Going to school in Washington, DC, it is not too difficult for classmates and co-workers to peg me as a New Jerseyan. The distinctive vowel noises and pronunciations of pet names (like "dawg") make for easy joke fodder. What I find harder to suffer is the endless jabs about New Jersey corruption. Despite my best attempts to explain that we all don't grease Tony Soprano's palm or knee cap political opponents in Elizabeth dock warehouses, the perception that Jersey is a festering nest of political bossism is irrepressible.
And to be fair, what have we as citizens of New Jersey done to convince anyone anywhere otherwise? Our tolerance for malfeasance is unbelievable, and the general apathy shown toward criminality on the part of state leaders is pathetic. Toricelli, Menendez and McGreevey are just the most recent and prominent names in a long line of disappointments. When the statehouse more closely resembles that bar from Star Wars than a legitimate legislature, does it come as a surprise when the rest of the country fails to take New Jersey seriously?
November 7th is evolving into a moment of truth for New Jersey in more ways than political outsiders or beltway pundits could ever comprehend. Sure, the outcome of the Senate race may very well affect control of the United States Senate. But for those of us who call the Garden State home, this race is about hope, pride, and the future of Jersey. Outside of a few rogue congressmen, Jersey is on the road to becoming not that much different than Massachusetts: an overtaxed and poorly served one-party fiefdom. Liberal Democrats dominate every branch of state government, and New Jersey's quality of life in declining. New Jerseyans are a hard-working, principled and prosperous people, but our industry is squandered by elected officials serving machines and special interests. Taxes break our backs and we receive the worst return on our federal income taxes of any state in the union. A vote for Menendez is unavoidably an individual affirmation for the status-quo. If New Jersey sends another corrupt, unethical, uninspiring party man to the Senate, what hope will the state ever have of achieving honest, competitive government that can tackle the issues New Jersey so desperately needs to confront?
A vote for Tom Kean is a battle cry; it is a vote for a new day in a state that is crying out for an honest man with principles worthy of its people. Property taxes, war votes and stem cells are secondary to New Jersey's need for fresh leadership that will enliven the statewide political discourse and change the nation's perception of our home. A vote for Tom Kean is an act of confidence in New Jersey as a place worthy of real leaders that treat their constituencies with respect, not as dollar signs. A vote for Tom Kean is a defiant gesture, telling the world that New Jersey will not be the milk cow for any political machine, crooked politician or statewide party. Will we learn our lessons after sustaining habitual abuse from the same old snake oil salesmen, or will we encase our self-respect in cement and leave it at the bottom of the Hudson?
I don't know whether it will be Tom Kean or Bob Menendez thanking voters on the morning November 8th, at some cheerful and delicious diner in Bergen County with great coffee and conversation. Maybe we won't know the result until Wednesday night, if the current polling is at all accurate. Nevertheless, I do know that a Menendez victory will do little to reverse the trends currently bleeding New Jersey of its children, fortune and dignity as they respectively flee to other locales, just as I know that a Tom Kean triumph will herald a new lease on life for my home state. Forgive me for getting excited, and hoping against all hope that my fellow New Jerseyans have come to the same realization. Thus is the nature of a genuine, cinema-quality moment of truth, in t-minus 8 days...
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