NJ Democrats Destroying Democracy to Save their Move to Fascism – Triple Petition Requirements
In June of 2024, Democrats in the NJ Senate led a committee meeting that with Republican support advanced an effort to impose the IRHA’s fraudulent definition of antisemitism to include criticism of Israel and a companion bill to defund public schools, universities, libraries, non-profits and other recipients of state funds upon determination that they are not following the IRHA false definition of antisemitism.
If these bills are successful they will not only cause legal harm to close to a million NJ citiziens and residents whose world view is critical of Israel’s policies. These bills will also touch off a tsunami of legal briefs, filings and lawsuits from groups that want to control discussion on this topic with accusations of “antisemitism”. Millions in tax dollars will be spent defending these frivolous challenges. One result will be severe over-compensating repression of protected speech in an attempt to avoid the legal challenges. Also valuable projects and institutions that provide services to the people will be forced to terminate to avoid legal challenges such as what has occurred recently with the police chaplaincy in Montclair, NJ.
As these measures were advanced out of committee, this FightBackBetter editor announced a plan to run a full slate of Assembly candidates in 2025 in defense of our beloved right to protected free speech. In recent weeks our political effort to defend the rights of a million NJ citizens and residents has ramped up and is gaining widespread support:
Democrats Put on Their Fascist Boots
So what is the response of the Democrats in the NJ Assembly? They introduced a measure that greatly diminishes democracy, pluralism, and democratic debate – disenfranchising NJ voters.
During the 2024 elections it was the Democrats who claimed that they were on the side of defending democracy against authoritarian Trump-led Republicans. But this ANTI democratic measure was fully backed by Democrats. It was OPPOSED by the Republicans in the NJ Assembly in a vote that was 45-27 along partisan lines. While this editor almost never agrees with Republican positions, their opposition to this anti-Democratic measure, whatever their reasons, is the correct position.
Are the Green Party Inroads in NJ a Growing Concern of the Democrats?
In 2024, the Green Party of NJ (GPNJ) provided a full field of candidates at the presidential (Stein / Ware), US Senate and US Congress levels, what GPNJ called the Green 13. Fielding these candidates in every Congressional District provided an opportunity for every NJ voter to vote 3 times against the genocide Israel is committing against Palestinians, with the weapons and funding provided by congressional votes from Democrat and Republican office holders. It was a tremendous achievement and a tireless effort for the candidates to achieve those serious ballot challenges even at the current level of 100 signatures per Congressional seat and 800 for the presidential and the U.S. Senate seat. In 2024, GPNJ received support from Arab and Muslim voters due to the US-supported genocide. This led to an improved showing in increased numbers of votes for Green Party candidates. Muslim and Arab support for the Green Party was particularly pronounced when about a dozen members from those constituencies volunteered to join the petitioning effort in the last week before the presidential filing deadline and helped add about 1000 signatures to the Jill Stein petition.
The Democrats know that the Green Party performance narrowed its control over NJ and, like a true fascist party, it is using its political power to diminish and disenfranchise its political challengers.
In presidential elections, no matter what the Democratic Party does to sabotage itself, they always seem to find a smear narrative directed at the Green Party, making it sound as if anyone who votes Green is “stealing” their own vote from the Democratic Party candidate.
There Was No Demand from the Public for this Action
The reasons given by the bill sponsor come out of nowhere. None of the NJ public calling out and saying “Let’s make ballot access harder for candidates without party backing and funding from nefarious sources.” In fact, it’s more likely the opposite — that NJ voters want more choices on their ballots every Election Day. And while we’re at it, it is certain that many of these voters want to see more debates, with all candidates who meet the ballot access requirements participating in said debates. Come to think of it, with these more challenging requirements, will all ballot qualified candidates be considered “serious” now and will they get to participate in the debates for each position?
The Globe article attributes opinions to sponsors of the bill without naming names of those who articulated this irresponsible argument. Here is what the Globe states:
NJ Globe assertion without attribution:
Proponents of the bill argue that low signature thresholds make for chaotic ballots with unserious candidates — in the ongoing efforts to reform the state’s ballots, lawmakers say too many candidates can make for a confusing voting process.
While the Globe did not identify which legislators made these specious arguments, it shows that the bill’s supporters hold the voters’ level of intelligence and understanding of elections in very low esteem – as if we do not understand how voting works. They have contempt for democracy. No voter is asking to be saved from the imaginations of bill-sponsor Louis Greenwald and others of our state of “confusion.” It is a conjured up pretext for a power grab and disenfranchisement of NJ voters. It is an insult to our intelligence and ability to understand electoral process – accusing us of detriments in this regard – to justify their anti-democratic power grab.
Sponsor of the measure Greenwald conjured up this falsehood: a “. . . crowded ballot with an excessive number of candidates makes it harder for voters to locate their preferred choice, leading to frustration, mistakes, and even undervoting.”
Why do they get to decide who is a serious candidate? That should be up to the public. It is clear this is an attempt to put more barriers to entry for those who want to be involved in politics and do not have the party apparatus (and insidious sources of funding) at their disposal. This is disenfranchisement, plain and simple.
What Does it Mean for Free Speech Effort?
This legislative effort to increase the requirements to get on New Jersey’s ballots means there will be 3Xs the effort needed to achieve ballot access. Are those with power nervous of our political challenge, our plan to run for NJ Assembly in 2025 to protect the free speech rights of all NJians? This editor admits that it could weaken the impact of our ability to field candidates in every LD (Legislative District). It is entirely possible. It might be harder to find all candidates with capacity to run with close to 3 times the number of signatures required now.
What is unique about this year and this time that this ridiculous antidemocratic measure was presented and quickly passed within 10 days in the Assembly? We have announced an effort to challenge every Assembly seat in NJ! I am sure the sponsors will insist it is only a coincidence. Then why the emergency and the swiftness with no opportunity for the public to weigh in!
If we recognize this move as a possible reaction to the Green 13 of 2024 followed by the announced effort to run a NJ Free Speech 2025 slate, then we recognize that we might have more power than we think. Our persistence might be making them nervous. If so, that is a good thing. Let’s keep organizing the NJ Free Speech 2025 Challenge!
Let’s take a scientific approach to the petition effort for the NJ Free Speech 2025 Challenge. We will analyze the 40 LDs and organize LD committees around the electoral and other free speech efforts in each LD. A systemic and analytical approach can reduce the manual effort of gathering the required signatures connecting us intimately with more voters.
FightBackBetter editorially denounces the cowardly and anti-democratic power grab of the Democrats but at the same time – it could be the challenge we need to really fully assert our power to stop the effort to destroy our beloved US Constitutionally protected First Amendment free speech rights!
Please join FIghtBackBetter in calling upon NJ Governor Murphy and the NJ Senate to reject these anti-democratic measures by saying NO to increased nomination petition requirements for NJ primaries and general elections candidacies.
Please complete the form below to express interest – your entry of firm is not a commitment but indication of interest in exploring candidacy and support for the NJ Free Speech Challenge 2025.
