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‘Unusual’ State Senate Debate Between One-Time Running Mates Reveals Where Addiego and Stanfield No Longer See Eye-to-Eye By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer
M E DF OR D — A n “ u n u s u a l ” 8 t h Legislative District debate between a Democrat and a Republican who were once running mates, the result of threeterm state Senator Dawn Marie Addiego (also a former eight-year freeholder and two-year assemblywoman) deserting the GOP in 2019 for the Democratic party and now being challenged by Assemblywoman Jean Stanfield, a former 18-year GOP sheriff in Burlington County, played out on the evening of Oct. 24. The 9 p.m. Sunday night, all-virtual oneon-one debate between the state Senate candidates in a district of some 220,000 residents with 175,000 individuals who are of voting age, was the only one in the state’s “most competitive” and “maybe most expensive” race of the 2021 election cycle, according to lead debate moderator David Wildstein, editor of the New Jersey Globe, which hosted the event. Decision to Switch Parties It was the elephant in the room and the first topic tackled. And Addiego had no choice but to confront questions head-on about her January 2019 decision to part ways with the GOP and become a Democrat. “I wanted to have a seat at the table,” she said of the reason behind her decision, given that Democrats are currently in control of all three branches of state government. Addiego added another reason for making the switch was that “let’s face it,” the makeup of the district and state “has changed.” “My constituency has changed,” she maintained. “And I think I can better serve my constituents as a Democrat. I have proven that.” By now having a seat at the table, according to the state Senator, she has not only been able to get “increased property tax freezes and retirement deductions for seniors,” but also more aid for local school districts that saw it reduced through a revised school funding formula (implemented by Senate Bill S-2, signed into law by Democratic Governor Phil Murphy). It has also allowed her, she said, to “fight the governor” to give up “bridge money for children with special needs who aged out in schools because of COVID.” “I think I did the right thing for the people and that is all I can do,” declared Addiego of her decision to leave the GOP. Stanfield, however, called the state Senator’s de cision to sw itch par ties “reprehensible.” “She gave a seat away that wasn’t really hers to give away,” Stanfield maintained. “It belongs to the supporters and the people who helped get her there. And the people who voted for her.” Addiego’s “change in values,” according to Stanfield, is what compelled her to come out of retirement and “jump in” to the Assembly race in 2019 with Assemblyman Ryan Peters, who was a running mate of Addiego’s on the district GOP slate in 2017 and purportedly did not receive any advance notice of the state Senator’s decision to part ways with the GOP prior to it being announced. “She a lso left one of my hero e s, Assemblyman Ryan Peters, a Navy Seal, high and dry,” Stanfield pointed out. As for Addiego “‘wanting a seat at the table,’” Stanfield called that “very ironic” considering “time-after-time the state Senator doesn’t vote,” pointing to bills such as one that banned the use of plastic bags beginning in 2022 as an example. But the most “disturbing” of the state Senator’s decisions to not vote, according
to the assemblywoman, was one for a bill that had made it illegal for police officers to notify parents that a juvenile belonging to them was caught in possession of marijuana or alcohol (see separate story). The state Senator, in response, accused Stanfield of “misleading” the electorate “because it was my legislation that I coprimed that required police officers to notify parents when their children were caught with drugs or alcohol.” But Stanfield countered that Addiego was a major sponsor of a cleanup bill “to cure the embarrassment she caused to begin with.” “Sh e’s ly i ng!” d e c l a r e d Add i ego, m a i nt a i n i ng t here were pro c e du r a l requirements that had to be followed. Addiego, during her opening statement, maintained that she was an “independent voice for South Jersey,” who is “unafraid to stand up to any party’s leadership.” “I put the needs of my constituents first,” she maintained. School Masking Mandates When it comes to masking kids in schools due to the Coronavirus pandemic, as is currently mandated by Murphy through a highly controversial executive order, Addiego said she “supports whatever the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says we should do.” “We have done well as a state by following the CDC,” the state Senator contended. “If the CDC says we should do it, I think we should. If the CDC says we don’t have to, I certainly would support that as well.” Stanfield, however, retorted that “the parents need to make these choices for their children.” She suggested that masking was not necessary for the teenagers in high school who have already been vaccinated. “We need to start using commonsense and empowering parents again,” Stanfield asserted. “My child is my choice … I don’t want someone else telling me what to do with my child.” State Aid Cuts to Schools Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics, co-moderating the debate with Wildstein, pointed out that half the districts in the 8th District received increased school funding under the revised school funding formula, while “half of them have lost it (aid) by double digits.” Addiego, in response, was quick to point out that she “did not vote for S-2.” “I don’t want to hurt any school that benefited from S-2,” she declared. “I just think we need to do it fairly and we need to relook at it.” The state Senator called for the school funding formula to be “reviewed more often” and maintained she has proposed legislation to create a “task force” to conduct such reviews. Stanfield noted that she and Peters also submitted a bill to review the school funding formula, claiming that was done “way before” the state Senator submitted one. She noted that a “pause” on the funding cuts was requested by the 8th District GOP delegation because they felt Murphy could have used federal COVID relief monies to avert having to cut aid. “He just turned a deaf ear,” Stanfield maintained. “Everything that could be done hasn’t been done for our schools.” Addiego pointed out that Stanfield “voted twice against passing the state budget,” which contained the school funding, but Stanfield countered that the budget was full of “wasteful spending.” “Yes, there were some good parts to it,” Stanfield said. “But there were some parts of See DEBATE/ Page 8
Saturday, October 30, 2021
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