INDIVISIBLE Lambertville NJ / New Hope PA

Author: Indivisible Lambertville / New Hope

  • Get Out the Vote, Please

     Contributed by Amara Willey. 

    If you live in Hunterdon County and you’re thinking of skipping this election, think again. There’s a hotly contested race for sheriff that needs our attention. Tell your friends and neighbors to get out there and vote.

    The incumbent sheriff, Fred Brown, was recently the only New Jersey sheriff to go to the White House in support of President Donald Trump’s lobbying efforts to pass legislation increasing border security. He joined almost 50 other sheriffs in this endeavor. Dominick Puzio, who joined us recently at an ILNH meeting, is vying for his seat, has a common-sense platform addressing drug addiction and supporting local police efforts in all communities, regardless of sexual orientation, race, creed, color or religion.

    In New Jersey, the other key races are for Assembly and Freeholder. In LD16, Andrew Zwicker and Roy Freiman are looking to hold their NJ Assembly seats against their Republican challengers. LD15 incumbents Verlina Reynolds-Jackson and Anthony Verrelli may have a bit easier time, but never, ever take anything for granted and be sure to get out and vote.  In Hunterdon County politics, Cullen McAuliffe takes another run to secure a Democratic seat on the Board of Chosen Freeholders. 

    In Pennsylvania, the races are for judges, who are elected officials. Charissa Liller, Jessica VanderKam and Jordan Yaeger have secured the Democratic Committee endorsement for the bench in the Court of Common Pleas. 

    Sources:

    https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/hunterdon-county/2018/09/05/hunterdon-county-sheriff-fred-brown-white-house/1202028002/ 

    https://www.puzioforsheriff.com/platform

    Mary Jane Legere with Patrick Artur, a senior and former first grade student of hers, at  a voter registration table outside the cafeteria at South Hunterdon Regional High School. They registered five new voters that day. History teacher, Christine Deiley, facilitated and is teaching her students the importance of registering and becoming active voters.

  • Changing the Conversation Together – Round One in Bucks County

    Contributed by Deb Kline.

    In Doylestown on a very warm, late summer Sunday, close to 50 people participated in the pilot training of Changing the Conversation – Bucks (CTC). CTC offers a new model for canvassing – one based in dialogue, personal stories, active listening and discussion about what’s important to the people who opened the door to CTC canvassers. 

    Adam Barnabel-Fried, director of CTC, and several of his team traveled from Brooklyn to lead and mentor the newbies, supported by more local folks including Cindi Sternfeld and Jennifer Jarrett. Participants spent the morning watching videos and role models, then practicing what to do when a voter’s door opens and to this question: 

    “If President Trump was with us right now and you had two minutes to talk with him, what would you want to say?”

    Encouraged to develop and use personal stories of caring about the people we think of when we pull the lever, participants attempted to elicit responses that broke from the normal canvassing methods and its focus on candidate talking points. 

    In real life, conversing with strangers pulled from the Eagles game or a block party proved to be both challenging and rewarding. Responses to the possibility of speaking with Trump about what’s on their minds were varied and often surprising. Some wanted to tell him to stop Tweeting or that he was doing a good job; others wouldn’t speak to him, or wanted to tell him how awful he was. But, just because someone didn’t like him, didn’t automatically mean they planned to vote Democrat. 

    The day ended with an evaluation session back at the University, covering experiences and next steps. Most participants were excited, despite the challenges of sharing and attempting to elicit personal stories. 

    Undoubtedly, there is more work to do in many areas from training to timing, and especially learning how to have a respectful, caring dialogue with people who think Trump is doing a great job. But it’s a start, and one that’s sorely needed. 

    The next training is scheduled for November after the election. Sign-up capability will be sent out in the near future. 

  • ILNH FYI – Updates and Upcoming

    ILNH FYI – Updates and Upcoming

    Ready to get busy? Check out our Action Group Activities and Opportunities to Get Involved!

    Environmental Action Team Update – Lambertville is a hub of environmental action fueled by volunteers and we are only getting started! Indivisible LNH members and community allies have fought climate change this year with tenacity and innovation. Below is only a snapshot of the incredible work folks like YOU have been up to!

    PennEast – ILNH worked alongside incredible Stop PennEast allies like Lambertville CAP, Hunterdon and Mercer CAPS, HALT, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Rethink Energy and Sierra Club NJ to support homeowners, urge legislators to act and demand permit denials from the NJDEP and DRBC. The NJ AG’s office won an important case in this fight, which will prohibit PennEast from taking state owned preserved lands along the route. The project is stalled, but we must remain diligent in advocating for NJDEP and DRBC to DENY all PennEast permits before them.

