Originally posted by Julian, good manners AFICIONADO:
Jersey.
Ha ha ha ha.....
February 10, 2008
Ideas & Trends
Hey, Massachusetts, New Jersey Is Passing on the Left By JEREMY W. PETERS
NEW JERSEY??S political hue is not just blue these days. It??s cobalt.
In the last two months, the state has become the first in a generation to abolish the death penalty, the first north of the Mason-Dixon line to apologize for slavery and the second, after Maryland, to pledge its Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote.
A family-leave measure to give employees paid time off to care for a newborn or sick relative appears headed toward approval by the State Legislature. A state commission is urging lawmakers to raise the minimum wage to $8.25 an hour, which would be the highest in the nation.
And voters recently approved borrowing an additional $200 million to save open space in the nation??s most densely populated state ?? the latest in more than $1.5 billion in borrowing to protect farmland and open space since 1981.
It may not be a surprise that New Jersey, which ranks among the states spending the most on education per student and is one of only four states to recognize gay civil unions, is pursuing a course that analysts say is in keeping with the Progressive Era ideals espoused by its former governor, Woodrow Wilson. He described his state as ??a sort of laboratory in which the best blood is prepared for other communities to thrive on.?
But public policy experts say what is a surprise is how swiftly New Jersey ?? better known for its seemingly endemic corruption and reputation as a onetime welcome mat for industrial waste ?? has moved in this direction.
??They??re a new leader,? said Joel Rogers, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School and the director of the Center for State Innovation, which describes itself as a progressive public-policy research institute.
??It??s not just California anymore, it??s New Jersey,? Mr. Rogers said. A New Jersey native, he added, with a touch of hyperbole, ??The much-maligned New Jersey, that malarial swamp south of New York, is rising from the ashes as a leader of progressive government.?
Not everybody sees the state??s tilt as a badge of honor. ??I think it??s way out of the mainstream, way farther left than most people want to be,? said Joseph Pennacchio, a Republican state senator from Morris County, a Republican bastion.
The liberal legacy in New Jersey won??t be abolishing the death penalty and apologizing for slavery, he said. It will be high taxes and deep deficits. ??What we??re not doing is talking about reducing property taxes or reducing the flight of people from New Jersey,? he said.
Why the rush of legislation? And why now?
The underlying reason, political scientists and public policy experts said, is that Democrats in Trenton, the capital, have occupied the Holy Trinity of state government since 2004: both chambers of the Legislature and the governor??s office. Their advantage is now considerable ?? 48-32 in the General Assembly and 23-17 in the State Senate.
And then there is Gov. Jon S. Corzine. The son of an Illinois farmer, he made a name for himself in the United States Senate as one of its most liberal members. He once lambasted the centrist Democratic Leadership Council for practicing ??timid progressivism.?
Joel Barkin, the executive director of the Progressive States Network, said, ??They are in a political environment that is not going to put up a lot of opposition to these areas of reform.?
New Jersey lawmakers have managed to enact measures that have failed in California and Massachusetts, for instance, states with their own distinctively dark-blue hues.
California enacted the nation??s first paid family leave law in 2000, but a bill that would have placed a moratorium on executions stalled. Massachusetts and California both have an $8-an-hour minimum wage, the nation??s second highest, behind Washington State. A paid family leave bill in Massachusetts stalled in the face of opposition from the business lobby. Both failed to pass a law to award their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote in presidential races.
Then again, they have had bigger hurdles to overcome. In California, the Democratic-controlled Legislature has to contend with a Republican governor. While both houses are solidly Democratic in Massachusetts, the governor ?? the first Democrat in 16 years ?? has been in office only a year.
Another factor that may explain why New Jersey has been so active lately is that its Legislature was in a lame duck when it approved these recent measures. Legislators who were retiring ?? more than one-third of the General Assembly and two-fifths of the Senate ?? didn??t have to worry about constituent reaction.
Will lawmakers who do have to worry about re-election continue down the path of their one-time colleagues? The answer awaits.
But academics who study New Jersey say its increasingly leftward lean also reflects the political evolution of the state??s 8.7 million residents.
Cliff Zukin, a professor of political science at Rutgers University, said polling data suggested that the influx of immigrants in the last decade ?? 20 percent of the state??s residents are now foreign born ?? has made New Jersey residents more socially tolerant. ??A lot of people just mouth arguments for diversity and say, ??It??s good. It??s good,?? ? he said. ??But people really see here that the quality of life is better because of it.?
Joseph Marbach, acting dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Seton Hall University, said New Jersey was also skewing left because it is wealthier and better educated than it was a decade ago. ??Those are the demographics that tend to lean more liberal,? he said.
Of course, there are those who say that the state has betrayed liberal ideals. Mr. Corzine??s new school funding plan, approved by the Legislature last month, was criticized by some school advocates as giving short shrift to inner-city schools.
And some liberal activists said they an odd symmetry in New Jersey??s recent progressive streak, pointing out that if it weren??t for poor regulation in the past, especially on environmental issues, it wouldn??t need such an activist approach.
??We??re the yin and the yang,? said Jeffrey Tittle, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. ??We have the strongest laws and the biggest problems.?
