PARSIPPANY -- Candidates from the Green and Libertarian parties seeking 26th District Assembly seats said that if they're elected, they'll really be different.

The three met with the Daily Record editorial board on Tuesday.

Green Party candidates are Matthew Norton, 26, of the Cedar Knolls section of Hanover, and Michael Spector of Parsippany. Kenneth Kaplan of Parsippany is the Libertarian Party candidate. He ran for the Assembly in 2005 and ran for governor in 1993.

Spector said that he and Norton are running because there is little difference between the policies of the Republicans and Democrats, and the Green team wants to present voters with alternatives.

Norton said the GOP is no longer the party of fiscal restraint and small government, and the Democratic Party is no longer the party that champions social causes. Norton said these positions do not have to be seen as opposites, and he would try to do both.

Libertarian outlook

Kaplan said he wants to protect the individual rights of voters and believes that less government regulation should be a key goal.

"I want to restore individual liberty," he said.

Spector said he thinks voters are ready for a change and are more willing to look at third-party candidates.

The candidates presented a variety of views on key issues.

Kaplan said he would repeal the Highlands Act because it takes away individual property rights. He said water quality would be protected through common law practices already in place.

"There is no such thing as the common good when it results in the alienation of individuals," he said.

Spector and Norton said the Highlands Act is necessary -- even if it is a flawed bill to protect open space and water quality. It is a law that helps protect the future, Spector said.

Norton said the issue of water quality is "too important" to scrap the Highlands Act.

School funding

Kaplan said that the tax system should be converted to a system that funds public endeavors through fees, such as a tuition-based public education system. He said he would like to see more choice in education, to allow families to opt out of public schools for private or parochial schools, if they feel change would be better for their children.

Such a tuition-based system would open up school competition and relieve taxpayers of the burden of funding schools not attended by their children, he said.

Spector said school funding needs to be shifted away from its reliance on property taxes, to a progressive income tax.

Norton said the number of schools should be reduced from the current 611 districts with top-heavy administrations. Fewer school districts would lower the cost of education, he said.

Spector said the Republicans want to take $450 million from urban schools, while Kaplan said offering urban parents a choice of schools would eventually make urban schools better. He said better urban schools would help draw the middle class back to cities, which would help with economic revitalization there.

But the reason these men are running is not that they have new ideas on existing issues, they said, but that it is time for a change.

Spector said the Republicans stand for obstruction and neglect. He said that is a form of government corruption. He said political corruption breeds when one party has been in power for too long.

Empowering voters

Kaplan said that if voters had the power of initiative and referendum, whereby they could generate ballot questions, there would be less corruption in New Jersey.

Kaplan said an answer to affordable housing would be to allow homeowners to expand their homes without so much government interference. Spector and Norton said they thought it was a worthy idea, but had reservations about how such rules would be implemented.

Spector and Kaplan supported the Nov. 6 ballot for the state to borrow money to support stem cell research, and Kaplan said such action should be left to private industry without state funds.

All three candidates support the use of medical marijuana.