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Two-term Democratic Rep. Andy Kim (left) explains to voters why he wants a third term during a LeisureTowne Candidates’ Forum on Oct. 19.

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(Continued from Page 1) the over two hour affair), most in the crowd of some 75 people in attendance at the forum demanded to hear the responses of all of the congressional candidates to the question that had been posed.

It all unfolded when Jack Roberts, who lives with his wife, Susan, at Burtons Drive in the retirement community, revealed in asking a question about “assault weapons” that his daughter was one of the victims in the Highland Park, Illinois, Independence Day Parade Massacre on July 4 of this year that killed seven people and wounded 48 others in the suburb that is just outside of Chicago.

“My daughter, and my granddaughter were at that parade,” Jack Roberts revealed. “A 22-year-old kid with an assault weapon opened fire and shot my daughter. He also killed six people around my daughter and wounded another 40.”

The very fact that the couple, six-year residents of the serene LeisureTowne community nestled in the Pines, had been directly impacted by the national tragedy some 700 miles away from Southampton Township, something previously unknown to many in the room, suddenly hit close to home for those in attendance at the retirement community forum.

Audible gasps could be heard in the room.

“To be honest with you, I never really thought about gun-related issues before,” Jack Roberts declared. “But through my experience in dealing with my daughter, who by the way survived, but is still recovering from it and has some permanent injuries, it has framed my issue here – I do not understand and would like to know, why (there is not an assault weapons ban or at least restrictions), and whether you support the idea of restricting or banning assault weapons?”

He added it was an “AR 15 that shot my kid,” with published reports from Highland Park stating the suspect is alleged to have used a Smith & Wesson M&P15 semiautomatic rifle with three, 30-round magazines, and that a total of 83 shots were reportedly fired in the incident.

“And if not (restrictions or an outright ban on assault weapons), what would you propose to do, because mass shootings have become much more common?” the father inquired. “And I think people here should not think that they can avoid this in the future here, in Southampton, and in Southampton Schools.”

Kim, who recently voted to pass the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act (a bill that would create a federal red flag law), Protecting Our Kids Act (a bill that would raise the purchasing age for certain semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21 years old, crack down on gun trafficking, close the ghost gun loophole, strengthen safe storage requirements for guns, and outlaw bump stocks and high-capacity magazines for civilian use), and Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (the largest gun violence prevention legislative package in over three decades with various supports for crisis and mental health interventions, penalties for straw purchasing and funding for school safety resources), initially responded to Roberts that “I am sorry for what your family went through and for what your daughter is going through.”

“When you said it, there was a gasp here just in this room to know that someone here has been a victim of that particular incident,” the congressman observed of Roberts’ revelation.

Kim said that he “respects hunters” and “respects people who want to shoot,” but then asked, “Do we really need these high capacity magazines that are unleashing, 50, 60, or 70 rounds?” and, “Do we really need these type of weapons that are getting in the hands of people who are incredibly dangerous?”

The congressman maintained he “refuses to believe it has to be one way or the other,” and called it simply a “false choice.”

“We can have a country that respects and cultivates responsible gun ownership, while also recognizing that we don’t have to accept that mass murders, and mass shootings, have to be a fact of being American and this is just a world we live in,” Kim declared. “So, I am proud that we voted for those types of legislation and continue to work in that way.”

Kim also voted in late July to pass the “Assault Weapons Ban of 2022,” which would “ban the sale and possession of high-capacity magazines and assault-style weapons and features,” though he did not directly reference this vote during the LeisureTowne forum.

That legislation, as his office noted in a press release issued shortly after the vote, is based on the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, which was in place for 10 years before it was allowed to lapse back in 2004.

Kim, during the forum on Oct. 19, described how he “always thinks about” an encounter he had with a veteran at a town hall he conducted in neighboring Ocean County, who the congressman maintained approached him to say that he “‘agrees with you 100 percent’” on the need for “universal background checks” and “gun safety,” despite being “‘a lifelong member of the NRA’” and having served in the military.

“I asked him, ‘Why?’” Kim told forum attendees. “He said something that stuck with me – he said, ‘Because I am a responsible gun owner and I don’t like being lumped in with murderers, and psychopaths.’ It really just kind of highlighted it for me.”

