How Do You Feel About Fort Lee Joining Legislative District 37?

In January 2012, Fort Lee will officially be represented by elected officials from the 37th legislative district—currently represented by State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D) and Assembly Members Gordon M. Johnson (D) and Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D)—after new districting was announced last week by a bipartisan committee. 

Asked for his reaction to the borough leaving District 38, David Cohen, president of the United Republican Club of Fort Lee, could hardly contain his enthusiasm.

“I am totally excited about this,” Cohen said. “This is a tremendous opportunity for Republicans in District 37. I say that because if I look at the towns from Alpine, to Bogota, to Cresskill, to Rockleigh, to Tenafly, to Teaneck, there are some common sense voters in those towns. They see the handwriting on the wall.”

Asked to elaborate, Cohen listed the following as examples:

• Entrenched incumbents, “that are not really giving the taxpayer what they should, which is the best bang for the buck”
• “A $55 billion—with a B—unfunded pension liability for state workers … this is a huge concern”
• Out of control spending
• Incumbents “just going through the motions and not really tackling these issues”

Fort Lee will join the newly constituted District 37 along with Alpine, Bogota, Cresskill, Englewood, Englewood Cliffs, Hackensack City, Leonia, Northvale, Palisades Park, Rockleigh, Teaneck and Tenafly.

Cohen called the people in many of these towns “common sense voters.”

“These are homeowners,” Cohen said. “These are people that sit at the kitchen table and have to figure out their bills, figure out their budgets. … They know what’s happening in the state is unsustainable. They look at the state, and they say, ‘As I’m balancing my budget at home, is the state really balancing their budget, or are there just a lot of time bombs out there that are going to explode on us?’”

Cohen believes the slate of Republican candidates the party is going to put up in District 37 will address those matters.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for Republicans to step up [and] put out their message—just common sense economics,” he said.

Meanwhile, Democratic Assemblywoman Joan Voss of Fort Lee last week said she was saddened that Fort Lee was “dumped” into Legislative District 37, and that she herself had been “thrown under the bus,” telling Patch she will not run in the borough’s new district but probably will run for Freeholder instead.

Voss added that she had wanted to run again and had “a lot of unfinished business.”

“[In the] 38th District, I was very, very happy,” Voss said. “We had 13 towns. I was very familiar with all the people in local government and went to all the functions if I could in all of the towns to let them know that we’re there for them. What happened with this redistricting was that 38 was very badly hurt, because they took eight of our towns out and put new towns in.”

Now we want to know what you think. How do you feel about Fort Lee joining Legislative District 37? Do you think it will ultimately prove to be a positive or a negative development for Fort Lee, and why?           

Join in this discussion. Let us know what you think. Tell us in the comments.