Response to False and Negative Mailer by Resto and Hoffman

We are very disappointed that Len Resto and Peter Hoffman, after promising a positive campaign, would send out a mailer with information that both Len and Peter know is false, in an effort to smear their fellow residents.

We have focused our positive campaign on issues that residents care about: improving downtown, especially our increasingly decrepit Main Street; making government operations more efficient; and ensuring that new developments do not negatively affect traffic, schools, and the broader community. We also want to preserve important community events such as Fishawack and our annual tree lighting, both under threat under the current regime. (Many Chathamites don’t know that the Christmas tree lighting/Santa visit was almost cancelled last year even after our school kids had started practicing their dance routines for the event.)

We developed our platform after weeks of talking to residents about what THEY see as Chatham’s problems and challenges. When these issues have been brought up, Len and Peter have denied that the problems even exist. You cannot expect elected officials to improve things that they don’t see as needing improvement – one reason alone to vote for us instead of the incumbents.
While we would rather not dignify the mailer with a response, we do think it is important to correct the record:

• Not a single element of our agenda is partisan, unless believing that everyone in Chatham should feel welcome regardless of race or religion is now only a position held by Democrats. We do not believe this is the case. We also very much hope that Peter was sincere when he apologized for his astonishingly cruel and bigoted on-line statements about immigrants and Muslims (as recently as 2017, during the time he was an elected official representing the Borough). There are Muslims and what Peter calls “hyphenated Americans” living in Chatham, some of whom have been bullied in our schools; in fact, there has been an alarming uptick in bullying especially at Chatham Middle School in the last year and half. We think it is regretful that Len and the rest of the incumbents’ party gave Peter a pass on this behavior, unworthy of an elected official.
• We have responded extensively already to the old trope that just because we are Democrats we have any interest in raising taxes. We are taxpayers in Chatham, too, and understand very well how hard hit New Jersey has been by the Republican tax bill that cut off deductions for property taxes. We find it ironic that Len and Peter keep touting the importance of being non-partisan, but then pull out old partisan stereotypes in a desperate effort to save their campaign.
• Both Jocelyn and Carolyn have volunteered their time in Chatham. The incumbents seem to think they get to decide what is and isn’t relevant in terms of qualifications for office. Actually, that is the job of the voters. By any objective standard, Carolyn and Jocelyn are one of the most qualified teams ever to run for Chatham Borough Council.
• At the debate, Jocelyn raised the question as to why Florham Park and Chatham Township drivers pay a heavily subsidized rate for daily parking at our train station, costing the Borough $160,000 in lost revenue every year. She did not propose raising parking rates for Chatham commuters. We think it’s wrong that Peter and Len are willing to subsidize out-of-town commuters but not allow staff time to be spent to support Fishawack and the Christmas tree lighting that Borough children love.
• Contrary to our opponents’ mailer, there has been no proposal for a design review process for minor home renovations. In fact, Jocelyn is a champion of streamlining approval processes for land use reviews and building permits. In a campaign statement, Jocelyn indicated that residents are concerned about homes being torn down and replaced by giant “mega homes” and suggested that the Borough consider a streamlined design review process for replacement of tear-downs to ensure that they are done in a way that does not destroy the feel of our neighborhoods.

We believe strongly that the intentional spreading of such patently false assertions in the midst of a political campaign has no place in our cherished democracy. Each and every one of us is a neighbor to the other and a fellow resident of this same wonderful borough. We must be better than this. We therefore urge our opponents to resist resorting to such desperate tactics in the interest of securing a victory. As George Bernard Shaw once said, “Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.” Let us be sure that what we deserve is worthy of our most principled selves.

If you have any questions for us, please email us at:
Jocelynforchatham@gmail.com or carolyn4chatham@gmail.com and please check out our Facebook pages to learn more about our positive vision for Chatham borough.