Kim said he recognizes “we are a country that respects our Constitution and our Second Amendment,” but that he “also recognizes, in doing so, we set that culture of responsibility, and the sense of that.”

“And I think the vast majority of Americans believe that,” Kim asserted. “Over 90 percent of Americans believe in universal background checks because we just need to know who is purchasing this stuff.”

The “dozens of other mass shootings,” he added, “just over the last year or so,” is something that “has been horrific.”

Healey, in responding to the father, declared “my heart goes out to you,” adding that as the father of a 16-month old daughter, “I can’t imagine what you are going through,” maintaining the description of events Roberts gave is just “horrible.”

The Republican congressional candidate then described that his family “was never a family of gun owners,” but that he now owns a gun.

“And when I decided to become one (a gun owner), I was very fortunate enough to have a good, dear friend, who was former military, and in law enforcement, walk me through the process of how to acquire a gun legally here in New Jersey, which has some of the strictest gun laws in our union,” Healey recounted. “That person taught me how to handle it responsibly, how to care for it, how to properly store it and all of those things.”

Healey described that he is “very supportive” of teaching responsible gun ownership, and maintained of the bi-partisan Senate bill (the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act), “I thought it had many good things in it.”

The bi-partisan bill was signed into law by Democratic President Joe Biden on June 25, and became the first major federal gun legislation to be passed since the now-lapsed 1994 assault weapons ban.

“I am supportive of keeping guns out of the hands of people who have mental illness,” Healey declared. “And (I support) having conversations on all of the things we can do towards that, and in making sure that things like what happened outside Chicago do not happen.”

Russomanno, however, as the Libertarian candidate challenging both Kim and Healey, declared in response to Roberts’ question, “Something to know about libertarians: we believe in all your rights – all the time.”

The “Second Amendment,” Russomanno continued, “is a right” and “basically acknowledges we have the right to selfdefense, and it shall not be infringed upon.”

“I am really sorry for what happened to your daughter,” said the Libertarian as he got up from behind a table where the candidates were sitting and spoke from centerstage. “It is horrible.”

However, he contended that the “only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

Russomanno, a former law enforcement officer of 20 years who retired from the Ewing Township Police Department as a sergeant, added that “whenever we got a call that something bad happened, most of the time we showed up after the fact” or “we showed up after the person was beaten, robbed or shot.”

“We helped clean up the mess and later on, we tried to get the criminal,” Russomanno said. “Sometimes we did, sometimes we didn’t.”

Russomanno maintained that “had the person had a firearm with them,” then that individual “could have defended themselves against the attacker.”

“Firearms are the great equalizer also,” the Libertarian candidate declared. “For a person who is smaller and weaker, they can now defend themselves against the person who is larger and stronger than they are.”

Russomanno maintained that during both the Los Angeles riots of 1992, as well as during the unrest in Minneapolis back in 2020, “police just got up and left.” He then posed a question to local seniors.

“If you have a person who doesn’t believe in a firearm, and doesn’t believe in guns, what are they going to defend themselves with?” he asked. “The police left them there to defend themselves. So, that is part of the reason I believe we have that right and we should protect all your rights – all the time.”

Sobocinski, in appearing to share a similar viewpoint to that of Russomanno on this topic, declared the “job of the police is not to protect people,” but rather “they enforce the law.”

“It is your responsibility to protect yourself,” he contended. “It really is. If police are in the area, I am sure it will help. And if they can get there on time, I am sure they will do their piece. But they can’t respond immediately.”

Sobocinski then posed a question to the forum’s audience, asking attendees to “guess” what segment of the population “bought the most guns over the last year.” Many in the room answered “hunters,” but Sobocinski maintained it was actually “women and people of color.”

“Because they understand the police are not going to be able to respond when an intruder comes through the door,” Sobocinski said. “So, it (having a gun) is to protect you from intruders coming through the door, plus to protect yourself from a government out of control, which is potentially possible.”

The latter point, Sobocinski contended, is “what the founders” of the country “were talking about” when they created the Second Amendment.

