LD 16th Dem Assembly Representatives Supporting IHRA False Conflation Bill that will Lead to Repression
Editor’s Note: This FightBackBetter editor is a citizen of LD 16 and a registered voter. I am actively working with a committee to recruit candidates to challenge in NJ LD 16 for the two assembly seats that are up for a vote in 2025. If I do not find two candidates I will challenge for one of the seats. I am hoping for the candidates to step forward because I will be more effective as a relentless supporter. We might or might not be able to affect the outcome of this race but given the harm that Drulis and Freiman are bringing to over a half million NJ residents I feel compelled to do everything I can to take action to protect our children, our families, our communities and our state and nation from this potential fascist scourge.
In the last NJ Assembly race for LD 16 in 2023 Democrats Mitchelle Drulis and Roy Freiman both won in a relatively tight race, both with about 2000 votes apart from their opponents. Since then the voting tallies in NJ moved toward a less favorable position over all for Democrats in the 2024 elections. In Somerset County in 2020 Biden had a roughly 40K vote margin over Trump and in 2024 in Somerset County Kamala Harris had only a roughly 14K vote margin. Those numbers do not predict how votes will fall in the Assembly race. But the results do suggest that if the shift from Democrat to the Republican column that occurred in 2024 holds or the that trend continues the Assembly races in 2025 could be much closer or they could even flip. The Harris margin over Trump in Somertset County was roughly 1/3 the Biden margin over Trump in 2020. So it is possible that 2025 Assembly races could be decided by a much smaller margin, maybe within vicinity of 1000 votes.
Drulis and Freiman currently representing LD-16 are cosponsors of A3558 which is attempting to dictate the “IHRA” false definition of antisemitism fraudulently including criticism of Israel as “antisemitism”.
FightBackBetter is working with committees and individuals across the state to fight the attacks on the protected free speech of critics of the US – Israel genocide in Gaza through a “Slate-of-80” effort to field a full slate of Assembly candidates. The explicit goal is to make clear to the Assembly members and all other candidates that support for the repression of free speech by supporting repressive bills such as A3558 will cost the supporters of these fascist measures votes in 2025 and in elections that are likely to be close, this could impact the election outcome.
There are roughly 300,000 Muslims and 135,000 Arabs (some of whom are not Muslim) in NJ. They are not a monolith in how they view the Palestine conflict. Ovewhelmingly though, some or all of their ideas on the conflict in opposition to genocide and in support of Palestine liberation could be falsely categorized as antisemitic because the ideas are Israel-critical. Passing the laws supported by Drulis and Freiman will cause legal harm to these communities. They are attempting to criminalize the thoughts, beliefs, actions, opinions, what they support politically, etc. as”anti-Semitic.” There are 100s of 1000s more of NJ residents of every religion (including Judaism), race, ethnicity and nationality that support an end to the genocide and oppose the actions of Israel – their beliefs and advocacy actions will also be illegal under these fascist proposed laws. The rough estimate is that between a half million to a million NJ residents are being criminalized by this law if passed. We will face great harm from the enforcement of these fascist laws as well as exposure to civil law abuse.
If you are supporting legislation that is going to lead to ruining the lives and to attacks on a half million NJ residents, you can not expect any of us to vote for you.
The D vs. R designation makes no matter to us when you are both literally voting for our demise at the hands of fascist laws that will be used in civil and criminal attacks on those who exercise US constitutionally protected free speech to criticize US support for Israel!
The strategy explanation and the form to enter or support the 2025 NJ race for free speech slate-of-80 is at this link:
If the election might be decided by 1000 votes and our campaign was able to get somewhere near that number of votes by convicing Democrat leaning voters that our protected free speech rights are important enough – it is possible that supporting repression could cost Drulis and Freiman re-election or make the contest much closer.
Their seats were Republican seats until 2 cycles ago. They might not be able to afford the risk of our candidates draining off some of their votes. Their support for fascist legislation that eliminates our protected free speech rights to oppose US policy in support of Israel could jeopardize their re-election. That is why we are working to place Free Speech supporitng candidates on the ballot for Assembly in NJ LD 16.
The best result we are hoping for is that those fasc-law supporting office holders ABANDON these fascist laws which pander to supporters of Israel while launching harm against a half million residents.
New Jersey’s 16th legislative district is one of 40 in the New Jersey Legislature. The district includes the Hunterdon County municipalities of Clinton Town, Clinton Township, Flemington Borough, High Bridge, Lebanon, Raritan Township, and Readington Township; the Mercer County municipality of Princeton; the Middlesex County municipality of South Brunswick Township; and the Somerset County municipalities of Branchburg Township, Hillsborough Township, Millstone Borough, Montgomery Township, and Rocky Hill Borough.
If you are potentially interested in running for Assembly in LD 16 in 2025, in helping with a campaign or would sign a petition, plsae complete the form:
