4th District Candidate Welle Abandoning Progressives: Letter

The following is a letter to the editor regarding the candidacy of Josh Welle, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 4th District House of Representatives race against incumbent Republican Chris Smith. Letters to the editor may be submitted by emailing them to karen.wall@patch.com. Include your name, address and contact information for verification purposes:

To the editor:

At a recent debate, Democratic Congressional hopeful Josh Welle showed exactly who he was, stating “If we want to win in this district, progressive values have to be at the heart of our initiative, but this is not a bold progressive district.”

Welle went on to enumerate issues that he “wants to” support, but would not. Among them: fighting discrimination and racism, creating jobs and supporting a green economy. He then proceeded to offensively label Howell, Jackson, Allentown, and Millstone as cities that would resist such progress.

From this statement, it’s clear that Welle is a candidate who is willing to compromise his values for political benefit. As a result, many of his policy positions have been unclear and noncommittal.

On taxation, Welle justified the GOP tax plan as necessary in a broken economy. His solution? Broad gestures of innovation and bipartisanship. He refuses to name inequality and the power of big business as systemic problems, a key component of progressivism, as to not offend his large corporate donors.

In rooms full of Democrats, he supports a single-payer healthcare system in generic terms. However, his public-facing promotional material makes no mention of this; instead it sticks to conservative buzzwords like “affordable” and “accessible” health care.

Welle’s campaign is aiming for the center, with messaging intended to be inoffensive and catering to all. This is a losing strategy. By putting forth compromised positions and mixed messaging, he is pleasing no one beyond his corporate donors.

Jim Silverman
Holmdel