The Current October 16th

Posted on October 16, 2017

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Wow... we’ve been busy here at BlueWaveNJ!

Read on to learn about:

  • Upcoming Opportunities for Action

  • New resources to support your activism

  • BWNJ’s Coalition Initiatives

  • Updates from our our Environment, Immigration and Health Care Committees as well as our Election Activities

With the November election fast approaching, BWNJ has been actively supporting the Murphy/Oliver campaign, as well as progressive candidates across the state as well as resisting the Republican agenda from Washington.  Here’s what we have been doing.

Election Resources:

Election Action

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  • Since the primary in June, BlueWaveNJ volunteers led by our Grassroots Committee and Cary Chevat  have made more than 35,000 calls, registered 500+ new and "Vote by Mail" voters, and trained hundreds of volunteers in "Get Out the Vote" activities.  Every Wednesday since August, BluewaveNJ volunteers have made over 5000 calls to support women state legislative Democratic candidates running to turn red districts blue.

  • BWNJ co-sponsored a live taping on September 12 of SiriusXM's The Dean Obeidallah show, featuring a Town Hall with candidate Phil Murphy at the First Congregational Church in Montclair.  The show aired nationally on September 28. 

  • On September 28, Senator Cory Booker spoke at a well-attended fundraiser for LD 40 state legislative candidates Duch, Vagianos and Ordway , which was hosted by Marcia Marley at her Montclair home. Find his full speech HERE.

  • Marley also hosted a fundraiser on October 4 for the Democratic NJ Legislative District 25 slate of Bhimani, Corcoran and Moran.  At the event, Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto highlighted the opportunity we have this year to flip red districts to blue and strengthen the NJ Assembly. Tammy Murphy also stopped by the fundraiser and also the Women Wave Wednesdays..

  • There was also a great turnout for the October 4th session of Women Wave Wednesdays, BWNJ’s initiative to elect progressive women candidates in NJ, led by BWNJ member Connie Keys.  Over 20 people showed up to phone bank for Christine Ordway LD40.

  • The Grassroots committee, led by Cary Chevat, initiated two GOTV programs: one aimed at registering senior citizens and another that mobilized college students to sign up to vote by mail.  At Crane Mill's retirement community, we signed up over 70 new voters, many who have turned activists and are continuing to sign up fellow residents.  

  • BWNJ, Action Together NJ and NJ Working Families have partnered throughout the fall on a statewide GOTV initiative called The Blue 40, designed to support progressive candidates in all 40 districts.  So far Town Halls have taken place in LD6, LD2, LD14, LD20, LD 5, LD21, LD27, with more to come.

A deep thank you to all of BWNJ's election volunteers, many such as Connie Keys, Jim Price, Shirley Grill, Mara Novak, Amy Ipp, Lynn Perlmutter, Willie Walker, Suzanne Trimel and Amy Juvilver have volunteered week after week, day after day.  
 
BlueWaveNJ would not accomplish any of the activities listed above without our loyal volunteers and committee leaders.

Coalition Initiatives          

  • On September 15,  BWNJ’s President Marcia Marley participated in the Progressive Caucus Panel at the Democratic State Convention, where BWNJ had a table.

  • BWNJ continues to send representatives to regular coalition meetings. Coalitions in which we are currently active members include The Better Choices Coalition, Time to Care Coalition, the NJ for Health Care Coalition and Jersey Renews Coalition.  

  • On Oct. 12th, BWNJ sent out a rapid response email to our entire list about the race-baiting ad Guadagno ran against Murphy’s protection of DACA. We tweeted and commented en force on her Facebook page and participated in a coalition protest at Guadagno’s office in West Long Branch.  

