Republicans align with Orthodox Jewish values. Democrats don’t. Or so the argument goes, sometimes with a little more enthusiasm, sometimes less so. Once that position is established, the regular squabbles start: do we vote for a guy whose values align with ours or do we support a candidate who has a record of benefitting our community but stands on the opposite side regarding social values?
Gedloim have expressed their view on the subject, and proponents of each view can rightfully claim that their position is the one supported by daas Torah.
Which brings us to the upcoming Gubernatorial Election.
Phil Murphy is, by his own admission, a progressive liberal,espousing views that are antithetical to ours on just about every social issue.
So let’s examine his opponent, Republican Jack Ciattarelli. Mr. Ciattarelli’s political experience is having served three terms as a Member of the New Jersey Assembly. Prior to his stint in the Assembly, he served as a member on the Board of Chosen Freeholders, and was a member of his local council before that. Not much that he can boast about when it comes to helping ourcommunity, but still enough time for us to get a glimpse into his stance on social issues.
Like many members of his party, Ciattarelli (thankfully) opposes school introducing LGBT curriculum into public schools. Surprisingly, though, he doesn’t quite oppose the movement- and its legalization. In fact, his voting record on “equality” issues is mixed (with his most recent votes curiously leaning hard to the left), and Mr. Ciaterelli even attended events held by “Garden State Equality”, an organization that actively promotes unethical values.
His stance on abortion is also not what one would expect from a Republican. In the most recent debate, he proudly declared that should the Supreme Court overturn the Roe v. Wade decision, (the landmark case the legalized abortion in America), he would enshrine a woman’s right to “choose” (a euphemism for the more accurate term of “abort” whose synonyms include “terminate” and “end”) into New Jersey law.
Finally, when a bill was proposed in the State Assembly to legalize assisted suicide, Jack Ciattarelli was just one of four Assembly Republicans to vote in favor of assisted suicide, garnering just enough votes to pass the Assembly and ultimately became law (over Republican Governor Chris Christie’s veto).
And he didn’t stop at casting his vote, but raised the ire of his fellow Republicans when he defended his support of the bill, commenting that it’s cheaper to have doctors perform “euthanasia” (an innocent word for “murdering”) than to keep patients alive.
As the above examples show, a scrutiny of the Ciaterelli record will reveal that he isn’t the Republican of old, who at least used to pretend to care for ethical and moral values.
Tied at zero in the ethics column, we turn to the second category: Who has benefited our community?
Under the Murphy administration, government-funded educational services our children rely in school have increased. New Jersey currently boasts the highest rate of security funding for private school children in the entire country. His Education Department worked hand in hand with leaders from our community to change regulations to federal funding guidelines that allowed unprecedented levels of services to our schools.
And during the post-Yom Tov coronavirus spike last year, his Health Department worked hand in hand with our community to maintain what we– not he– considered essential services. New Jersey was hailed as the model community for all over the world in how a politician can be respectful and tolerant of acommunity’s needs while keeping the citizens of his State safe.
Quite a record to stand on.
And Ciaterelli? Ciaterelli promises vouchers. (though his own record supports not the slightest notion that he supported them in the past). And in New Jersey, with a solidly Democratic controlled Assembly and Senate, vouchers have a lower probability of becoming a reality as the New York Giants do of winning the SuperBowl.
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Finally, someone speaking sense. “Republican” or “Democrat” isn’t and shouldn’t be our religion. I’ll vote for Murphy.
Don’t worry too much it may also be easy to bribe and cut deals with Jack. At least we’ll have sovereignty over our own children with zero mandates.
Vote murphy out of office. Any Republican is still better than Murphy, Ciattrelli may be be a leftwing Republican but that is still to the right of the democrats especially leftwingers like Murphy. Remember Murphy will be a lame duck if c”v relected and there will be no incentive to moderate and he will only double down on his leftwinger policies, by the time his term would be up, who knows what damage he can do to our community and state.
Rav Avigdor Miller
We should vote for the one who appears to us to be the most conservative. Now, I can’t tell you who that is. But there’s no question that the conservatives of today are extremely more liberal than the liberals of thirty years ago. We have already advanced so far beyond the borders of liberalism, that today we can afford to retreat many miles behind these boundries and still remain in the forefront of liberalism. And therefore, today there’s no such thing as too much conservatism. You have to vote for conservative candidates on every level – on national, state and city levels.
That’s my opinion. By the way, nobody here has to agree with me – on anything. Only, I don’t have to agree with you either.
