In 14th District, Calabro and Harvey deserve a chance

[Home News Tribune]

October 27, 2009

http://mycentraljersey.com/article/20091027/OPINION01/910270333/1060?GID=moP6VqLuXXNqbT7gKHIEKPlbwKCqwpEH7ZaKkl73kWk%3D

In 14th District, Calabro and Harvey deserve a chance


Some of the incumbent state lawmakers running for re-election this year can't be shown the door quickly enough on their way out of Trenton. Others — especially some quality Republican legislators who have been able to wield so little influence for much of this decade — could help fix things in state government, regardless of their current stigma of incumbency.

Linda Greenstein falls somewhere in between. A Democratic representative since 2000, Greenstein has had a seat at the legislative table throughout all of the missteps and failures of the Gov. Jon Corzine administration and the aborted term of Jim McGreevey before that. She has signed on to countless measures along with the rest of her party colleagues, sharing some of the responsibility for the costly direction of the state.

Yet there are a few counterpoints in her favor. Operating in one of the more competitive legislative districts in the state, Greenstein doesn't have the benefit of a virtual free pass to re-election. She has voluntarily participated in the Clean Elections experiment - discontinued this year - that was designed to curb campaign-donor influence of elections. And she has shown flashes of a reform-minded spirit, with a strong environmental record.

But Greenstein is also too much of an apologist for the slow pace of reform. She acknowledges that some lawmakers can't be trusted, and yet seems apathetic to trying to change a governing process obstructed by such unworthy characters. She claims to be dissatisfied with Trenton's culture but in the end seems most concerned with protecting her own power.

It's not enough to be willing to express unhappiness with elements of the status quo. And a true reformer has to do more than take the occasional independent stand. If Greenstein and her running mate, incumbent Wayne DeAngelo, don't want to fight harder for a new culture in state politics, others need to be sent into the battle. That's why we endorse Republicans Bill Harvey and Rob Calabro.

Calabro has some promise. As the owner of Porfirio's Italian Food Market in Hamilton, Calabro would bring to the Statehouse some valuable real-world experience on the challenges businesses face in the state and the kinds of fixes that would work. Harvey, an attorney, is a little too protective of public worker benefits - he notes that he comes from a family of state workers. But Harvey and Calabro both promote a "common-sense plan' of efficiencies that echo much of Gannett New Jersey's own 20-point plan to reduce government costs in the state.

DeAngelo is seeking just his second term, but already appears to be little more than a loyal Democrat mostly toeing the party line. There'd be some value in that if the current leadership knew what it was doing, but it doesn't.

Greenstein, more than many of the current incumbents, at least acknowledges that some problems do exist in how Trenton operates. But if she won't do anything about them, does it matter?

Calabro and Harvey will provide some fresh faces and, we hope, a more aggressive approach to reform. They receive our endorsement.