Like so many in New Jersey, we owe a personal debt to our incredible public schools. We also know those schools need real support because we’ve listened.
We’ve heard about the challenges students face every day: smartphone addiction, bullying, cuts to mental health services, and shrinking budgets for arts, sports, and extra curriculars. Our kids also need time to play and grow. Classrooms need more focus on practical, trade, and occupational skills. Parents need reliable early and after-care so they can work. Teachers deserve fair pay, strong benefits, and real backing, not more standardized testing and wasteful evaluations.
We know these things not because a consultant, party boss, or poll told us, but because over the years we’ve knocked on thousands of doors, sat through countless school board meetings, and shown up at community events. We heard it all directly from you.
Unfortunately, our opponents can’t say the same.
Just last week, they funded and appeared on a campaign mailer with their preferred Bridgewater-Raritan school board candidates. It distorted cultural “hot button” issues designed to divide neighbors, not bring them together. Nowhere did it mention the real, urgent problems facing families and schools like the ones we mention.
Let’s be clear: neither opponent lives in Bridgewater, which has three seats up for election this year. To our knowledge, neither has attended recent board meetings or even acknowledged that Bridgewater-Raritan schools have risen in national rankings, now comfortably among New Jersey’s Top 100. So why the fearmongering? Why the misinformation? How can they claim to support public education while working to undermine it?
The contrast couldn’t be clearer. They chose to organize a misleading mailer over an honest Town Hall. They again refused to participate in the League of Women Voters’ debate—just as they did last election—canceling a chance for real discussion about bathrooms, sports, and gender, or how to better serve charter, homeschool, and religious communities. Instead of engaging, they hid.
And let’s not forget; school board elections are supposed to be nonpartisan (N.J.S.A. 19:60-1(b)). Yet our opponents, both sitting elected officials, are actively meddling in them. One has been a key figure in local book banning efforts for years. Their local party has even funded board of education candidates’ signs in neighboring counties. This latest mailer is just another example of using fear to distract voters instead of improving schools, and uniting neighbors.
It’s time for something different.
If you’re ready for honest leadership, real reform, and representatives who actually listen, vote Citron & Powell for State Assembly by November 4th.
We’re fighting for New Jersey. We’re fighting for you.
Learn more at LD23Dems.com