Character(s) in Trenton?

Character; honesty, truth, reliability, honor, uprightness and consistency.

Characters; eccentric personalities, role players, unusual person, actor, one portraying another.

The challenge for the State FMBA and State PBA legislative committees this month is to seek and find enough legislators in Trenton who have  character.  That is to mean legislators with the integrity, consistency, truthfulness and courage to not only say they support collective bargaining but to actually vote as if they do.

So as not to confuse “character” with the characters that routinely walk the halls of Trenton as elected officials, the definition has been provided above.

The next several weeks will certainly provide a wonderful litmus test for our legislators and the character they possess.  Recently democratic members of the New Jersey General Assembly produced a “YouTube” video declaring their support of collective bargaining using the police and fire rally as a backdrop.  Proclaiming their support of all we do and identifying collective bargaining as a democratic core value that cannot be compromised.  These same members will be challenged to have the courage of their convictions and vote against legislating health benefits that are collectively bargained on the local level for police and firefighters.

I am often asked by members, “how important is it to have a democratic legislature?”  The next few weeks will provide our answer. Senate president Sweeney has already made the decision to move the governor’s agenda with republican support out of the State Senate.  He will be joined by the scared republican senate robots who dare not disagree with the governor for fear of having much needed campaign dollars withheld as well as the southern democrats who have shown little independence and perhaps even less character.  After all, it is only about getting re-elected and nothing else matters.  That reality is pretty sad for the voters in those districts who actually expect them to represent their interests and not those of their political bosses. 

The members of the General Assembly, I am told, stand for “the rule of 41”, for the majority, and stand for principle and for their constituents and do not take kindly to backroom deals made with political bosses.  Time, and not very much time, will tell!

We will know by June 30th whether or not the majority of legislators have character enough to stand for what they actually say they believe in.  Or will the majority, democratic or republican, define themselves as just characters playing a role chosen for them by a political director they are beholding to.  For our sake and that of the voters who elected them, let us hope they have enough character to vote their conscience.  Absent that type of courage Trenton is nothing more than a cartoon produced, directed and illustrated by characters you wouldn’t allow your children to watch. 

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him (her) power. _ Abraham Lincoln