Recorded on 6/22/21, Steve Adubato speaks with Ben Dworkin, Ph.D., Director, RIPPAC – Rowan Institute for Public Policy & Citizenship, about the most significant policy issues affecting New Jersey, how voting has impacted citizenship, and the role of government and strong leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Ben Dworkin says the most significant issues the state faces, regardless of who wins the Gubernatorial election, are the traditional issues of taxes and affordability. He goes on to discuss voting’s impact on citizenship, “The fundamental aspect of citizenship in a representative democracy is the ability to choose your leaders and the more restrictions, the more hurdles we put in front of our citizens to engage in that fundamental act of citizenship, is perhaps a way we are making citizenship harder when we should be making it easier.” He adds the real issue is the new legislation being passed around the country that requires voters to go beyond just proving who they are in order to vote.

Dworkin feels the public will be less concerned about what happened six or seven months ago and decisions made by the Murphy Administration at that time, and more concerned with taxes, affordability, and re-opening the economy. Regarding the pandemic, he adds, “What’s fascinating was that unless you were an elected official in 1918, nobody really had a guidebook for how to do this…and so you had a new generation of executives who had to figure out what to do. And some are exhausted by it, which is why you’re seeing the retirement of a whole bunch of mayors and other kinds of executives.”