    Greening the Pipeline is an initiative and creative approach to fighting PennEast started by Lambertville resident Michael Heffler. Aggregation is a program available to towns to buy electricity. What the Greening the Pipeline program is proposing, is rather than just lower the cost, they change the mix of electricity to lower the natural gas used and increase the percentage of renewables. This hits PennEast in the wallet. Towns along the proposed pipeline route that have passed the ordinance to join the program are Frenchtown, Delaware Township, Kingwood and Lambertville. Pennington, Stockton and Alexandria are in the process of passage and discussions have started with Hopewell and West Amwell. This program will save all of us money, shrink our carbon footprint with no cost and no risk. Thank your town council for joining the energy coop, saving all of us money and taking it from the companies investing in Penneast.

    The Lambertville Environmental Commission in partnership with volunteers throughout the City launched the Ditching Disposables Initiative. The DD Initiative seeks to empower businesses and residents to minimize their consumption of single use plastics and transition to more sustainable alternatives. One of the kickoff events was the T-Shirts to Totes event, where residents turned unused t-shirts into reusable bags that will be donated to the local food pantries. The success of this event was due largely in part to the incredible dedication of Cindy Sternfeld and her team of ILNH volunteers who rocked it at the sewing machine! Ditching Disposables has continued to roll out with programs like the Sustainable Business Forum and Green Innovator Award! To learn more follow Lambertville Environmental Commission on Facebook.

    On Oct 1 the ILNH Environment Team was joined by Student Climate Strike Organizer Patrick Artur and Eric Benson from Clean Water Action NJ. Patrick shared what inspired him to organize the Climate Strike and how students can inform future Environment Team actions. Eric Benson from Clean Water Action shared about the top issues facing NJ today and what we can do to address them!

    Call to Action!
    Urge NJDEP and DRBC to Deny All Permits to the PennEast Pipeline
    Sign petition to the NJDEP https://www.greenactions.org/stop-penneast?sc=hlt&fbclid=IwAR2SlWQMpEGr9jPNtQg8EGX3BMoQE-3T-iK6PN6FPYc23xo6KYv_k955HF8
    Sign petition to the DRBC
    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfZvhXXAppbzQKrZ_5s6lnIdHdUiyIg0hO0_2SN5FsV-8qUZQ/viewform

    Civil Rights Action Group is Active as Heck! – check out the upcoming events. Contact Shara Durkee for more information, locations and to RSVP.

    • Book Club Meeting – Wednesday, October 9 at 6:30 pm in Lambertville – Subject is Solitary by Albert Woodfox, who served more than four decades in solitary confinement – 23 hours a day in a 6-foot by 9-foot cell – for a crime he didn’t commit. Even if you don’t have time to finish or haven’t even started the book, please join us for a lively discussion!
    • Volunteer at Books Through Bars in Philadelphia – Saturday, October 19, 11 am – 2 pm
    • Civil Rights monthly meeting – Monday, October 21 at 6:30 pm in Lambertville.
    • Presentation and Discussion with Elaine Buck and Beverly Mills, authors of If These Stones Could Talk: African American Presence in the Hopewell Valley – Saturday, October 26, 3-5 pm – Methodist Church, 108 N. Union, Lambertville – A decade ago, Beverly Mills and Elaine Buck began formal collaboration into researching the lives of their African American ancestors, most of whom were likely to have been brought up the Delaware River as slaves to–what is now the Hopewell Valley region in Central New Jersey. Active community members, Mills and Buck both serve on the board of the Stoutsburg Cemetery Association, a burial ground for African American residents and veterans in the region.
    • Tour of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia – Saturday, November 9, 11 am – This one hour tour highlights Eastern State’s fascinating 142-year history, revolutionary architecture, notorious inmates and world-wide influence. The tour will also focus on criminal justice. For the group tour, prices are $11/adults, $10/seniors, $8/students ages 7-12.
    • Workshop “Dismantling the Racism Machine: Myths, Taught to White People that Perpetuate White Supremacy – Wednesday, November 20, 6:30-8:30 pm, Lambertville Public Library – With Karen Gaffney, author of Dismantling the Racism Machine: A Manual and Toolbox.

    Join ILNH Leadership Team! We have roles to fill and need your help. We need to flesh out our GOTV team now, including an overall lead, NJ and PA specific leads, and those who want to focus their energies on righting the ship by educating and encouraging voters through November 3, 2020.
    We’re also looking for someone to head the Swag team, including identifying merchandise to sell, caring for and maintaining inventory and adding to the ILNH finances by successfully SELLING the stock at meetings and other appropriate locations and events.
    In addition, a Fundraising co-lead will join Diane Abatemarco to help plan activities and other mechanisms through which we can support the financial health of ILNH.