TAPE # 133 (July 1976)
For me and many others, the biggest issue currently on the table is vaccine mandates. I’m prepared to transition to homeschooling if child vaccine mandates are put into place. Not. My. Child. That’s the reason I will vote for any candidate who claims to be against that. Murphy is pro-mandate and anti-medical freedom. I can be grateful for whatever he has done for our community and still feel the need to boot him out. My child’s health and safety come before hakaras hatov.
Chana seems to be a big Giants fan! I had no clue!
Pathetic.
Here’s your logic:
Vote for the guy who will introduce LGBT curriculum into public (& possibly private) schools because the other guy didn’t “quite” oppose it.
Vote for the guy who shut our state down because he could’ve been worse.
I’ll vote what’s best for me, my family, & our community – not your specific job.
I’ll vote for lower taxes & freedom from Covid shutdowns & mandates. Thank you very much!
Right now, the government does not involve itself into private schools at all. If they do, we are not just in danger of LGBTQ education, rather many other issues. Issues that Republicans do not oppose.
The only way that the government will intrude into our curriculum is if they give us the money. Someone who supports vouchers is way more dangerous to our way of life than someone who supports introducing ‘equality’ education in public schools.
What a silly article…. No one is taking this guy for an eidim….Basically, we have one candidate that boasts that he is a lowlife and has proven himself to be one in every aspect and the other who doesn’t flaunt depravity and wants our votes and will probably mold himself different than Murphy. And if he doesn’t, guess what? We toss him out like we will Murphy and move on to the next guy. This whole politics of getting favors for votes has only made our lives worse in every aspect. Let the politicians understand once and for all, if you represent us and our values, we are behind you. If not, you will be tossed out and we can’t be bought out. I can assure you that he will help Rabbi Eiseman in all of his needs which is not the case with Murphy who HAS NOT DONE ANYTHING. Let’s throw this guy out once and for all.
And I have news for you….NJ state has mandated all of the gender filth to be taught in elementary public schools. Once this is normalized, they will be coming after us ! Hashem Yerachem!!! Stop these reshaim today or we will all cry tomorrow.
Who cares if he’s a ‘lowlife’? We aren’t choosing an eidem here (your words, not mine).
The ‘gender filth’ is not our concern, we should take care of ours.
That’s Right! He’s been good to us and good to everyone, he hates no one except haters.
But was he so nice to everyone just to get Re-Elected? No. I don’t think so, I appears to be his nature; he’s a hardworking responsible family man, Not a Clintonian or a Cuomoian like some other governors we had. He’s our first decent “scandal free” governor since Tom Kean.
How many dead nursing home resident because of him?!? Scandal free my (moderated)
Why because of Murphy? Most people entering a hospital come out alive.
People entering a nursing home no-one comes out alive; someone with 10 life sentences has more hope of someday leaving prison than a nursing home resident has of ever leaving .
Bernie Sanders is also “scandal free” and actually seems like a nice guy as well….Is this who you want for a governor? Marijuana legalization? Higher Taxes? Bringing filth into elementary schools (and soon Yeshivas)? The list goes on and on…..The fact that he identifies as a “progressive” is all that you need to know. KICK HIM AND ALL DEMOCRATS OUT!!!
You right! I’ll convert to Ciaterelli
The last time I checked most frum Jews don’t need abortions so I’m not sure why we would vote on that issue. How about school choice, religious freedoms, vaccine mandates, support for Israel, funding Lakewood school district. where do they stand on standing up to Anti-Semites such as BDS movement, the squad and the radicle left.
Why is everyone so confident that Murphy did not do anything for Rabbi Eiseman?
Nice little story.
Here’s what matters to me.
Gas prices
Toll prices
Vaccine mandates.
And Ciattarelli seems the better of the 2 on these issues.
Vote for the better of the two. Sadly, both are bad people because both are liberals. But its a question of degrees. So you hold your nose and vote for the one that wants to kill fewer babies.
Regarding the question of support vs morals, its like asking, should we vote for the one who will give us more money, or the one that will vote for fewer baby murders. Somehow, it seems reasonable that Hakadosh Baruch Hu prefers the latter, considering how horrible murder is and how critical Kiddish Hashem is. Stand by your convictions.
@yankel- the justice department of the Murphy administration is the one going after rabbi Eismann!
These debates are lots of fun, but they take away frim what’s is really important, and that is to go out and vote. You could vote for Mickey Mouse if you desire but you most vote if you want the government to have any concern for your interests and those of your community.