Normally it would be a parent’s worst nightmare: teenage son takes advantage of the vacation period to invite a bunch of friends over to his parents’ home for a party. But at Carol and David Brett’s this weekend, the political opinions were flowing more feely than the drinks. Mark Brett rallied his friends, many of them first-time voters this year, in support of my candidacy in the 4th Congressional District, and Barack Obama’s for President. Oh, and his parents were there too.

A cardboard cut-out of Barack Obama smiling out from the porch told me I’d come to the right place. (I’m yet to be honored with a life-size replica, but I see these ones of our presidential candidate springing up all over the 4th District.) We each began by introducing ourselves, and explaining what drove our interest and activism in politics. It was frustration with the current state of affairs that drove Janice Mironov, mayor of East Windsor, to seek election. Hers was a feeling shared. It was both sad and heartening to hear what the young people of East Windsor had to say about current politics. Many have been inspired by Barack Obama’s historic candidacy. But coupled with that was a frustration with the current politicians in Washington.

The host of the party, Mark, has particular reasons to desire a change in Washington. Embryonic stem-cell research, science that has huge potential to improve - and save - the lives of millions of people, has been repeatedly blocked by the Bush administration. And Chris Smith has opposed every bill that could create life-saving techniques through this technology. Sitting in the Brett’s living-room and hearing the testimony of someone who is such a strong proponent of this technology really brings it home to you just how strong the imperative for change now is. Only the week before I was at house party in Freehold where the plight of diabetes sufferers was raised. We need change to ensure that these Americans have access to the basic quality of life that most of us take for granted, made possible through the science that has always been a great strength of our nation.

And it’s not just the young who would benefit from embryonic stem-cell research. As anyone who has cared for an elderly relative will be aware, or who has visited grandma or grandpa in a care home, we have a high number of Alzheimer’s suffers in our district, not least because of central New Jersey’s proud industrial history. Alzheimer’s is a disease for which there is no cure, but for which there is hope in the very research Chris Smith opposes.

As I go to these house parties all over the district, it’s regular voters who bring home to me most strongly the arguments for change. We’ve all heard the high rhetorical calls for change. But it’s on the doorsteps and in the living rooms of our neighborhoods that that argument is made most compelling.

The United States’ costly and disastrously planned intervention in Iraq, our dependence on foreign oil, and America’s reputation abroad were high on everyone’s list of change priorities. Many of them were college kids home for the vacation, but who were brought up and vote in New Jersey. That they chose to spend their Friday night talking politics with a history teacher and the parents of a friend, says a lot, I think, about the imperative facing us at this election.

House parties are a great way to engage in the political process in a year which has already been transformative in modern American history. If you’d like to engage with your friends and neighbours, we can help you set up a party. Call our campaign headquarters in Hamilton at 609 888 1925, or in Brick, at 732 477 0156, and we can help you make it happen.

Folks enjoying the party!

Originally uploaded by Josh Zeitz

Last Monday we consolidated our voter out-reach in the district, opening our second campaign office in Brick. The new Brick office complements the steady work we’ve been doing at our Hamilton HQ over the last three months. This was a very exciting occasion for the campaign, as it will ensure we can reach all voters with our message: that change is needed in Washington to support middle class folks in New Jersey.

At the Brick office we’re phone-banking and sending out canvassers to pound the pavement, making voters aware of the the alternative to an outdated conservative Republican.

Wyatt Earp was there with former Democratic Congressional candidate, Carol Gay, as well as Larry Jones, who’s running for Ocean County Surrogate, to help me welcome my supporters. The opening party drew a good crowd, as you can see from the photos!

The price of gas, the war in Iraq, and the rising cost of living were all on people’s minds. It was a great opportunity for me to kick-start the conversation with voters in this part of our district, all of whom share a desire for change.

The new offices are perfect for our purposes and I’m really pleased with my team’s efforts to get them up and running. There was a great atmosphere at the party that has translated into a good initial progress. Here’s to the team in Brick! Thanks to everyone for their efforts.

If you’d like to volunteer, please get in touch with our Brick campaign manager, Josh Hedli, at 732 477 0156. The offices are located at The 254 Brick Blvd. Go in and take a look!