The independent candidate cited published reports that the Aurora, Colorado movie theater gunman “searched out” the one such venue in the area that did not allow firearms, to launch his atrocity, avoiding the eight others that allowed patrons to carry firearms.

“So, it is gun-free zones that they are targeting,” he contended. “Chicago has a very strong gun prohibition, and it is very difficult to get your hands on a gun, like here in NJ.”

He also pointed to a report that in Missouri, “a constitutional-carry state,” someone went into a mall with a firearm, “and within seconds, someone took the shooter down.”

The bottom-line, according to Sobocinski, is that “you have to be able to defend yourself.”

And, in making that final point on the issue, Sobocinski chided those who choose to go after the gun manufacturers and make them liable, asking, “Why don’t we do that with cars, hatchets and knives?”

Some in the audience shot back that “we do.”

“If you take a Chevy and run over 10 people, now you can’t have a Chevy any longer? he quipped. “Think about it! It is ridiculous and non-sensical!”

Some of the sharpest attacks of the evening on Kim, as he seeks a third term in Congress, came not from Healey, thought to be his main rival, but rather Sobocinski, who branded himself as an “America First, independent candidate running for Congress.”

Sobocinski, a 35-year resident of the Third District spanning most of Burlington County, which recently saw its Ocean County towns dropped through redistricting in favor of numerous ones in both Mercer and Monmouth counties, declared “the country has serious problems” and “our government is out of control.”

“There is chaos at the border,” he maintained. “There is skyrocketing inflation, failing schools, unsafe communities and a lack of medical freedom, all brought to you by the Democrats and Andy Kim.”

Sobocinski, who maintained that “none of the candidates up here represent him or my interests,” further asserted that Kim likes to “often talk about ‘civility,’ but that “my friends, there is no ‘civility.’”

“We have a border invasion going on in Texas,” the independent candidate See CANDIDATES/ Page 15

Photo By Tom Valentino

Gregory Sobocinski, an independent running for Congress under the declared party of “God Save America,” sharply attacks Rep. Andy Kim during a LeisureTowne Candidates’ Forum on Oct. 19, charging there is no civility currently in the U.S.

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maintained. “I have clients and friends in Texas, and it is a war going on. It is a war going on because Democrats are not enforcing federal law down there!”

He added that “large amounts” of “Fentanyl and other drugs” are “coming in from across the border,” pointing out Fentanyl is the “number one killer of 18 to 40-year old’s right now.”

Sobocinski, in his making a point that “crime is coming in” through the U.S. border with Mexico, declared, “It’s the most dangerous border in the world!”

“Children and families are dying in the Rio Grande, and it is not something we should be proud of,” Sobocinski quipped. “But Andy talks as if it is home.”

It is not that he “minds immigration,” Sobocinski explained, “but we have to manage immigration.”

“Because we don’t have a country if we don’t have a sovereign border,” he asserted.

Democrats, who control Congress, he charged, “have let us down,” and they often talk about “ an ‘insurrection’ and a ‘rebellion,’” but “if you let people come in through the Southern Border, they are coming in to overthrow the government!”

“They are criminals when they come across the border!” Sobocinski further charged. “They got to come in through an orderly process, in an orderly way.”

Sobocinski, at one point, went one step further, charging that Kim is “supporting” an “insurrection,” even going as far as to claim that the congressman was “giving aid and comfort to the enemy,” and that “maybe Andy shouldn’t be on the ballot.”

“The first and foremost responsibility of our government is to protect its citizens who are here lawfully,” said Sobocinski, with the sharp rhetoric against the sitting congressman causing several in the room to quietly talk amongst themselves. “They failed miserably. They not only failed miserably; they are intentionally doing it!”

Sobocinski, in again referencing “civility,” pointed to the ongoing inflation, maintaining those responsible for it are “either economically illiterate or simply don’t care to think you can print $5 trillion and not have inflation.”

“A little bit of COVID dollars came out to you, but it is all lost to inflation right now,” said the independent candidate, who explained his background is in finance. “Those who get Social Security, you’ll get your Social Security (the payout is due to increase in 2023) alright, but the question is, ‘Will it buy anything?’”

