New Jersey
Related: About this forumWe finished the last 45 minutes of the debate. Higher education was discussed. Fulop made the point I did about...
...in my previous thread on watching the debate, about Rutgers expenditures on football taking precedence over education, so I credit that.
It made me feel better about Fulop, but I'm still not going to vote for him.
That really bothered me, football taking precedence over real education; I want to throw up every time I pass that Rutgers football stadium, which happens a lot, since I work in that area. My son - a top student in his high school - was offered money from every school to which he applied - except Rutgers. They made a big point at the engineering accepted students event about how lucky he was to be accepted at Rutgers, but didn't offer him a dime. When we met with the head of the materials science department, he told us there was nothing he could do about that. As it is, he was offered a nearly full ride at a better school, but it pissed me off that our State University more or less compelled him to go elsewhere, so we could build saunas for football players. We need engineers more than we need CTE victims. (My son will not be coming back to New Jersey, which is interesting, because when Phil Murphy was running for Governor, he made noise about keeping our best students in New Jersey. It's personal for me, of course, but I can't help that my personal issues resonate with me.)
Energy was discussed - without answering the question asked by the questioner - and I appreciated that.
Three Democrats mentioned nuclear power favorably, with respect to rising energy bills, all - and Democrats are kind of locked into this representation of solar as a solution to costs (which in my view it isn't, solar drives costs up, not down) - Sherrill is the only one who didn't come out in favor of natural gas. She may be for it, but it wasn't the first thing out of her mouth. That counts to me. I believe it was her who pointed out that PJM, our grid, is dependent on coal burned in West Virginia and pointed out that was unacceptable.
Fulop made the point that any gas plant built will be designed to run for 50 years, and I appreciate that. It is bullshit to state that gas plants are "transitional." (There is no "energy transition," but that's another point for another forum, still what we do in New Jersey matters.)
I will probably vote for Sherrill as things stand. She referenced extreme global heating, albeit calling it by the euphemism "climate change," that is still widely used but is inappropriately weak. She referenced her upbringing which involved being a woman and being told by her father what she could not do, only to go on to do it anyway. To me, that counts. There is a war on women in this country, and as a man, I want women to hold power to fight it.
They are all good candidates, and any one of them will be a fine governor, certainly better than any Trumpist asshole the Repukes put up.
I still need to do more research before deciding.
One thing is certain, I will vote in the Primary, and make the hard choice right or wrong, and come November, I will vote Democratic no matter who our candidate is.

JustAnotherGen
(35,209 posts)I've met and spoken with them all. Mayor Baraka was the most surprising. I was tied between him and Spiller with Fulop in the mix somewhere. Then I caught wind that two people I despise in the Hunterdon County Dem Committee have been promised a place in his Admin and it dropped to Mayor Baraka and former Mayor Spiller.
Then Mayor Baraka beat Miller/Trump/Noem's rap - with dignity and his held head high. He's the one.
Looking at this from a Committee Member and now also alocal elected official - and how we leveraged FEAR to flip our Borough from entirely red to entirely blue, our 16th District wins, getting votes for Murphy to put him in place twice . . .
Fear will matter in the GE. Who is best positioned to protect us from Trump and xyz evil things he's doing to rank and file New Jersey citizens?
I can make strong arguments door knocking for Baraka. He's the only one I *feel* like I can campaign for with passion.
NNadir
(35,920 posts)I liked Mayor Baraka; I really did. He clearly has a fine mind and I certainly agree with many of his positions (as I do for each of the candidates). But I don't feel that his focus is quite the same as mine, which is on energy and environmental issues.
I can, and will, support the Democratic nominee, no matter who he or she is. I haven't decided, but as I stated, I'm leaning toward Sherrill. I generally don't "knock on doors" and such, but I will not complain about any of the candidates and I will do what ever I can to support the nominee.
I will probably watch the first debate which I missed, before deciding.
I am not entirely happy with Phil Murphy as Governor, and I wasn't entirely happy with him as a candidate, but he is not, and could never be, as bad as Shiterelli, and in some ways he's been OK.