Vote Dempsey and Mathiasen

To the Editor:

The November 6 election is one of the most important in my lifetime. The Age of Trump is a wake-up call and call to action for all of us, on both the national and local levels.

We’re very lucky to have two highly qualified candidates running for Chatham Borough Council. Jocelyn Mathiasen is a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government who has spent her entire career working with municipalities, large and small, to help them be more efficient and responsive. She’s also an experienced grant writer who’s helped bring in $8.6 million in grant money to municipalities. Carolyn Dempsey has a degree from William and Mary, once worked on Capitol Hill as a Congressional intern and was recruited by the CIA for covert operations before choosing a different career path in the arts and education. During her almost two decades in Chatham Borough, she has immersed herself in a wide range of community activities, including service on the Borough’s Historic Preservation Commission and volunteer work for various cancer research charities.

The election of Carolyn and Jocelyn is just what Chatham Borough needs to better reflect and represent the growing diversity of this wonderful community, and ensure that the ideas offered by its residents are fully heard and considered by the Borough Council. We need empathetic leaders who can responsively represent the broad spectrum of viewpoints now seen amongst our residents. Currently, there is only one woman and one Democrat on our seven-member governing body. Not only does this fail to adequately reflect the present demographic composition of the Borough, it also does not permit a sufficient degree of procedural checks and balances on the Council. Last year’s costly error over the Post Office Plaza redevelopment effort, resulting in the need to scrap work already done and begin anew, is just one example of how important checks and balances truly are.

Jocelyn and Carolyn have specific ideas about how to revitalize the downtown area, introduce greater fiscal efficiencies into the budget, and help the Borough become a model of environmental stewardship. Bringing new voices to the Council will not only be instrumental in establishing a positive vision for Chatham Borough, it will also help push back against the misguided policies of Donald Trump. The Democrats must make a strong showing this November up and down the ballot to effectively counter the extreme policies now coming from Washington, aided and abetted by local governing bodies with insufficient bipartisan balance.

Please go to jocelyn4chatham.com and carolyn4chatham.com to learn more.

Patricia Soteropoulos

Chair, Chatham Borough Democratic Committee