PEG SCHAFFER

In baseball, the Batting Triple Crown is a seasonal distinction very few hitters attain:  League leadership in home runs, runs batted in, and batting average.   Yet in New Jersey politics in 2019, Peg Schaffer achieved the political equivalent of a Triple Crown.

First, under Peg’s leadership, in Election 2019, the Democrats captured control of the Somerset County Freeholder Board for the first time since 1965, with the victory of former Green Brook Township mayor, Melonie Marano.

Second, the two incumbent Democratic Assemblymen in the largely Somerset Legislative 16th District, Andrew Zwicker and Roy Freiman were reelected.  This is a District in which for years Republicans were routinely elected to the Assembly.

Third, as part of the compact between State Democratic Chair John Currie and Essex County Chair LeRoy Jones, it is projected that Peg will remain as New Jersey Democratic State Committee Vice Chair after LeRoy succeeds John as state Chair in June, 2021.

The significance of the Democratic takeover in Somerset cannot be overstated.  The party that controls the government of the county also dominates the politics of the county.

Throughout New Jersey electoral history, it has been virtually impossible for a Republican to win a gubernatorial contest without amassing a margin of at least 100,000 votes in the Northwest Quadrant, consisting of Warren, Hunterdon, Sussex, Morris, and Somerset counties.  The predominance of the Democrats in Somerset will make that task all the more difficult for the 2021 Republican nominee, whoever that may be.

Accordingly, the Democratic victory in Somerset was a triumph for Governor Phil Murphy as well, who made it the major priority of his 2019 campaign efforts.  The Murphy-Schaffer alliance is a solid, effective combination that will be a definite asset to the governor’s reelection campaign.

And there is one other feature of the Democratic Somerset victory that is indeed of historic significance.  In a county where political and governmental leaderships were once considered to be male preserves, the chair of the dominant Democratic Political Party, Peg Schaffer, and all three members of the governing Democratic Majority on the freeholder board, Freeholder-Director Shanel Robinson, Sara Sooy, and Melonie Marano are women.

Peg Schaffer is a political leader of immense talent.  She is a highly competent attorney, with excellent communication skills.  Her political instincts and issue incisiveness are first rate.

Peg’s leadership and people skills have made her a beloved figure in Democratic Party circles throughout the state – in fact, among many Republicans, too!  Peg knows how to disagree with people without being disagreeable.

In Somerset County, Peg and the Somerset County Democratic Vice Chair Zenon Christodoulou have constituted one of the most effective leadership duos in modern New Jersey political history. Zenon has been supremely skilled in outreach to business and overseeing campaigns.  The Schaffer-Christodoulou tandem is a model for county leaders in both political parties to emulate.

Peg’s continuance as New Jersey Democratic State Committee Vice Chair was applauded by supporters of both John Currie and LeRoy Jones.  Without hyperbole, it can be said that Peg Schaffer has emerged as a symbol of Democratic Party unity.

No doubt, Peg Schaffer’s status as a major New Jersey Democratic Party leader can be expected to continue for years to come.

JON BRAMNICK

In October, 1942, the German-Italian armies under the leadership of the German General Erwin Rommel were poised to win a decisive victory at El- Alamein, Egypt that would have given them control of the Second World War.  Facing Rommel were the British Empire forces led by General Bernard Law Montgomery.

Had Rommel prevailed, as expected, the Axis armies would have overrun Egypt and advanced all the way to the oil fields of Iraq.  On the Western Front, the war would have been brought to a quick end.

But Montgomery triumphed and reversed the tide of the war.  The battle of El-Alamein was the beginning of the end for the Nazis in North Africa.  In 1943, their forces capitulated to the Allies in Tunisia, and in that same year, the Russian victory at Stalingrad spelled the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany on the Eastern front.

And in New Jersey politics in 2019, the 21st Legislative District was El-Alamein, and Jon Bramnick was Bernard Law Montgomery.

Had the Democrats ousted the Republican incumbents in that District, Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick and Nancy Foster Munoz, the consequences for the New Jersey Republican Party would have been catastrophic.

The Assembly Republicans would have remained as a minority in a Democratic-controlled veto-proof Assembly.  With a Bramnick loss, the Republicans would have lost their leader who had given them able governmental and political stewardship over the previous eight years.  With the Republicans virtually vanquished in Union County, except for State Senator Tom Kean, Jr., the Democrats would have been poised to extend their gains to areas of the Northwest Quadrant, such as Morris and Hunterdon Counties.

Furthermore, Bramnick, a principled anti-Trumper was under pressure to endorse the President for reelection, something he refused to do.  Given the demographic trends in the 21st District, particularly the increase in the Democratic vote, and the presence of two Trumpist independent candidates on the ballot, many pundits, including myself, thought Bramnick and Munoz were doomed to defeat.

Yet they both survived.  The return of Nancy Munoz, with her expertise on health care issues, is also very much a positive for Assembly Republicans as they formulate alternative policies and legislative proposals.

The most significant outcome of the election is the continuing Assembly Republican leadership in the hands of Jon Bramnick, an anti-Trump Republican.  Rank-and-file Republicans who refuse to accept the xenophobic, racist, misogynist message of Donald Trump can find a hopeful leadership alternative in Jon Bramnick.

The election of 2020 promises to be a disaster for the New Jersey Republican Party – a campaign in which the Democratic Presidential candidate, most likely Joe Biden, scores a Garden State landslide victory over Donald Trump, resulting in the defeat of GOP candidates at the county and municipal level throughout the state.  Rank and file Republicans will be seeking courageous leaders who will help to extirpate the cancer of Trumpism from the Republican soul.

They will be able to find such courageous leadership in Jon Bramnick.  In 2019, he demonstrated that Bramnick, indeed is another word for courage.

Alan J. Steinberg served as Regional Administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as Executive Director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.