    Write for Us! The ILNH Take A Stand Newsletter needs writers. Part of the ILNH mission is educating our community and one of the ways we do so is through this newsletter. Contribute a single piece to express your passion and/or knowledge, or be a regular staffer who keeps their finger on the pulse of the incredible amount of news and subjects that help us be informed citizens – the choice is yours. Contact Deb Kline via email or Slack.

  • ILNH GOTV GEARS UP AND WE NEED YOU!

    Contributed by Elycia Lerman.

    It’s that time when we need to start pulling together to put the people in office who will best represent us elected officials. As an activist organization, each one of us needs to make a personal commitment to support Get Out The Vote – aka GOTV – efforts, and here’s an overview of what’s to come, with a request to make a pledge to be part of this year’s and next’s Blue Wave. 

    We’ve drafted our 2019 plans, and are outlining how we’ll cover the short distance to the 2020 election. Familiar efforts like canvassing, postcarding and voter registration will be part of the mix. We’ll offer educational activities to help people feel comfortable with traditional outreach efforts, such as canvassing, phone banking, etc., and calendar opportunities to partner with candidate campaigns and national efforts like MoveOn’s texting campaigns and PostCards to Voters. Our voter registration and VBM awareness activities will kick up, with tables on the street, at markets and other public places, and reminders to students and others about the correct process to vote by mail so they’re sure to be counted. 

    In addition to these basic tools, ILNH and other local activist organizations are working with an organization called Changing The Conversation Together to learn and use deep canvassing. Cindi wrote about this in the last newsletter, but in summary, this is a different tactic than canvassing for a candidate and instead, engages voters in value-based conversations on issues. Our pilot training and canvassing experience will take place on Sept 22, and will initially be focused on flipping PA CD01, which went for Trump in 2016, but Obama in the previous election. It is a full-day commitment, with two and a half hours of training, two hours of canvassing, then two hours of debrief from the canvassing. Once trained, the skills can be applied to any campaign. We still have room and hope you’ll join us!  

    If you’re as anxious as we are about turning the direction of the country around, and seeing more progressive values come to the forefront, you know that it will take all hands on deck. We’re hoping our volunteers will make a pledge – a number of hours, number of postcards, texts, etc – that you will commit to securing the outcome we truly want to see on a local, state and national level this year and next. As always, we’ll make it fun as we track all of our awesome efforts and watch the collective experience grow. Remember the Flipper Challenge from last year? 

    We also need people to step up and lead or manage portions of this massive effort. Consider joining the GOTV team. We have a new Slack GOTV channel to sign into (old ones have been archived). If you’re not on Slack and want to participate, send an email to info@ilnhclone.indivisible.blue or Elaine Clisham.

  • GOTV NJ and PA Countdown to November 5, 2019

     Contributed by Olga Vanucci.

    Are you ready to canvass to get candidates elected who share your values?
    There are elections this year, in PA and NJ.  Election day is Tuesday, November 5, 2019.

    Pennsylvania
    In Bucks County this year, there are three judges up for election for the Court of Common Pleas. While these are officially non-partisan, the current bench of judges currently overwhelmingly lean Republican. The three candidates that lean Democrat are: Charissa Liller, Jessica VanderKam, Jordan Yeager.See who else is running for office in Bucks County this year: http://bucksvictory.com/
    Local Democrat organizations – find one where you live:
    https://bucksdemocrats.org/local-dems-organizations/
    Sign up to canvass with Bucks Victory:  http://bucksvictory.com/volunteer-opportunity/sign-up-to-volunteer/
    Or find a canvass near you here:  https://www.mobilize.us/turnpablue/

    New Jersey
    The entire, New Jersey Assembly is up for election this year.  In LD 16, Andrew Zwicker and Roy Freiman are running for re-election to the Assembly in a highly contested campaign in a swing district.  Andrew flipped the seat, which had always been Republican, in 2015, by 78 votes. Roy flipped his seat in 2017. ILNH was an active supporter of their campaign in 2017, with many hours of canvassing. Sign up here to help them win: https://www.zwickerforassembly.com/join

    In addition, Hunterdon County is holding elections for Sheriff and for two Freeholders. The incumbent Sheriff and all the Freeholders are currently Republicans. Challenging Democrats include Dominick Puzio running for Sheriff, and Savet Rosenblum and Natalie Ferry running for Freeholder.  Sign up here to volunteer with Hunterdon County Dems: https://www.hcdems.com/volunteer