Voss Will Not Run in District 37, Likely to Enter Freeholder Race

Democratic Assemblywoman Joan Voss of Fort Lee said she was saddened that Fort Lee was “dumped” into Legislative District 37 after redistricting announced Sunday by a bipartisan committee and that she will not run in the borough’s new district. But she also said that at the behest of constituents, colleagues and friends, she’s probably going to run for Freeholder instead.

“I have to say I’m very sad, because I love what I do,” said the four-term assemblywoman. “I was very unhappy, because I wanted to run again and have a lot of unfinished business.”

Voss said much of that unfinished business involved what she called her “two passions:” education and “making people aware of autism and what they can do to help people on the spectrum.”

“[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.”

She added that she’s “not the only one who got thrown under the bus” by the redistricting plan, estimating it “affected about 10 or 12 of us”—other legislators in New Jersey who are not going to run again for similar reasons.

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

Voss said District 37, which is currently represented by State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D) and Assembly Members Gordon M. Johnson (D) and Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D), all of whom can run again, remained mostly intact with the exception of Fort Lee being added.

“I could have challenged either Valerie or Gordon Johnson [in] the primary,” Voss said. “But Loretta and Gordon and Valerie have been very close … and since they essentially have their entire district intact—except that they dumped Fort Lee in there—I didn’t think it was the right thing to run a primary against people who have been the representatives of [the district]. I could have, but I didn’t.”

She also said she was unwilling to move to another town simply to be able to run in the district she’s served in since 2004, so “[not running] was decided for me.”

She added that people have “asked” her to run for Freeholder instead. Asked if she would consider it, she said, “Oh, yes. Absolutely.”

Pressed further about when she will make a decision with the filing deadline looming—petitions are due to the New Jersey Secretary of State on Monday, April 11 for those who are interested in running for office in the June primary—Voss said, “I’m probably going to do it. I’ve considered it, and I just love working in government.”

“Politics is in my blood,” she said. “I taught political science for over 40 years. Because of my students I got on the Council here in Fort Lee. I was on for 10 years. And because I have a lot of people who are very supportive of me, I got an opportunity to run for the Assembly eight years ago. And I love helping constituents, and I love talking to school kids, because I’m an educator by profession.”

Voss estimates she has spoken to over 3,000 kids of all grade levels and up through college over the past year about government and has been amazed at “how little the average citizen knows about the different levels of government.”

As for a run for Freeholder, Voss said she would bring the same level of commitment, dedication and passion to education and autism issues to the role.

“I’m not happy [about the redistricting], but as long as I can still be of service to my town, my county, my state,” she said. “I’ve worked so hard on getting (autism) legislation passed. I kind of want to do more, because this is a very big issue. And I’m kind of upset about some of the things our governor wants to do about education, having been a teacher for many, many years … I feel that I could be a voice of reason when [policies are proposed] that don’t look like they’re educationally sound.”

Voss expects challenges to the redistricting decision, but she doesn’t expect those challenges to amount to much.

“Will there be challenges?” she asked rhetorically. “I think there probably will be some challenges. But the challenges will probably come from the Republicans, because it was the Democratic map that was chosen. So I’m sure there will be some quick cases.”

Voss will remain in office until January 2012, when Fort Lee will officially be represented by elected officials from the 37th district.