American families are hurting because our economy is hurting. Just in the past six months, we’ve seen almost half a million American jobs disappear. To take a longer view, George W. Bush’s administration has seen the weakest job growth, less than half of one percent per year, of any President since Herbert Hoover. The Bush-Smith record on jobs is abysmal. By contrast, under Bill Clinton jobs grew at five times that rate (2.5% average growth per year). And no one can accuse Chris Smith of having supported Bill Clinton.

Job losses are one problem, and inflation is another. During the past twelve months, wages have risen by 2.8%. While that sounds good, inflation has jumped 4%, which means that the average person who has actually had a job has had his or her salary cut by more than 1% over the past year. It’s worth mentioning that the average American family’s annual household income is actually lower now by about $1000 compared to when George Bush took office seven years ago, while health insurance premiums have doubled (from $6000 to $12,000 per year) and, as we all know, the price of a gallon of gas has tripled. American families are losing ground. We need to do something, and we need to do it now.

President Bush and his allies in Congress blocked an attempt by progressives to extend unemployment benefits, on a temporary basis during this difficult time, by an additional twenty six weeks. All they would allow is thirteen more weeks. When breadwinners lose their jobs, families lose more than money, they can lose health insurance, they can fall behind on mortgage payments, they can lose a sense of security and well-being. That’s why I opposed George W. Bush, and support extending unemployment benefits by an additional twenty-six weeks.

One of the other key problems hurting families and hurting the broader economy is the housing and mortgage crisis. Homeowners, too many of whom were sold mortgages by brokers using deceptive practices, can’t make their payments because they lose their jobs or because of rising costs of living (or both). This leads to more foreclosures, which then hurts the value of everyone else’s homes, leaving many of us with negative equity. We have a vicious cycle that has to be broken.

It didn’t have to be this way. George Bush and his supporters in Congress, like Chris Smith, turned a blind eye to the excesses in the housing and mortgage market. Smith voted to deregulate the financial services industry in 1999, opening the door for the Wild West lending practices of the Bush years that helped bring about the subprime mortgage crisis [S. 900, Vote #570, 11/4/99] Smith, Christopher (NJ/R) Y. It’s par for the course when dealing with Republican mismanagement.

More broadly, we need to have an economy that grows, and whose growth does not only benefit those who are already wealthy. I know that working people’s energy and productivity drive economic growth, and I’ll fight to make economic growth work for all families. That’s why I’m running for Congress.

First, I want to wish you all a Happy 4th of July. I’ve been thinking about the meaning of Independence Day, a day on which we as a people publicly declared our desire to be masters of our own destiny, to chart our own course as a free and independent society no longer under the control of others. For 232 years we Americans have done just that. We have governed ourselves, and I’d say that our record is one in which we can justly take a great deal of pride.

On this 4th of July, I’ve also been thinking about another kind of independence, namely energy independence. We are a strong country with our best days yet ahead of us. Right now, however, we face tremendous problems because we are deeply dependent on foreign oil.  And we’re not just importing oil from friendly democracies like Canada, but from places like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, countries who have very different values and interests from our own.

We’ve seen the price of oil go through the roof since George Bush, supported by Chris Smith, invaded Iraq and destabilized the Gulf region. Energy independence is vital because too many families can’t afford to fill up their gas tanks or heat their homes, and also because too much of what we spend on energy ends up with regimes or terrorist groups that want to hurt us here at home and attack our brave servicemen and women in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the summer of 1776 our Founding Fathers literally put their lives on the line to declare our independence from King George III. We need to honor their bravery, and to defend our country’s independence for the sake of our children by taking serious measures starting this summer.

We must increase fuel economy standards for vehicles and invest in more renewable energy. We also need to increase the Hybrid-Vehicle tax credit so all working families can afford a new, fuel efficient vehicle for the cost of their current car payment. Greater fuel efficiency means we import less oil and help families pay the bills. Think about it. If your car got twice as many miles to the gallon, it would be like cutting the price of gas in half because each gallon would get you twice as far.

