Gordon: Lautenberg Was a Strong Advocate, Fighter

With the passing of Frank Lautenberg, New Jersey has lost a stalwart champion, a fighter for the middle class and working poor and a strong advocate for this region.

During my years of work with Frank Lautenberg I came to know him, as so many others did, as a constant and consistent force in the fight for justice and fairness.

For Frank Lautenberg, there was no challenge too big. He took on ‘Big Tobacco’ in his fight to ban smoking on commercial flights and continued his advocacy for anti-smoking laws that would go on to save countless lives.

He advocated for the families of those who died on Pan Am Flight 103 at the hands of terrorists, which included New Jerseyans. And he fought beside those families for years to ensure they received the compensation, and the justice, they sought from the Libyan government.

Here in Bergen County, where he lived, he fought relentlessly to improve the lives of residents and to ensure fairness for working people. He brought home funding for transportation projects in our region, helping to improve mass transit, revitalize neighborhoods and to create jobs. And recently when the Port Authority sought to raise tolls on Trans-Hudson bridges and tunnels, he led the effort to hold the authority to account, convening a hearing in the U.S. Senate and later standing with me and my colleagues at the George Washington Bridge to demand accountability and transparency at the Port.

Frank Lautenberg never lost sight of the importance of serving as a strong voice for the people. He fought for worker’s rights and women’s rights, for military veterans, for better health care for our families and for a safer and cleaner environment for generations to come. And up to his final days, Senator Lautenberg never lost his drive.

We will miss his courage, his spirit and his strength. But we will know that all of us in Bergen County, in New Jersey, and in this nation, are better off because of his advocacy, his tenacity and we are better off because of his fight.

Senator Bob Gordon
District 38