Independent Candidate Steven Fenichel Seeks Congressional Seat

If you believe the “sky is falling” crowd on both sides of the political aisle, Steven Fenichel says you’d believe now is not the time to vote for your principles. Then again, it never is.

“Every election, you can’t vote your beliefs because the other team will win,” said Fenichel, who is running an independent campaign for the Second Congressional District seat soon to be vacated by longtime Rep. Frank LoBiondo. “If you don’t support your party, the other party’s going to win.”

Fenichel said he’s still being blamed for his vote in the 2000 presidential election, which Republican George W. Bush gain the presidency over Democrat Al Gore. Many Democrats blamed Green Party candidate Ralph Nader for Gore’s loss, and continue to to this day.

This has no effect on Fenichel, who is one of four independent candidates in the Nov. 6 elections for the seat that covers Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Salem counties, and parts of Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Ocean counties.

Even in this election, Fenichel says it is difficult for him to distinguish between Democratic candidate and State Sen. Jeff Van Drew and Republican Seth Grossman. Fenichel points to Van Drew’s A+ rating from the NRA, something he says Grossman would be “foaming at the mouth to have.”

With all the news concerning school shootings over the past few years, Fenichel recognizes that common sense gun reform is a major issue in the upcoming elections. He also supports a $15 minimum wage and stands behind Gov. Phil Murphy’s campaign promise to make New Jersey a “sanctuary state.”

Along those lines, Fenichel said it’s wrong that it is illegal for New Jersey businesses to support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which aims to end international support for what the movement describes as “Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people.”

Fenichel is Jewish, but has a lot of Palestinian friends, and says it’s wrong to ban corporations from putting pressure on Israel as it relates to the Palestinians.

He also supports full funding for reproductive rights and would like to see all school districts receive equitable funding. He supports increased federal funding for transportation in New Jersey, and wants to see a federal government mandate that creates police review boards that aren’t beholden to special interests.

The biggest problem he sees, though, is in the dirty money that flows through politics today. He said it’s present in the Democratic and Republican parties, but it isn’t confined to those two major players.

Fenichel said he sought the endorsement of two “third parties,” and both asked him why they should support a candidate that doesn’t have a lot of money.

“I said endorse me and the money will come in,” Fenichel said. “ … I will not accept money from unions and corporations or anything more than a small contribution from a private citizen. I won’t lose my core beliefs for the sake of an endorsement.”

Fenichel, who grew up in Vineland, has run for Congress before, including two years ago when LoBiondo won what turned out to be his final term. He considers his experience in the political arena to be an asset. The doctor who spent two years in the Peace Corps believes everyone should run for office in their lifetime to see what it’s really all about.

He believes a shift away from the dirty money in politics is possible the day people go to the polls, move away from team politics and vote their conscience.

He said a quote by political pamphleteer Jonathan Swift sums up the political climate: “Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: like a man, who hath thought of a good repartee when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.”

“I have a really strong sense of justice, fair play and equity,” Fenichel said. “I would be transparent in everything I do.”

The attached image of Steven Fenichel was provided