voters — don’t pay much attention to.
But there are real reasons to care about the assembly races and urgent reasons to vote. Gun control would be one relevant example. Recently there were threats at Riverside Elementary School (the school my children attended) and Princeton High School (again, where my children attended). Although, thankfully, those threats and similar ones last year have turned out to be hoaxes, they are frightening nonetheless.
In the wake of Sandy Hook and so many other shootings, I want stricter, sensible controls on firearms in place. Yet our Republican representatives in the state Assembly, Jack Ciattarelli and Donna Simon, don’t share this goal; both of them voted twice (Assembly Bill 2006, May 2014 and A1329 February 2013) against reducing the maximum size of ammunition magazines and in February 2013 they both voted against background checks prior to a firearms purchase.
It’s no wonder that the NRA awarded Donna Simon an A-plus rating and Mr . Ciattarelli a B-plus rating. These proposed restrictions are not radical, but are commonsense solutions to a real problem. Ms. Simon and Mr. Ciattarelli have also failed to support minimum wage increases, spending on women’s health, investigating possible corruption due to Bridgegate, and to prohibit fracking waste from being released into the environment.
But Princeton voters do have an excellent alternative this November in Democrats Andrew Zwicker and Maureen Vella. Mr. Zwicker, a physicist at Princeton University, is committed to making decisions based on evidence and science rather than on ideology. Maureen Vella, a former judge and a practicing mediator, is aware of the real impact that laws have on people and works hard to see all sides of an issue. They will bring a progressive perspective to representing our district in Trenton and help to fight against Chris Christie and the Republicans’ misguided priorities.
This election is likely to have record low turnout. Your vote matters! Please join me in voting for Zwicker and Vella for state Assembly.
Vote by mail by filling out this simple form to request an absentee ballot (http://nj.gov/counties/mercer/officials/clerk/pdf/clerk_votbymailappeng.pdf ) and you won’t have to worry about getting to the polls on Nov. 3.
Eve Niedergang
Princeton