The Environment

GET INVOLVED - Sign Up Here

  • On September 12, BWNJ, led by our Environment Committee leaders John Reichman, Carrie Canter and Eric Bensen, co-sponsored a “Superfund Reality Tour” with the Sierra Club, NJ 11th For Change, Environment New Jersey, and Clean Water Action.  The Tour visited two sites in the 11th District highlighting the need for additional funding.  The speakers pointed out that federal funding for Superfund sites declined by almost half in nominal terms between 1999 and 2013 and by 80% in real terms.  Moreover, there are a number of toxic sites that should be added to the Superfund list, including one of the ones we visited.  Following our visit, Frelinghuysen abruptly cancelled his scheduled superfund site tour.  Once again he was a no show, avoiding his constituents concerns about the lack of progress in the 11th district.

  • BWNJ joined Morristown Mayor Tim Dougherty, New Jersey Sierra Club, Clean Water Action, NJ 11th for Change, and other groups on October 9th for an event called “Frelinghuysen’s Columbus Day Sell-Out.”. This press conference highlighted Frelinghuysen 's sell-out of his constituents to corporate interests by failing to protect New Jersey’s environment, his constituents’ health care or take a stand for common sense gun regulations. Frelinghuysen was one of only two New Jersey Congressman to vote for the recent Republican House Budget that cut trillions out of medicaid and medicare over the next decade.

Health Care

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  • In early September, the leaders of the Healthcare Committee Andrew Sprung, Sherri Neuwirth, Amanda Turcotte and Mark Lurinsky along with Marcia Marley participated in a conference call with Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5), co-chair of the Problem Solver’s Caucus; a bipartisan group working on ACA stabilization A review of this discussion can be found here. 

  • Later in September, as the Senate moved forward with consideration of “Graham-Cassidy”, the latest and worst Republican healthcare repeal plan, BWNJ again mobilized for action.  We called Gov. Christie to urge him to come out against the bill, which he did!  Next, we used Indivisible’s online calling tool to contact Dems in states with Republican Senators who appeared to be on the fence with regard to this horrendous bill.  In total, the health care committee made thousands of calls to stop the Senate’s horrendous repeal bills.  

  • We also participated in a Newark Health Care rally organized by Senator Menendez, where Jean Scully, another Committee member, shared her story of how the ACA saved her life.

  • On October 12, Trump dropped a pair of bombs on the ACA marketplace: first, an Executive Order designed to create a market for junk health plans that would undermine the ACA-compliant market. Second, an abrupt cutoff of federal reimbursement to insurers for Cost Sharing Reduction (subsidies).   The committee will be looking into possible responses to Trump's cutoff of these critical subsidies.  Also we plan to participate in Citizen Action’s enrollment drive, in part to compensate for massive federal cuts in ACA enrollment outreach..

Immigration

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  • Our Immigration Committee, led by Deb Maclean, has been actively partnering with immigration justice allies Wind of the Spirit and Make the Road NJ.  We have been participating in The Sun Sets on DACA and We Rise Up actions that have included vigils at the offices of NJ members of Congress as well as coordinated call-in days. To date, eight of 12 NJ members of Congress have signed on to support a clean Dream Act (without all of Trump’s restrictions included)or to discharge a petition to push a floor vote on the Dream Act of 2017.

  • On October 5 our committee held a Vigil at Leonard Lance's Westfield office

  • We held another vigil on October 6 at Frelinghuysen's Morristown office

  • And on October 8 we participated in a statewide planning meeting for Youth.

A thank you to all our committee members and leaders for coming to the rallies, press conferences and making all of those calls to legislators.  The resistance depends on you!


TAKE ACTION!

As we gear up for our final push to make sure we have a  progressive New Jersey government that can push back against the Trump agenda, we need your help.   Don’t stand on the sidelines! Join fellow BluewaveNJ members and let’s Turn the Tide starting in November 2017!

 

EVENTS

SIGN UP FOR ELECTION ACTIVITIES

  • Victory 2017 Phone Banking and Canvassing: Join us at the Victory 2017 office, 316 Bloomfield Ave. Montclair NJ, or from your own home to make calls for Phil Murphy/Sheila Oliver and other progressive democratic candidates across the state.  Click here for more info on phone banking and canvassing

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