Democrats see good chance to capture Ferguson’s district

New Jersey Jewish News
August 21, 2008
By Robert Wiener

Pledging to be “a good friend to Israel” and to make sure “we have a strong America that we can all be proud of,” Democratic congressional candidate Linda Stender addressed a pro-Israel political action committee Aug. 17 and walked away with some $2,500 in contributions.

Stender, a member of the State Assembly (Dist. 22) sought the support of NORPAC, the nonpartisan pro-Israel group, in her second attempt to win the District 7 congressional seat currently held by retiring Republican Mike Ferguson.

In 2006, she came within 3,000 votes of toppling Ferguson from the office he has held since 2001.

With Ferguson’s retirement, his seat becomes one of 28 House districts whose Republican incumbents are not running this November.

Smelling blood, the Democratic Party has infused Stender’s campaign with $2 million, believing that she has a good chance of winning the race.

The Republican-tilted district includes parts of Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset, and Union counties.

Her opponent is Republican state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Dist. 23), who served in the State General Assembly for 10 years before becoming state senator in 2001.

As she began her 20-minute address in the Colonia home of NORPAC’s regional vice president, Harry Bernstein, Stender, who is Christian, tied her feelings for Israel to a personal family legacy.

“My father was in the army in World War II and was a liberator of the camp at Dachau. He would only say, ‘It was terrible’. He wouldn’t talk about it at all,” she said.

Finally, Stender said, she was able to convince him to write about his experience at Dachau, where he guarded Nazi prisoners of war as they buried the bodies of their victims. She said she had read his essay aloud at a Yom HaShoa commemoration ceremony.

“I cried my way through it. I was overwhelmed reading it,” she said. “I know that my father was not ever able to speak about it because what he witnessed was unspeakable. When I think about that experience, it had a profound impact on my family and what I know about the Jewish experience.”

Stender said her support of Israel “is really founded in the current day and my grave concern over the behavior of the likes of Iran and other dictatorships that would like to roll over places that stand up to them and don’t share their values.”

Questioned about “the Israelis who want to expand and build new settlements,” Stender said, “From where I sit, my job is to support Israel in making its own self-determination. I think the goal of building a peaceful world is something I feel strongly about. The issue of the settlements I find troubling, but I would also say I would leave the decision-making to the democracy in Israel.”

She argued that the continuing war in Iraq has helped Iran “become a stronger nation. The war in Iraq was a bad decision. I felt very strongly then — and I do now — that we should never have gone into Iraq. By going in, we have made the world a less safe place.”

She argued that “we must start investing in our needs here at home. We have had our treasury depleted. That we have an economy in shambles has everything to do with this war.”

Turning to domestic needs, Stender said, “We need affordable healthcare for all Americans,” advocating that “governments, business, and individuals share in the responsibility of paying” for the cost of health insurance.

“We need to invest in education so our kids can go to college in an affordable way. We must have energy independence. It will have a dramatic impact on our national security and our foreign policy. It will help our environment and our economy and will build new jobs in the future,” she said.

“What we’ve seen in the past eight years has been good for big oil and big insurance companies but not for what the people need here at home,” Stender said.
Backing Obama

Stender was asked about Barack Obama and about “some concerns in the Jewish community” regarding the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate’s commitment to Israel.

Stender said she disagreed with the Illinois senator’s vote against declaring Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to be a terrorist organization.

Still, she said, “I am running with Barack Obama. I am a Democrat and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure he gets elected. I think he does support Israel, and there is a lot of misinformation on the Internet and floating around in public conversation that is not true.”

She and Obama “share common goals and beliefs,” she said.

For at least some of those in attendance, however, there was little hesitation in supporting Obama.

Bernstein told NJ Jewish News that he has no qualms about Obama’s stance on Israel.

“I am really not concerned about Obama. He is such a good person and he knows what Israel has gone through,” Bernstein said. “He has been to Israel and has spoken to a lot of well-positioned Jewish political people.”

Carol Berman of Highland Park agreed.

“I’m not concerned about Obama’s position on Israel at all,” she said. “I think he is a friend to Israel. He impressed the Israelis when he was there. He has always been a supporter of Israel.”

NORPAC president Ben Chouake told NJJN the event held to benefit Stender was “a small one requested by the local membership in an open race” and that his organization is “open to having an event” for Lance “if there are members who wish to organize it.”

Jeffrey Weinstein of Edison, NORPAC’s regional president, said Lance “called me personally and expressed strong support of Israel’s right to defend itself and Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. He supports sanctions against Iran.”

Weinstein predicted Stender will defeat Lance.

“I think Obama’s coattails will help Linda Stender because he has a 10-point lead in New Jersey,” he said. “I think it is more likely than not that he will be our next president.”