I’m pleased to support the Cumberland challenger slate as well as @AmyKennedy715 because change can’t wait in SJ. Change in SJ is not an exercise for statewide idealogues. Jack, Donna & Tracy, in Jersey’s poorest county, understand that/1. https://newjerseyglobe.com/fr/cumberland-freeholders-face-challenge-from-incumbent-they-dropped-from-line/

How to achieve meaningful, lasting progressive change in SJ is always on my mind. And the more I think it through in its complexity, the more I think we need to work relentlessly for two things that presently elude us--equity and ethics/2

Though South Jersey is diverse in so many ways, it is also deeply segregated. The legacy of redlining policies and political gerrymandering are visible here in South Jersey. Draconian zoning laws and redevelopment geared towards gentrification have created virtual apartheids/3

The most vulnerable members of our communities are subject to broken window policing, profiling (or worse) and made to internalize the notion that their very existence is a crime. Educational opportunities vary dramatically across municipal lines/4

Even the air we breathe, the water we drink are inequitable as economically disadvantaged communities and communities of color are more likely to have their water privatized and be saddled with heavy polluting industries in their own backyards/5

But we can’t separate our quest for equity from our need for ethic reform here in South Jersey. Pay to politics leave us a poorer region, excluding job opportunities for valid applicants while we overpay for services so ossified leadership can protect their election war chest/6

Machine politics cast George Norcross in the deciding role that should be held by the voters. Officials who use office to further their professional lives enact legislation that exacerbate the inequities in our communities. And Camden still doesn’t have a supermarket!!/7

SJ Progressive Dems, we need to be smart, strategic. We need to step outside our echo chambers and talk to our neighbors. And we need to really listen. If we can’t hear them, they can’t hear us. The work will not always feel good. It will be laborious and involve risk./8

But the reward will be a better region for our families, for our futures. I know we are on the path here to a better, more just South Jersey. And the Cumberland County Freeholder challengers and @AmyKennedy715 are part of that better future for our region!