But in the most blistering “civility” attack on Kim, even causing one local school board candidate to temporarily leave the front of the room while shaking her head, Sobocinski alleged that “Andy Kim has never seen an abortion he doesn’t approve of.”

Abortion, Sobocinski charged, is the “intentional killing of an unborn child” and is “an act of violence that kills a baby.”

“I am the most pro-woman of any person here!” Sobocinski claimed. “Because I am for all those little babies in the womb!”

He added that “Andy would not even offer protection for babies five, six, seven or eight months in the uterus,” and urged those attending the LeisureTowne forum to “think for a moment about how those babies get aborted.”

“Is this a ‘civil’ society to allow that to happen?” Sobocinski asked.

Healey, who runs the Bass River Townshipbased Viking Yacht Company with his cousin, told those gathered in LeisureTowne that he is “not a politician,” but rather is a “business owner, father and philanthropist who is running to put the brakes on a damaging and failed agenda of Joe Biden.”

The Republican candidate described “Biden’s agenda” as one of “radical inflation, rising crime and radical ideas.”

While Healey maintained he has “had the pleasure of meeting Kim,” and appreciated his attendance at the LeisureTowne forum, he has also “watched him go to Washington D.C.” and “vote with Biden 100 percent of the time,” despite the congressman claiming to be a “bi-partisan” representative.

“Now, I am running because I think we need more input from the private sector – from small business owners and people who work on the assembly line, like the people at the Viking Yacht Company,” said Healey, explaining that his late father founded the firm some 58 years ago.

The firm “at the southern tip of Burlington County,” Healey pointed out, employs some 1,600 people. And, he added, “the majority of what goes into our boats is made right here in the U.S.”

“It is something that we are very, very proud of,” Healey declared.

The employees of the company, he added, “are like family members,” maintaining that actions have been taken to give them “the best wages” and “make sure they have access to the best healthcare.”

“A lot of ‘politicians’ like to talk about healthcare reform,” Healey said. “At the Viking Yacht Company, we have been providing our employees with free, on-site medical care for over 35 years. It is something we never get tired of talking about.”

Healey, who recently undertook a tour of all 53 towns that comprise the newly-reshaped congressional district in a similar fashion to when he toured the U.S. while involved in a punk rock band, maintained the “things that I am hearing are more concerning than any band lyric you could ever hear.”

“People say, ‘Bob, I am concerned with the cost of gas and groceries,’” Healey recounted. “‘I am concerned with the type of country my children are going to grow up in,’ and ‘I don’t feel safe walking at night in my own neighborhood.’”

Healey then discussed how after “he got out of the band,” and initially “got into the family business,” his father “had other ideas” for him and he is “glad that he did,” sending him to Sierra Leone to “teach him the true meaning of ‘service.’”

The Republican candidate discussed how he helped build hospitals and clinics for pregnant mothers in the country located in West Africa, and that he then “came back here to Burlington County” to work with “first-time offenders, military veterans, and young girls at risk,” providing such supports “on our farm in Lumberton.”

“My run for congress is an extension of that service,” declared Healey, noting it is the kind of country that his daughter will grow up in that has pushed him to run for Congress. “… When we win in November, I will commit to you that I will spend every waking moment working for you and your families, by bringing common-sense ideas down to Washington that unite us as Americans, rather than try to divide us like so many people, like frankly so many people on both sides of the aisle try to do.”

He added that “looks like” adding a “balanced budget amendment so that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely; supporting our police officers and giving them all the tools they need to do their jobs and get back home safely to their families; getting back to being energy independent in this country so we can lower the cost of gas and energy to every single person in the U.S., as well as New Jersey and the district; supporting and being an advocate for school choice so we can have that conversation finally; and protecting young women and female athletes by not forcing them to compete against biological men in high school and collegiate sports.”

Russomanno, originally from Trenton, before moving to California, and who joined the U.S. Marines as a truckdriver and marine security guard, later leaving the Marines to return to New Jersey, earning a degree in Law and Justice from TCNJ before joining the Trenton police force, eventually joining Ewing Police in 2014, pointed out “Libertarians are known as the party of principle.” He further maintained the belief of the party is “you can do whatever you want, so long as you don’t use first-right force or aggression against other people.”

