NJ-10: Ron Rice Issues a Challenge

Give me the progressive in congress we know (0.00 / 0)

There's no reason not to keep Payne other than his age.  That shouldn't be a deciding factor, particularly since he's a kid compared to Lautenberg.  Plus Rice allying himself with Booker should give a progressive pause.

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by: 12mileseastofTrenton @ Fri Feb 03, 2012 at 20:01:14 PM UTC

Payne is to Adubato... (4.00 / 1)

...what Andrews is to Norcross.  The entire Payne/Stanley/Thigpen family is bought and paid for by the Adubato political machine.  That is the progressive we know.

Regardless of what one might think of Cory Booker since he has become Mayor (his recent stand against a marriage equality referendum was definitely a redeeming moment for me) when he and his team ran against the Sharpe/Rice political machine in 2002 and 2006 there can be no doubt which side was the progressive side and Payne was not on it.  In fact, when Joe DiVincenzo became County Executive in 2002, defeating his progressive opponent, Tom Giblin, in the Democratic primary, the Payne/Stanley/Thigpen families were key allies.

Payne has a progressive voting record, but that is all that he has.  He has never been a leader on any single issue of concern to the progressive community to the degree that Ron C. Rice has.  When members of Newark's LGBT community were victims of hate crimes, Ron was standing beside them demanding justice while both Newark's churches and police were looking the other way and Payne was nowhere to be found.  

Payne didn't bother to stand up for anyone in 2003-4 when Ron was standing up loud and proud for Howard Dean at our earliest Meetups in Essex County.  He was our first African-American leader and was essential for our efforts to make inroads into the state's urban areas, especially considering how white and suburban our organization was until he stepped forward.

When most of the rest of the state, including Payne, was going along with the Democratic establishment and backing Hillary Clinton in 2007-8, Ron was standing up loud and proud for President Obama.  Despite this, unless the Hudson and Union Democratic organizations exhibit an extraordinary amount of independence and political courage, Ron will most likely not be on the same line as President Obama when Democrats vote in June.

Because Ron will most likely be running off of the line in all of these counties, he is going to need progressives to be as unified behind him as possible.  If we want to change the political culture in our party and our state, we need to start by making primary elections a change agent and making it clear to all of our elected officials that no matter how good they are, it is always possible for someone better to come along and challenge them.

Elected offices at every level cannot be lifetime appointments.  Our elections have to matter and if our districts are going to be gerrymandered to the point that general elections become an exercise in futility, then we have to be able to use primary elections to create change when appropriate and necessary.  If you ever want to see progressives destroy the political machines in this state, at some point in time, you need to have some faith in young reformers like Ron C. Rice.  He is the future and Payne is the past.

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by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Sat Feb 04, 2012 at 00:36:52 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Booker (0.00 / 0)

I know Payne's voting record.  Rice doesn't even have one.  But he has thrown in his lot with Christie's and Michelle Rhee's good buddy, Cory Booker.  That doesn't give one the comfort of believing that Rice would be any better than, or even equal to, Payne.

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by: 12mileseastofTrenton @ Sat Feb 04, 2012 at 01:49:49 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Ron... (0.00 / 0)

...is as much of a free and independent thinker as they come.  Yes, he has been an ally of Booker' since 2002, when they were trying to rescue Newark from Sharpe James, but since Booker has been Mayor and Rice has been Councilman, there have been plenty of times when they have agreed and disagreed on issues and Ron has been visible and vocal every time on both counts.  If you are going to play the association game, then it is a wash, because Payne is associated with Adubato who is associated with Christie and Rice is associated with Booker who is associated with Christie.

I was under the impression that you were as opposed to the political machines in this state as anyone here, but I don't know how you expect that anything is going to change unless you give someone like Ron, who is willing to buck the system, stand up, and be a leader for progressive values the benefit of the doubt.

Does everything come down to charter schools with you?  I don't know what Ron's position on them is, but the fact of the matter is that there are both conservatives and liberals who support charter schools, but the difference between conservatives and liberals on charter schools is that conservatives believe that charter schools are the panacea for public education and liberals believe that they have a role within public education.  Rhee believes the former while Booker believes the latter.

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by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Sat Feb 04, 2012 at 05:23:30 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

There's no reason to replace Payne (0.00 / 0)

He has an excellent voting record.  Why would you want to replace him with someone with a blank voting record?  That's the point.

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by: 12mileseastofTrenton @ Sat Feb 04, 2012 at 12:22:22 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Because... (0.00 / 0)

...anyone who knows Ron as I have for the last seven years knows that he does more than vote.  He is a visible and vocal leader on issues.  Ron is not going to vote differently on issues of concern to progressives than Payne, but where he will be much better than Payne is the degree to which he will fight both on the ground in the community-at-large and also in Washington.  Payne doesn't fight for anything.  All he does is vote.  That is not enough.

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by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Sat Feb 04, 2012 at 22:11:10 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Congressman Payne..... (0.00 / 0)

....he's a good guy but he's largely invisible. he always votes the democratic way but Newark needs someone who's less resigned to the backbenches as Payne is.

I hope Ron Rice Jr. runs.

activist for hire.

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by: Jay Lassiter @ Sun Feb 05, 2012 at 11:37:51 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

How do you know he's not going to vote differently? (0.00 / 0)

You know how he's going to vote on every issue?

What's important is how a representative votes.  Not whether they get on Oprah or Morning Joe.  It's like the old saying aboout a bird in the hand.  As I said, there's no reason to replace someone with an excellent voting record with someone who might vote the same way on all issues of importance.

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by: 12mileseastofTrenton @ Sun Feb 05, 2012 at 14:16:44 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Because... (0.00 / 0)

...I have known Ron for a while now and I know that he is at least as progressive as Payne if not moreso.  Unlike the Payne/Stanley/Thigpen families, Ron is not bought and paid for by the Adubato political machine.

We need more than just progressive votes.  We need progressive leadership.  We need someone like Ron who is going to be visible and vocal on our issues of concern.

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by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Mon Feb 06, 2012 at 15:03:27 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

say wha???? (0.00 / 0)

"""A third generation Newarker, Ron attended Newark public schools and graduated from the prestigious Pingry School in Martinsville, NJ.""""

How the heck does the son of a retired cop and councilman go to the most expensive private high school in New Jersey, two hours away from Newark?

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by: Progressif @ Fri Feb 03, 2012 at 20:14:08 PM UTC