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Truck driver leads NJ Senate president after spending $153 on campaign

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Re: Truck driver leads NJ Senate president after spending $153 on campaign

#3
post #2

Any (relatively) unbiased sources that explain how NJ got into this predicament? Just current leadership being out of touch with the wants/needs of NJ citizens?

My gut take is that the removal of the SALT deduction had a huge impact in NJ due to the very high property taxes

Re: Truck driver leads NJ Senate president after spending $153 on campaign

#4
post #2

Any (relatively) unbiased sources that explain how NJ got into this predicament? Just current leadership being out of touch with the wants/needs of NJ citizens?

Predicament? A regular Joe beat a career politician for local representative. In what world is that a predicament?

Or are you so completely partisan that having an R next to his name makes him obviously the wrong choice, even though he was liberal enough to be palatable to New Jersey voters (not exactly a paragon of conservatism)?

Re: Truck driver leads NJ Senate president after spending $153 on campaign

#5
post #2

Any (relatively) unbiased sources that explain how NJ got into this predicament? Just current leadership being out of touch with the wants/needs of NJ citizens?

There is an interesting story about Madigan in Chicago. Ran the Illinois machine. Corrupt as all hell. A college student decided to run against him and collected enough signatures to get on the ballot. Madigan typically ran unopposed. Well come to find about, of the 500 people who signed the petition to get this kid on the ballot, 1200 rescinded their support.

You do the math. These people aren't loved. They just know how to work the system to keep the outsiders out. The article says in a district of 150k, the NJ Senate President never received more than 30k votes. 20% of the population was dictating policy. Its no surprise that, when given the choice, people will vote their preference.

Re: Truck driver leads NJ Senate president after spending $153 on campaign

#6
post #2

Any (relatively) unbiased sources that explain how NJ got into this predicament? Just current leadership being out of touch with the wants/needs of NJ citizens?

My gut take is that the removal of the SALT deduction had a huge impact in NJ due to the very high property taxes

I doubt the vast majority of people (probably less than 10%) in NJ are paid enough to be affected by SALT since standard deduction went up so much. Property plus state income tax liabilities would have to be more than $12.5k/$25k single/married for people to have been affected.

I would bet on school closings and the trend of higher taxes/less government services, but the latter is unavoidable due to the outlier amounts of debt NJ has.

Re: Truck driver leads NJ Senate president after spending $153 on campaign

#7
post #2

Any (relatively) unbiased sources that explain how NJ got into this predicament? Just current leadership being out of touch with the wants/needs of NJ citizens?

Something was mentioned about 150k total voters, but only 32k ever voted for the incumbent.

Re: Truck driver leads NJ Senate president after spending $153 on campaign

#10
post #2

Any (relatively) unbiased sources that explain how NJ got into this predicament? Just current leadership being out of touch with the wants/needs of NJ citizens?

The 2020 election mobilized certain demographics in NJ to vote, and there's been a moderately successful campaign to paint the sitting governor as literally Hitler for the last two years.
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