George Bush and Chris Smith’s answer to our energy problems is to ask the Saudi King to increase oil production, which will do nothing more than send more American dollars into Saudi coffers.

The time has come to decide whether we are going to elect leaders who fight for energy independence or whether we will continue to send politicians back to Washington, DC who won’t push for change because their party is in in the pocket of multinational oil companies. That’s why we need a change, why we need new leadership. That’s why I’m running for Congress.

It’s time to close the so-called “Enron Loophole.”

As we’ve all seen on the news recently, out of control energy speculation on stock markets is one reason that oil and gas prices are so high. The impact is crippling our entire economy and hurting middle-class families.

In 2000, the Enron Loophole became law when Enron lobbyists were able to get Phil Gramm, then-Senator from Texas and John McCain’s chief economic advisor, to slip it into a piece of legislation in the dead of night. The Enron loophole prevented the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from overseeing certain kinds of energy futures trading, and many experts believe that the loophole helped create the energy crisis in California because it allowed companies like Enron to manipulate prices in trading markets that the CFTC could not regulate. My opponent, Chris Smith voted for this legislation.

The recent farm bill, which Chris Smith voted against, helped curb some of the problems created by the Enron loophole, but there is much more that needs to be done. In order to fully close the Enron loophole, we need to make sure that the trading of energy futures is governed by rules that have some teeth. We need strict criminal penalties for breaking the law and constant oversight to ensure rules are not being broken. We should also make sure than US energy futures cannot be traded in overseas markets where anti-speculation rules do not exist or are not enforced. I also support the thorough investigation of the oil markets by both the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice.

Speculation isn’t the only reason gas is $4 a gallon. We all know that. We need to use energy more efficiently and give our citizens real incentives to do so. We need to encourage private industry to develop alternative sources of energy, and give them incentives to do so. We also need to help people who are hurting right now because of the skyrocketing cost of gas and its effects on the cost of other basic necessities. But speculation is a piece of the puzzle, and it is one piece we can do something about right now.

With gas prices at $4/gallon, the last thing New Jersey drivers deserve is to get ripped off by gas station owners. I read recently about the inspections conducted by law enforcement of over 1000 gas stations in all 21 counties of our state. Any violations would be unacceptable, but over 350 station owners, more than one in three, were found in violation.

You know, this past weekend I walked through two precincts in Bordentown Township and attended the really amazing Florence Occasion in the Park. People told me they were fed up with the high cost of gas, and one specifically brought up how many gas stations were cited for cheating drivers at the pump.

Like most of you, I am outraged at these violations, which Attorney General Anne Milgram said are in all likelihood intentional attempts to deceive consumers. I’m glad that these inspections took place and that drivers can now be more confident that they are at least getting what they are paying four dollars a gallon for. I would suggest they mandate more frequent inspections.

It’s for reasons like this that I support strict criminal penalties for price gouging. The law has to protect drivers not only from gas station owners but also from the Big Oil companies who are making record profits and still receiving outrageous subsidies from our governments in Washington. We need measures that investigate price fixing by Oil Cartels like OPEC as well as unfair and ridiculous prices set by the biggest oil producers in the United States.

You can read more about where I stand on gas prices in my last post, available at: http://blog.joshzeitz.com/index.php/2008/6/18/Fifth-Graders:-Gas-Prices-Are-a-Crisis/

Today, I paid $3.88 per gallon to fill up my car. Accustomed as I am to living on a history teacher’s salary, I know how much these high gas prices hurt, and how they impact everything else we buy.

Recently, I had the privilege of speaking with 5th grade students at the Leadership Academy Charter School in Trenton about the issues they feel are important in this year’s election. Nearly every student talked about how hard it was for their parents to afford the rising cost of gas. They also knew that when the price of gas goes up, so does the cost of food, clothing, and other basic necessities. The problem is so obvious that even fifth graders realize we’re in a crisis, yet our leaders in Washington have let this problem fester so long that it’s squeezing New Jersey families to the breaking point.

