New Jersey Baby Boomer

It’s local primary day in my State today, and the political signs are everywhere. My husband is on the County Committee for the party we support in our local area, and has just called me to remind me to get out and vote. A privilege and honor that I often take for granted. I was browsing some articles written about our local area, and here’s one I found. I’m not posting it because I agree or disagree with it, just because it shares a bit about the politics of the State this baby boomer lives in.

Jon Corzine’s Compassionate Conservatism

By: Stuart Nachbar

Here in New Jersey, the Garden State, we have a governor who has just proposed to make $500 million in permanent spending cuts, refinance state debt, reduce municipal aid, eliminate two cabinet departments, and introduce tougher standards in math and science education.

These are proposals that you might expect from a Republican, but Jon Corzine is a fiscally conservative, moderate to liberal social issues Democrat. Corzine, a former chief executive of Goldman Sachs, one of the oldest white shoe Wall Street investment firms, governs New Jersey as if he doesn’t need the job. He’s taken his budget on the road to the voters; for the most part the media has shown that they have a tough time swallowing the bitter pill, but they are willing to listen. New Jersey does not have the best reputation for honest politics; two journalists just came out with a book calling Jersey the Sopranos State, but Corzine may be just the man to turn that image around.

There is a difference between Jon Corzine and the so called compassionate conservatives who try to sell tax and spending cuts, as well as standards, and hope things all work out before the next election.

The debate in New Jersey is not over what government should give up, but on what it should do well. Garden Staters north and south place a premium on environmental protection, toll roads and public transportation, given New Jersey is sandwiched between New York City and Philadelphia. We are also a state with over 570 municipal governments and over 600 school districts; local control is sacrament in education more than any other public service.

Corzine is not trying to force feed draconian cuts or impose values on others; he’s raised a debate to tell the legislature and the voters that the state can’t afford to be business as usual. His own proposals are a challenge to Democrats — who control the legislature and Republicans to put up or shut up and come up with a plan. There are services that every state government must perform for its citizens: law enforcement and public safety, judiciary, Medicaid disbursement, K 12 and higher education, maintain state highways, negotiating compacts with other states on transportation and environmental issues, being examples. Then there’s the rest of the budget.

For instance, on the surface, Corzine’s proposals to eliminate the departments of Agriculture and Personnel make more sense than other cuts. Agriculture is but one sector of our state’s economy; it makes no sense to give a cabinet level position to a single industry. We don’t have a secretary of technology or pharmacy. Agriculture is but one plank on an economic development platform in any state government. There’s no need for a state department of personnel when each and every state agency has their own human resource professionals who can align their work, jobs and wages to their agency’s mission. There’s no need for another set of bureaucratic hoops.

When this was proposed I had to wonder: why didn’t a previous governor think of it before? This makes perfect sense.

It’s the kind of creative thinking we need in our state.

(Originally published at Educated Quest blog and reprinted with permission of the author, Stuart Nachbar).

Author Resource:-> Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com, a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicle, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com.

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As we look at the Primaries and Caucuses leading up to the election of our next President, my thoughts turned towards leaders that carried out historic moments here in New Jersey. This post focuses on a government leader who had everything to live for, but his life ended in Weehawken, NJ in a famous duel. His name was Alexander Hamilton. A few of the things he is noted for follow:

• He was born in the West Indies, an illegitimate child to Rachel Fawcett Lavien and James Hamilton.
• He came to America around 1772 and lived in NY
• His guardian hoped to enroll him in College of New Jersey, but he ended up attending what would become Columbia University in New York
• He enlisted in the militia, his skills caught the eye of George Washington who commissioned him as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Continental Army
• He lead a regiment in the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.
• He was an elected member of the Continental Congress
• and his accomplishments go on, including being the first Secretary of Treasury

But the part of his life that capture the imagination, as if all the above isn’t enough, is how his life ended. After leaving the government, Hamilton returned to law. He did not support the leader of the nation at that time, President John Adams, and was against his re-election in 1800. He also did not like Aaron Burr who was running for the Presidency, hoping to win over Thomas Jefferson. Now Hamilton didn’t like Jefferson or his policies, but he decided to support Jefferson over Burr because he didn’t think Burr was a man of principle.

This angered Burr, and he challenged Hamilton to a duel…I thought these were things that you just saw in movies, or Westerns, not actions that were carried out by civilized men, but I am obviously wrong, because Hamilton took Burr up on his challenge. On July 11th of 1804 the two men met in Weehawken, NJ. From accounts that I have read, Hamilton shot his gun into the air, perhaps not wanting to actually do harm, and with his military training and skills, I’m sure he could easily have hit his mark. However, Burr aimed directly at his opponent, and Hamilton died the next day of his wound. He is buried in New York City at Trinity Church Yard.

What surprised me is that the man who was the first Secretary of the Treasury for our country left his wife and his 7 children with a large number of debts that they could not pay, but those debts were paid by friends who appreciated his service our Nation.