Valerie Huttle wants to “kick some glass.”

That’s her way of saying that her team of three women legislative candidates is ready to beat the status quo.

“Women get elected to get the job done,” Huttle said over Zoom Sunday afternoon in officially kicking off her campaign for the state Senate in LD-37 in eastern Bergen County. She was joined by Assembly candidates Gervonn Romney Rice and Lauren Dayton.

In the universe of New Jersey politics, LD-37 is a marquee Democratic primary contest. Long time state Senator Loretta Weinberg is retiring and the district’s two current Assembly members want to replace her. They are Huttle and Gordon Johnson, who at the moment, is without Assembly ticket mates. The two he had left the race last week.

Huttle sought to frame the campaign as a case of three women going up against the old boys’ network.
Johnson is the choice of the county’s Democratic leaders, presumably giving him a primary advantage.  Huttle has called for an “open primary,” but that’s unlikely to happen.

So for her team, it’s an “us against them” type of thing.

Sue Altman of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, a Huttle supporter, said she’s tired of legislators who don’t think on their own. And she said that women running as a unit scare the powers that be.

While few Democrats are truly conservative, Huttle clearly hopes to be the liberals’ choice in the primary.

She spoke Sunday about sponsoring and backing laws to protect the rights of the disabled, the LGBTQ community and reproductive freedom. Huttle also talked about standing on picket lines in support of workers.

Issues are important, of course, but a primary often comes down to intangibles.

And that’s where Huttle’s team hopes to make its impact.

She said that women in politics often are told to wait their turn and that the time is not yet right.

“Screw it,” Huttle said. “If they won’t give us our time, we’ll make it our time.”