Why I Voted for Sue Altman

I have been a lifelong resident of NJ and have great respect for former Governor Kean. I am grateful that his son pursued public service. I voted for Tom Kean Jr. during the last election.

However, it is becoming clear that the government is becoming increasingly unconcerned with working-class and middle-class families, and both parties are to blame. I did not vote for either major party option for the presidential seat and none of the options for our local town council because of how disgusted I’ve become with their cosmetic, bubble gum, divorced from facts sound-bytes, let the money do all the talking approach to politics.  

Sue Altman has a career fighting for working-class and middle-class families. She advocated for responsible tax increases on wealthy households. It bothers me (and it should bother you) that folks can collect multiple houses and luxury cars playing the Wall Street casino in one of the wealthiest states in the country while homelessness is increasing.    It should also bother you that our tone-deaf state government approved millions to fund AI initiatives (taking jobs away from people) while removing tax breaks for families purchasing school supplies.  

The allegations being made (in ads) that she wants to decriminalize all illegal drugs are not only untrue but extraordinarily harmful – because it throws the discussion back into a polarized debate that saw billions advancing a drug war that led to people getting locked up for victimless crimes and moves the issue of substance dependence away from what it is – a healthcare concern. This was one of the most irresponsible allegations against Altman from the Kean campaign.

Most importantly, Altman is precisely the kind of antidote we need to New Jersey’s rampant corruption.  Those clips Kean runs showing her “out of control”? Many were taken when she was thrown out of hearings for calling out Democrats on their corrupt ties with George Norcross.  She’s been a fierce critic of the new OPRA law, pushed by Scutari and Sarlo, which stripped away crucial tools that working- and middle-class families, as well as journalists, rely on to hold local governments accountable and expose corruption.  Altman has demonstrated that she isn’t afraid to go against a party machine that favors powerful bosses and hands their candidates unfair advantages at the voting booth. She’s been fighting for a fairer, more transparent system before ever running for office – that’s a matter of record.

Given the current context, it may be fair to say that an evidence-based, pro-working, middle-class, pro-transparency candidate is “radical.”

It’s not so much that Kean is a bad candidate as that Sue Altman is the kind of person we need in office at this time.