Blue Jersey Writer Testifies at Assembly Judiciary Committee Hearing on Marriage Equality
At this past week's hearing, three Blue Jersey writers testified in favor of the bill to promote marriage equality in the state. One of these writers, Loretta Weinberg, also happens to be the Senate Majority Leader and a prime sponsor of the bill. Here is her opening testimony.
Only Blue Jersey has gavel-to-gavel video coverage of yesterday's marriage equality hearings at the Assembly Judiciary Committee. I'll be editing and uploading the more relevant material over the next few days. Some will be frontpaged, some will appear on the sidebar, so be sure to check there, too.
I felt like a witness to history, and someday I'll be able to tell my grandson that Grampa was there when New Jersey worked to end yet another chapter in institutional discrimination.
Below are post-hearing comments from Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, and Garden State Equality's Steven Goldstein.
Gusciora is a gentleman. His comments about freshman Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi are generous and conciliatory. I would have been less kind. Schepisi's first vote in her political career was one to perpetuate discrimination. I'll post Schepisi's remarks later, but suffice it to say that although she appeared torn in her decision, she based it partly on the fact that the e-mails she received were 50-3 in favor of marriage discrimination. She touted the all-to-familiar themes of "separate but equal" arrangements for marriage and the old "some of my best friends are gay" line.
Weinberg and Goldstein were in maximum kvell mode after the vote - deservedly so. Unlike the recent Senate hearings, at yesterday's session everyone who desired to testify was given that opportunity.
Videos are below the fold.
Technical note: One legislator I spoke with had trouble viewing prior videos on his iPad, probably because iPads do not support Flash. I've uploaded these videos in QuickTime format. The files are larger and take more time to upload. If anyone has problems with videos, please send direct email to deciminyan@gmail.com
You've seen a minyan of rabbis testify in favor of the Marriage Equality bill at the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting this week. There were also dozens of Christian clergy supporting the bill. Their testimony provides a common sense, compassionate, and compelling case for the bill.
There were dozens of clergypersons at Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Hearings on marriage equality, representing many faiths and both sides of the issue. One of the largest contingents was a group of Reform, Reconstructionist, and Conservative rabbis from around the state, speaking in favor of marriage equality. Garden State Equality's Steven Goldstein referred to them as "a minyan of rabbis."
Senate President Steve Sweeney, who infamously abstained in January 2010 when marriage equality came up for a vote in the New Jersey Senate he had just taken leadership of, tells Blue Jersey today that when the Senate Judiciary Committee takes testimony on S-1 Tuesday morning, he will testify first.
After the upheaval and sadness in the NJ Legislature following the death of Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce - at the Statehouse and in the very last hour of Lame Duck - most of the traditional agenda-setting, the reorganization, and speeches of the Legislature were put off until Tuesday, Jan. 17.
Today, we're posting remarks as prepared for delivery of the top majority leadership in both Houses - on the Senate side of President Steve Sweeney & Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, and on the Assembly side of Speaker Sheila Oliver and Majority Leader Lou Greenwald.
It's important to see what they promise, how they see the challenges ahead, and what their best intentions for the new session are. We'll be watching for both the successes and the failures. We're damn sure you will be. But right now, as they set off to begin New Jersey's 215th Legislature, I've got nothing but my best wishes for their fortitude, internal integrity and stamina as they face down a Republican governor working to make a national brand of himself, at the expense of the people of New Jersey.
Please note that any formatting errors are likely my own, and not the legislators'.
Remarks as prepared for delivery by incoming Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg Jan. 17, as the NJ Senate reorganized for the 215th NJ Legislature:
I'd like to begin by acknowledging the incredible loss that the New Jersey Legislature and the entire State suffered with the passing of Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce.
Alex was a friend, and embodied the spirit of public service that we all should aspire to. He was also a fierce partisan, whose strength of conviction was unshakable. While we begin this new legislative season, I hope to be the sort of leader for my party as Alex was for his. Someone who's willing to fight for the principles in which I believe, and yet who can put partisan labels aside to advance the people's business.
I want to thank Alex's family - Betty Lou, children and grandchildren - for their friendship through the years, and for sharing him with the people of New Jersey.
Many of you last week met my own family, who are now safely ensconced back in California.
As Blue Jersey readers who came to our site today have seen, we made the decision to "go dark" as part of a massive online protest against two Bills that would do great damage to internet freedom by allowing the Government to censor and block web sites that corporations don't like. The two bills are as follows:
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, H.R. 3261) is on the surface a bill that attempts to curb online piracy. Sadly, the proposed way it goes about doing this would devastate the online economy and the overall freedom of the web. It would particularly affect sites with heavy user generated content. Sites like Youtube, Reddit, Twitter, and others may cease to exist in their current form if this bill is passed.
