Whether in English, Spanish or Portuguese, the message Saturday in downtown Newark was the same -- four more years.
Hundreds gathered in front of city hall for a rally in support of President Obama and other Democratic Party candidates, including Sen. Bob Menendez, who was among the long list of speakers touting the virtues of the incumbent and blasting Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
“Who’s the 47 percent? We are,” Menendez said, referring to Romney’s controversial statements, made public last month, about half the country’s people being dependent on government assistance.
South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka, speaking to a diverse crowd that included representatives of labor organizations and motorcycle clubs, said participation in the election was vital in the New Jersey, even though nearly all observers consider the state firmly in the Obama column.
“We’re not here because we want to party but because we need jobs, and Mitt Romney is not going to provide them,” Baraka said. “We know government has to intercede to help us. Should we leave it to the banks? Should we leave it to the corporate people?”
Other speakers urged the crowd to help the Obama effort in so-called swing states where polling indicates the presidential race is still largely a tossup with less than a month to go before Election Day Nov. 6.
“Pick up your phone if you got family in Florida, in the battleground states,” said Councilman-at-Large Luis Quintana.
Volunteers also sold Obama merchandise and registered new voters in the final days before the state’s Oct. 16 deadline.
Among those volunteers Saturday was Ruth Wilson, who’d spent the morning walking along Broad Street signing up an additional 20 voters.
Wilson said she wanted to see “four more years of the greatest” when asked what spurred her one-woman get-out-the-vote effort.
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