OPINION
THE RECORD
In District 38
Wednesday, October 29, 2003 THE 38th District is one of two in North Jersey where the state Democratic organization is spending heavily, trying to hold on to vulnerable legislative seats in an intense fight to win control of the Senate. In this district, the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Joseph Coniglio, faces a strong Republican challenger, Assemblywoman Rose Heck. Mr. Coniglio has not demonstrated the kind of initiative that warrants reelection.
After more than a decade in Trenton, Ms. Heck has a strong record of accomplishment, along with energy and enthusiasm, and she would make an active and productive senator.
She has been a leader on transportation and health issues, in trying to reduce noise and pollution at Teterboro Airport, and easing flood problems. She sponsored legislation, later enacted, that pushed HMOs to pay for clinical trials, created four regional treatment centers for abused children, and held five summits on children's issues.
A former mayor of Hasbrouck Heights, Ms. Heck, 71, has an independent streak that would serve her well in a Senate where the majority party - if there is one - is likely to have no more than a thin lead. She has been a leader on legislation that protects women: requiring domestic violence awareness training for judges, making stalking a crime, and stopping insurers from forcing women to leave the hospital 24 hours after giving birth.
One of Mr. Coniglio's major campaign criticisms of her stems not from her stand on issues but from the fact that she has hired her oldest daughter as her chief of staff - at a taxpayer-paid salary of $50,000 a year. While public officials would be well-advised to avoid such nepotism, Ms. Heck defends her action, saying her daughter is highly qualified for the post and available to answer legislative-related inquiries at all hours of the day and night and on weekends.
Mr. Coniglio, 60, a former Paramus councilman, defeated former Sen. Louis Kosco two years ago. A leader in a plumbers' union, Mr. Coniglio was a key legislator in gaining approval for a package of bills that benefit unions, including guaranteed jobs on public works projects. He was also a key sponsor of successful legislation to crack down on identity theft and to eliminate the 1 percent administrative fee that landlords charged for holding a tenant's security deposit.
But Mr. Coniglio takes far too rosy and inflated a view of Trenton's accomplishments during the McGreevey administration. He says the Democrats have "stopped the borrow-and-spend attitude. We've done a tremendous job." On education, he says "I think we've done a good job of addressing all the areas that needed to be addressed." He adds that the state should fully fund special education, but does not say where the money would come from.
Mr. Coniglio is in the middle of one of the most hotly contested races in New Jersey, and the district has benefited from the contest. Towns and organizations in the 38th District have received more than $600,000 in state grants, all of which Mr. Coniglio takes credit for. But these can be seen much more as McGreevey administration largesse in an effort to hold on to Mr. Coniglio's seat in the evenly divided Senate.
Ms. Heck's Republican running mates for the district's two Assembly seats are Edward Trawinski of Fair Lawn and Louis Tedesco Jr. of Little Ferry.
Mr. Trawinski, 54, is a land-use attorney and former assistant state commissioner of commerce in the Kean administration. Mr. Tedesco, 53, is a Bergen freeholder. Both men say they would restore the cuts made to the homestead rebate and NJSaver programs and reinstate the senior citizen property tax freeze. But they do not say where the money would come from or what other programs would be cut to make up the difference.
Both candidates have the support of North Jersey doctors, who have campaigned for them door to door in white coats in an effort to win Republican control of the Assembly and win enactment of limits on malpractice awards.
The better choices for the Assembly are Matt Ahearn, a freshman assemblyman who switched from the Democratic Party to the Green Party because of what he described as intrusive political pressure from Democratic party bosses, and Democrat Robert Gordon, a former Fair Lawn mayor.
Mr. Ahearn, 44, says owing allegiance to neither major party makes it easier for him to get things done because his vote is sought out by both parties. He was instrumental in the creation of a separate Military and Veterans Affairs Committee in the Assembly and worked on the law banning predatory loans.
Mr. Ahearn said he is disillusioned about party politics, bossism, and the influence of money that he says is rampant in Trenton, but he says he is eager to return to the Assembly with an independent voice.
Mr. Gordon, 53, an emergency management consultant, has extensive experience in consulting work for federal, state, and local governments. He has also evaluated emergency preparedness in 30 New Jersey towns in the wake of Tropical Storm Floyd. He says he would like to see five-year cost estimates on every bill approved in Trenton, to better assess the effect on state finances. Other priorities would be downtown revitalization and homeland security improvement.
The other Democratic candidate, Joan Voss, 62, is a Fort Lee councilwoman and retired schoolteacher. She wants to work on education issues in the Assembly, but she offers only vague answers on other state questions.
The 38th District includes Cliffside Park, Edgewater, Elmwood Park, Fair Lawn, Fort Lee, Hasbrouck Heights, Little Ferry, Lodi, Paramus, Ridgefield, Saddle Brook, South Hackensack, and Teterboro.