That's how Garden State Equality's leader Steven Goldstein described the pace of the marriage equality effort in New Jersey. He spoke briefly at today's legislative press conference in Trenton:
Among the scores of Democratic politicians in today's crowded Marriage Equality press conference was one federal official, Congressman Rush Holt. Holt represented the entire New Jersey congressional delegation - all seven congressmen and both senators - in expressing their support for the Marriage Equality bill, S1. Holt's brief remarks are below; the text of the letter is after the fold.
The other day, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown took to the Senate floor to point out the difference between Christian teaching as he understands it and what is being practiced in the governors office of his own state (that's Gov. John Kasich) and in Trenton (Christie) and Wisconsin (Scott Walker).
We actually picked up the video from a scandalized (presumably) right-winger, who thinks Brown is "slandering the religious faith" of those men. Actually he's discussing what that faith actually teaches.
Brown talks about the Rerum Novarum, the words of Pope Leo XIII in 1891. This is Catholic social teaching at its most fundamental, the foundation of doctrine developed by the Catholic Church over decades on matters of poverty, wealth, economics, social organization and the state. It was no wild-eyed lefty document; it abhorred communism (but also unrestricted capitalism) and supported the right to private property. But it also talked about how the free market cannot escape moral responsibility:
Let the working man and the employer make free agreements, and in particular let them agree freely as to the wages; nevertheless, there underlies a dictate of natural justice more imperious and ancient than any bargain between man and man, namely, that wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner. If through necessity or fear of a worse evil the workman accept harder conditions because an employer or contractor will afford him no better, he is made the victim of force and injustice.
Poverty. Fairness. Equality. Egalitarianism. This is the bible Sen. Brown wants to remind our governor about; as he targets workers on behalf of the wealthy. Increasingly, particularly in Christie role as Mitt Romney's traveling pitbull, you will see our booming governor as the hero of the wealthy against the rest of us, and model for lesser GOP leaders. Brown nails the tensions Christie should be feeling, but probably is not. Watch:
When you think of pollsters in New Jersey, one of the first names that comes to mind is Patrick Murray of Monmouth University. Yet, even an iconic figure like Murray has succumbed to the Tea Party propaganda. Check out this video snippet from his interview on NJ Today:
"Republican voters are against any tax hikes. Democratic voters are against any cost cuts."
The first part of Murray's statement is true, as we have seen with the so-called "super committee" and Governor Christie's justifying his double veto of the millionaire's tax based on the false assertion that it would drive wealthy people out of the state. But stating that Democratic voters are against cost cutting is just plain wrong and Murray should know better.
First, many Democrats are in favor of cutting the bloated defense and homeland security budgets, but have been stymied by the Republican minority. But even ignoring this obvious fact, Democrats have long been willing to compromise (some say too willing) on social programs to get the Republican votes they need to unjam the Senate filibusters that have been crippling our economy.
I can only assume that Murray has fallen victim to the biases about the economy that are pervasive within the mainstream corporate media.
Here they are in their first public appearance together, the new leadership teams in both the Assembly and Senate. (Note: incoming Senate President Pro Tempore Nia Gill was not present).
"If you don't know where you're going,
you'll wind up somewhere else."
- Yogi Berra of Montclair, New Jersey
I've written and deleted six versions of this diary about the maneuvers that discarded two people who distinguished themselves this year by exhibiting core Democratic values, when it wasn't always simple to do so. Frankly, it's hard to think about this without wanting to pick the broken glass out of my teeth; Even with solid Democratic wins, this has been an awful week. A tense week for some people we admire greatly.
It was easier, and perhaps more profitable this year to bind with the Christie collaborationists. To fall in line. To hear Tea Party activists screaming in one ear about the cost of government, and New Jersey's unelected power brokers whispering soft directions in the other ear. Plenty of our Democrats fell in line. On more than one issue. Barbara Buono and Joe Cryan did not.
In the Senate Democratic caucus, the vote has just been taken. By a unanimous vote, Steve Sweeney is re-elected as Senate President. Senator Weinberg is the new Senate Majority Leader in this session.
Our best wishes to both, and to outgoing Majority Leader Barbara Buono.
UPDATE: Now posted under the fold: Letter from Senator Buono to her colleagues in the New Jersey State Senate this morning regarding her decision to not seek re-election as Majority Leader.
See also Unanimous: Sweeney Senate President, Weinberg Majority Leader politickernj gets it in print before we do, Majority Leader Barbara Buono has, as this morning's caucus meeting to determine leadership gets underway, taken herself out of the running.
This morning, votes are lined up to elect Loretta Weinberg Majority Leader for the next Senate session, after a power-sharing arrangement was suggested by Senate President Steve Sweeney, and rejected by Sen. Buono.
Despite the snow and slush, there was a good turnout at a Get Out The Vote Rally tonight in Willingboro. The keynote speaker was Newark Mayor Cory Booker (who was introduced by long-time New Jersey resident and Olympic gold medal winner Carl Lewis). Booker spoke in support of our legislative slate (Assemblyman Herb Conaway, Troy Singleton, and Gail Cook). Following his remarks, Booker spoke with Blue Jersey:
Mayor Booker's remarks to the crowd are below the fold.