“We believe you should not lie, cheat or steal,” he explained. “We believe you should keep your promises. And we apply these same parameters to the government as well. We believe in individual freedom and responsibility.”

The “three most important things to him today,” Russomanno declared, are “war, the Federal Reserve and our civil rights.”

Russomanno explained that he felt “we just got out of a 20-year war that got us nothing, except a bunch of young men and women who have physical and mental scars that probably will never heal” in referencing the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“It seems like we ended one war, only for us to get in another war, this time with a nuclear power,” maintained Russomanno in referencing the ongoing War in Ukraine.

The Libertarian candidate charged “we’re in a proxy war right now with Russia,” and that “we are doing it with Ukraine, but make no mistake about it, the target is Russia.”

While Russomanno, who called himself a “Hollywood Marine,” pointed out he has never been in combat, “some of my buddies have,” and “they are changed.”

“I love veterans so much, I would make sure we would make no more of them,” the Libertarian candidate declared, pointing out that some veterans have taken to suicide because of their traumatic experiences on the battlefield. “I would make sure we don’t put any more of our men and women in that kind of situation. I would push to end all the wars, right now.”

U.S. troops, he contended, “would be better used at home,” including by securing the country’s borders.

“Our troops could be used to protect our borders, instead of sticking our noses into other people’s business in other countries, which then causes them to dislike us,” he said.

Russomanno, in switching gears, charged the Federal Reserve is a “banking cartel” or a “private entity” that “has control over the nation’s money,” and that it “simply prints money” whenever a “politician decides to start another war.” He also alleged it is used by politicians to “bail out their buddies” by “printing more money,” or that it is used “every time they start another war or bail out another bank, or cooperation.” (The Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of the U.S. and maintains on its website that it provides the nation with a safe, flexible and stable monetary and financial system.)

“The problem is, we are the ones who pay for it,” he further charged.

The Libertarian candidate told forum attendees to “think Federal Reserve” every time that they “put gas in their car” or “go buy bacon.”

“I pay the same price for 8 ounces of bacon that I used to pay for 12 ounces or 16 ounces,” he said of the impact of inflation.

As the timer went off due to his five minutes to make his case to voters having expired, Russomanno quipped, “protect your civil rights – the government shouldn’t be spying on us!”

Kim, who hopes to hold on to power again in the Third District, having previously defeated former GOP Congressman Tom MacArthur in 2018 and a challenge in 2020 mounted by Republican businessman David Richter, went first in the forum section for the congressional candidates, and thus did not get an opportunity to defend himself against some of the attacks made by his current rivals.

But prior to them speaking, Kim, also a former U.S. diplomat under both the George W. Bush and Barrack Obama presidential administrations, said it was a “real honor to be able to do this job over the last couple of years in a community I grew up in,” one that “gave my family everything” and him a “world of opportunities.”

He discussed serving his “country” as a diplomat, “not a party.”

“That approach to public service is really at the heart of what I am trying to get done, and trying to push forward,” Kim declared.

One of the “priorities” Kim said he has undertaken stems “from something I heard right here in this room” the last time he ran for Congress, which is combatting “the high cost of healthcare, in particular the high cost of prescription drugs.”

He recounted conversations he held with constituents in which they reported to him that they were paying somewhere between $500 and $600 “out of pocket every single month” for prescription drugs, “which adds up to $5,000 or $6,000 a year,” or what he said amounts to “breaking their banks.”

Kim then touted having voted for the Inflation Reduction Act (though not by name), or “having passed into law legislation

Photo By Tom Valentino

Republican Congressional Candidate Bob Healey, during a LeisureTowne Candidates’ Forum on Oct. 19, tells the audience he is running to “put the brakes on a damaging and failed agenda of Joe Biden.”

Photo By Tom Valentino

Libertarian Christopher Russomanno, during a LeisureTowne Candidates’ Forum on Oct. 19, says he would vote to discontinue all wars, making sure the country “makes no more” veterans.

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