Decades Of Republican Dominance Are Nearing An End In Bridgewater

It’s May, and I’ve had some time to look back at the last election. Something’s (still) missing.

Competitive governments maintain checks and balances with an active electorate. Competition inspires rigorous debate, exposes folly, challenges the mind, and has the potential to inoculate us from mediocrity. It’s the secret sauce for prosperity in any democracy.

Competition affords us the ability to “fire” those who fail to do their job, through the use of a ballot box. The best and brightest rise to the top and win the privilege of representing the people. In a perfect world, this is how it’s supposed to work.

Let Bridgewater be our starting point for a discussion about why the absence of competition causes dysfunction — and maybe figure out why a township with a fairly even distribution of political affiliations has a government that’s almost exclusively Republican.

Bridgewater Republicans are better at running and funding campaigns. They’re also well established incumbents, living large on the perceived legacy of their predecessors in a politically homogeneous government where competition dies and innovation stagnates. One can argue that the long status quo in Bridgewater produced representatives who seem to have forgotten that there’s actually a job associated with their office, and that toxic partisan rhetoric isn’t part of it.

Does my fellow Bridgewater resident know what’s actually in our budget? When our bond rating goes negative on weakened reserves, will the township be forthcoming about how we got here? Is there a long-term plan to reduce how much we borrow every year? Do we even have a comprehensive budget for 2024?

The range of concerns run broadly across many issues and there is no reason to believe that it will change without a change in the balance of power. The coming months and years will provide further evidence that what's past is prologue.

Our experiences foreshadow the way our government will likely:

1. Overstep its authority by levying excessive punitive actions against local businesses, like it did to the Green Knoll Grill.
2. Instigate deep divides between residents in partisan email campaigns, then engage in sophomoric confrontations with our school superintendent.
3. Peddle toxic narratives, like calling the option of suspending in-person school and continuing remotely via Zoom an “atrocity” during a public health crisis. In that same year, there was also a false claim regarding a private security officer's “duty to retreat” in a call to action driven by a fake crisis manufactured by our mayor using township resources.
4. Pass ordinances that fly in the face of popular consent, like prohibiting the sale of recreational cannabis in Bridgewater after NJ showed one of the strongest pro-legalization votes in the country.
5. Convince residents that it’s a good idea to make accommodations for ill-conceived development projects, like warehouses or the construction of giant illuminated billboards at some of our busiest traffic bottlenecks. You may recall the one they tried to push through last year, where $8.00 per resident over 30 years was called a “phenomenal financial deal for the township.”
6. Witness the exodus of pharmaceutical companies and the slow encroachment of weeds at the former Sanofi site while misinformation about overdevelopment became a platform for political theater during multiple mayoral elections.
7. Publicly ridicule Bridgewater residents at township council meetings and/or follow-up with false claims on social media shortly thereafter, like our mayor did on multiple occasions to several residents, including township council candidate Jill Gladstone.

In a township with competitive elections, these examples would be more than enough to fire the mayor and/or council members at the ballot box.

Long-term incumbency doesn't just diminish checks and balances. Political comebacks are exhausting. That’s especially true for Bridgewater Dems who have often found themselves on an island, expected to rebrand themselves and fight their way back to political relevance while overshadowed by a powerful Republican establishment.

How do you suppose nominations go for Democrats in Bridgewater? Can you imagine a long list of prospective candidates willing to put their personal lives on hold to campaign in a township where almost nobody from that party has been elected to office in 30 years? Me neither. It’s an absolutely daunting task.

What to do: Can Bridgewater find political allies nearby? Sure, but I ask that they look with caution. For example, does the Somerset County Democratic Committee stand in solidarity with Bridgewater? Or, are they preoccupied with supporting candidates coming from positions of money and power? A recent attempt to replace Andy Kim with Tammy Murphy in a run for Robert Menendez's Senate seat answers that question quite clearly. Signs that the SCDC Chair intimidated members during the vote are especially concerning.

Grass roots will never take hold from a place of apathy toward the people. Bridgewater will be in a far better place in the future if they find their own path rather than become dependent on big organizations hamstrung by their own political improprieties.

Change is coming. While individuals from outside Bridgewater make contributions in amounts of $5, $10, and $20 (like I witnessed at a recent fundraiser), their message will spread and support will grow by word of mouth. Will worthy prospective candidates hear the call and step forward? In my opinion, that’s the only unanswered question. Everything else appears to be falling into place for a Democrat to be in office within the next two election cycles.

I say “appears to be” because, even if Democrats use their growing popularity to find great candidates and Republicans become incentivized to compete by putting their house in order and figuring out what “public service” means, the chain won’t be broken unless you vote. Voting fuels competition and accountability. Please, vote like it matters. Vote like you’re part of a caring community that’s aware of the stakes — a community that understands the cost of maintaining the status quo and the toxic partisan culture growing from it.