Simply put, New Jersey families can no longer afford to get by in George Bush’s economy. The Republicans in Washington are under the influence of big oil, which is raking in huge profits thanks to those same high gas prices. Unfortunately, my opponent, Chris Smith, has been part of the problem. He has consistently voted for huge subsidies for energy corporations while also voting against tougher laws against price gouging at the pump. We need a change in Congress. We need to elect people who actually put the interests of Central Jersey’s families ahead of corporate profits.

Our government needs to help families deal with these high gas prices. We need to take direct action immediately.

We need to start by strengthening laws against price gouging. We should establish criminal penalties for CEOs who artificially inflate prices. Congress should also investigate price fixing by rich oil cartels like OPEC.

Second, we need to make new, fuel-efficient hybrid cars affordable for all American families. Currently, the tax credit for buying hybrids is too small, and there is a limit on the number of families who can receive it. We need to increase these tax breaks so that all families can afford a fuel-efficient vehicle for the cost of their current car payments. How do we pay for it? By eliminating the billions we give to oil companies that are already making record profits.

We simply can’t wait any longer. When the price of a gallon of gas goes up by a dollar, as it has in only the past year or so, it means that Americans are paying an extra $142 billion each year to fill up their tanks.

This is a serious problem that, as Trenton’s fifth graders rightly noted, hurts families - not only at the gas station, but at the supermarket and beyond. It’s also a national security problem. Americans have spent about $600 billion over the past twelve months on gasoline, and almost $400 billion of that has gone to foreign oil producers.

Sixteen gallons of gas at $4 per gallon. More than $60 to fill up a tank. By increasing the efficiency of our cars, we can help NJ families achieve the economic security they enjoyed before George Bush became president. In the long run, by developing new, innovative technologies we can create a green economy that provides high-paying jobs here in Central Jersey, while alleviating our pain at the pump. Together, we can create a more affordable and secure future.

 This morning, I had the privilege of attending an interfaith prayer meeting in Lakewood to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The turnout was excellent and drew from the ranks of the community’s Protestant, Catholic and Jewish communities.  Black and white, lay and clergy, all gathered to renew their commitment to the ideals that King championed over his too-short lifetime.

An accomplished religious scholar, King was one of the most thoughtful and important American political philosophers of the last century.  In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” one of his most powerful works, dated April 16, 1963, Dr. King explained that those who fought for civil rights “were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.”

King made us realize that discrimination against one group of Americans was a violation of our country’s most sacred value: equality. He also understood that a nation cannot truly be free if some of its people live in a state of economic insecurity and impoverishment, while others enjoy great affluence and comfort.  This was a theme he visited in many of his later writing and speeches, and one that surely resonates today.

As one of the speakers at the Lakewood prayer meeting wisely advised, we need to celebrate Dr. King’s life every day - not just one day; and we need to find new ways to keep his legacy alive.

Last Friday marked the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a day that Franklin Delano Roosevelt told the American people would “live in infamy.”

Sixty-six years later, I’ve been thinking about American history, but also about another, more recent day when America was caught unaware, and about the lack of progress on national defense and homeland security since then.

Unfortunately, in the years immediately following 9/11, George Bush and Congress failed to take the necessary steps to make our country safer and our position in the world stronger. After Pearl Harbor, FDR went to war against Japan and its allies, while at the same time building military and political alliances with democratic governments around the world. By contrast, after 9/11 George Bush alienated our natural allies in the war on terror and pursued policies that isolated America on the global stage. Whereas FDR mobilized the country for a military campaign against the Axis Powers, George Bush and Congress committed strategic errors that set us back years, if not decades, in the fight against Al Qaeda. Even as Osama Bin Laden escaped from Tora Bora into the mountains along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, George Bush sent our fighting men and women into Iraq, a country whose leader, while an evil dictator, was not even remotely responsible for the attacks of 9/11. The Iraq war has made our country less safe. It’s time to bring it to an orderly end, and bring our troops home in a responsible, rapid fashion.

Here at home, George Bush recently announced that he wants to slash spending on first-responders and homeland security by more than 50 percent. As a historian, I believe we need to learn from our mistakes so that history does not repeat itself. We need leaders in Washington who understand that being smart and being strong are not mutually exclusive. One goes naturally with the other. The current leadership has let us down. It’s time to try something new.

