the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Teaneck NJ, on 10/27/2021 Mike Koontz and his two assembly running mates, Edward Durfee and Perley Patrick, participated in a sign wave at the 545 Cedar Lane office of Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, the Democratic Senate Candidate for the 37th District of New Jersey. The purpose of the event was to bring attention to both Gordon Johnson and his running mates, Ellen Park and Shama Haider, who replaced his original choices for Assembly because of questions of ethics and bias commentary. They refuse to debate the Republican Senate and Assembly candidates Koontz, Durfee and Patrick.
Koontz explains “We believe we extended an invitation by accepting The Bergen County League of Woman Voters request to participate in a political forum on or about 8/18/2021 to be scheduled on October 13. Either as a Live or Zoom event. As the date approached I contacted the League to find that Johnson had declined the debate a short time before the planned date. “
Mr. Koontz then contacted the Johnson office to find a surprised staff that such a request had been received. However the staff member indicated the importance in such a forum as a public service. This encounter was relayed to the League with no avail.
On 10/9 Mr. Koontz had encountered Mr. Johnson at the 2021 Korean Festival at Overpeck Park. Mr. Koontz once again raised the question of a debate to Mr. Johnson and was met with a nervous humor from Johnson who said, “we should go for a beer before any debates.” Koontz replied, “why not after the debate.” Johnson continued to ignore the invite.
Once again Koontz contacted the Bergen Chapter of the NAACP in hopes a forum could be arranged similar to the debate between Bergen Clerk Candidates, Bridget Kelly and John Hogan. Again after two attempts to arrange a meeting there was no response.
Mr. Koontz and his running mates believe that Johnson and his running mates are compromising the 37th district constituents by not holding a debate especially considering the serious issues facing New Jeresy and the district. Some of these issues are oppressive property taxes, a State Budget out of control, Gasoline Tax and Garden State Parkway increases, unanswered Covid deaths of seniors and vets, a failing DMV and broke transportation fund, while small and medium businesses have failed due to Governor Murphy’s lock downs. This on the heels of possible vaccine mandates to come. Most if not all of these policies are supported by Gordon Johnson. In addition the 37th district traffic congestion is creating pollution and safety issues and is going unchecked. In addition, four towns and their residents are living below the poverty level while homelessness increases.
Koontz believes now more than ever that it is necessary to discuss these issues. As a result Koontz and his running mates along with a group of supporters had to bring the issue of Debate avoidance by Johnson to light by having the sign wave in Teaneck. Koontz maintains, “what is Gordon afraid of; if the shoe was on the other foot I would agree and the citizen’s deserve it.”
I’ve lived in NJ for 52 years and I’ve come to know that Democrats bleed our state dry and then keep raising taxes. It never stops. So it’s no wonder Democrats don’t want to be in a debate with Republicans who are generally more fiscally responsible.
I voted Democrat for a while but I stopped when I realized where my tax dollars were going while my property taxes skyrocketed. Democrat politicians in NJ have swung far left in recent years and that doesn’t help property taxes or small businesses.
Vote Republican.
If Gordo isn’t going to show then he must think he has it in the bag.
Then Koontz has to ask himself “why would I want that job ?”
D37 is so blue that Johnson and his crew are confident that this “minor indiscretion” won’t greatly lessen their chances of winning.
The Democratic party is the party of Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and AO Cortez – anti-Semites. They are the party of vaccine mandates that take our freedom away. Since the outbreak of the Delta virus at the beginning of August, it has been proven that the vaccinated are getting the virus as much as the unvaccinated. Therefor the whole vaccine mandate is a sham.
The Democratic party is the party that will monitor our bank accounts. The Democratic party is the party that wants to federalize our elections – taking away our constitutional state’s rights. The Democratic party is the party that wants to defund the police. They are also the party where we have no rule of law. The Democratic party is the party of open borders – we are admitting sex offenders, human traffickers, terrorists, lots of people with Covid and other diseases – they are all coming through our borders by the millions.
As Jack Ciatarelli would say, “Who does that?”
Please vote for him and and our other Republican candidates here, etc. this coming Tuesday.
^ Jack Ciattarelli for Governor, our Republican State Senator and our Republican Assembly members all have my family’s votes including my parents and my grandparents.
Several guys I work with who live in a majority minority city are also voting for Jack. They are skeptical of Murphy springing a forced vaccine mandate on us. As my co worker said “choice is one thing but Murphy force me to to get jabbed? No way.”