 The New York Times recently published two troubling articles about hunger and poverty in America.  Both exposés place in sharp relief the problems many Americans are experiencing in these days of skyrocketing food, fuel, and health care inflation.

The first article concerns the plight of senior citizens from Maine who live below the poverty line.  Having spent their lives at hard and low-paying jobs - working in fish and blueberry processing plants, or as lumberjacks and fishermen - these folks should be enjoying their twilight years in comfort and security.  Instead, they are struggling to balance medical bills, home heating payments, and grocery bills.  One such woman is Viola Brooks, an 81-year-old Maine resident who gets by, just barely, on $700 in Social Security payments and food stamps each month.  Her one-shot fuel subsidy from the state amounts to $500, but with oil running upwards of $98 per barrel, the average cost of heating a home will rise from $1800 last winter to $3000 this winter. 

From the NYT:

Viola Brooks, 81, worked in fish and blueberry factories while her husband worked in textile and logging jobs. Now widowed, she gets $588 a month from Social Security, supplemented by $112 in food stamps and one-time fuel aid of more than $500 for the winter.

But this year, that fuel aid will not fill a single tank. The average house cost $1,800 to heat last year, and minimal comfort this winter may require closer to $3,000; trailers will require somewhat less. Electricity and rent already take up most of Ms. Brooks’s income.

“I’m broke every month, and the trailer needs storm windows,” she said. “I cook a lot of pea soup and baked beans and buy flour to make biscuits.”

“Some day I’d like to go to a hairdresser,” Ms. Brooks said of a dream deferred. Still she says she enjoys her lovebirds and cats, and points out that “some people have it worse.”

Another NYT article explains that “food banks around the country are reporting critical shortages that have forced them to ration supplies, distribute staples usually reserved for disaster relief and in some instances close.”

“It’s one of the most demanding years I’ve seen in my 30 years” in the field, said Catherine D’Amato, president and chief executive of the Greater Boston Food Bank, comparing the situation to the recession of the late 1970s…

…Lane Kenworthy, a professor of sociology and political science at the University of Arizona, agreed, saying: “The overall picture is that household incomes are kind of stuck. There’s very little way to increase income, and most people have a very heavy debt load. Any event that increases your costs is really, really troublesome, because you’re already stretched thin.”

I’m struck by something that Rudy Giuliani recently said. Referring to Hillary Clinton, the former New York mayor warned, “She wants to go back to the 1990s. … It would hurt our economy.”  If Giuliani weren’t a frontrunner for his party’s presidential nomination, his comment might be amusing.  To put a new twist on an old question: Are you better off today than you were eight years ago?  For many Americans, the answer is a resounding “no.”

Returning to the NYT article on the elderly poor in Maine:

Dolly Jordan of Milbridge has a history of two bad marriages, a bone-crushing auto accident and poor health, and looks and feels older than 61. With osteoporosis, arthritis, diabetes and obesity, she spends most of the day in a wheelchair and uses a combination of a gripper, a broom and a cane to make her bed or hang her laundry.

Come winter, she hangs a blanket over the front door of her little red wooden house, where she has lived alone the last 10 years and which sits on concrete blocks with no foundation. She turns the heat off at night to save fuel.

Her disability payment is $623 a month, plus she gets just $10 from the state and $74 in food stamps. After paying the housing tax and her utility bills, she said, she must watch every remaining penny. A daughter drives her to the distant town of Ellsworth for cheaper shopping.

Like many, she keeps a police scanner on as a diversion and, unable to afford cable, she watches the same videos over and over - her favorite is “On Golden Pond.”

“I wish for bedtime to come,” she said. “The days are so long.”

With the holiday season upon us, Americans will certainly show their generous spirit by making charitable contributions that help alleviate the suffering of those who are not currently strong enough to fend for themselves.  But as the article on food banks makes painfully clear, private charity has its limits, particularly in a weak economy.  There are some problems that government has a moral obligation to address. 

When our grandparents are shivering in the cold, something has gone terribly wrong. 

There’s very little that Americans can’t do if they put their minds to it.  Securing justice for our seniors has to be at the top of our priority list.