Democrats have successfully flipped a seat in New Jersey’s General Assembly in a a deep-red district that has not elected a Democratic legislator in three decades.

Decision Desk HQ projects that Democrat Avi Schnall has won a seat in the assembly, unseating incumbent Republican Assemblyman Ned Thomson. Voters in each New Jersey legislative district choose two assembly members to represent them, so the contest was a four-way race featuring two Democrats and two Republicans.

Schnall was elected alongside incumbent Republican Assemblyman Sean Kean in the 30th district.

  • @Candelestine
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    13611 months ago

    Oh nononono you don’t. A former republican supported by the Orthodox Jewish community, which is heavily associated with the right-wing Israeli settler movement?

    Yeah, we’ll be watching how he votes.

    • @givesomefucks
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      6111 months ago

      Yeah, apparently he spent a decade running an orthodox organization and taken millions from New Jersey public schools (where he was also in a high ranking education position) to buy bullshit “religious science” science textbooks and textbooks on how to learn Yiddish (but no other language) because public schools can “loan” books to private religious schools…

      Also using taxpayer money to pay for private school bussing…

      And while he pushed for an end to vaccination exemptions on religious grounds for public schools, wanted an exemption for private…

      NJs public schools are in shambles, and this asshat is taking as much funding as he can to give it to religious indoctrination centers and coming up with reasons to increase their enrollment.

      And that’s not even getting into all the other shit that comes up in 2 seconds of an Internet search

      It’s just someone else pulling a Sinema. “Vote Blue no matter who” is better than a Republican being elected. But it just leads to shit like this where the general is one Republican with an R by their name. Against one Republican who suddenly has a D next to their name…

      This dude is a rightwing religious extremist who realized just putting a D by his name is enough in our political system

      • ares35
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        2011 months ago

        lakewood twp has a majority orthodox jewish population. he probably would have won a seat regardless of the label attached to his name on the ballot.

        • @givesomefucks
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          1211 months ago

          That might be true.

          The point is everyone else that isn’t a far right religious extremist had to pick between one of those and a Republican

          That’s the issue.

          The two party system means most voters don’t have a real choice, which depresses turnout, and will lead to Republicans winning elections, or best case a Dem that doesn’t actually support the basics of the Dem platform like “separation of church and state” which is a very low bar.

          • ares35
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            411 months ago

            elections there are different. TWO seats per district, two votes per ballot, from a list of all candidates. there were other choices with D and R labels attached.

      • @Candelestine
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        111 months ago

        I think his win clearly demonstrates that putting a D in front is actually insufficient. Had the label’s effect been much greater than his actual beliefs, then his label would have resulted in a loss.

        But, enough of the constituents of that district didn’t seem vote for a label, they voted for his actual positions instead.

        A genuine dem campaigning hard on progressive policies and messaging probably would have lost.

        • @givesomefucks
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          311 months ago

          What?

          Seriously I can’t follow any of your logic.

          How do you know he wasn’t elected because the only other alternative?

          And if he didn’t run on progressive policies like you said, what made him better than the Republican?

          • @Candelestine
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            111 months ago

            I guess it’s simple enough to get to the bottom of, did he campaign on democratic party platforms and messaging? Has he called for abortion rights, gun control and greater business regulation?

            • @givesomefucks
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              11 months ago

              I compared him to Sinema…

              I thought it was obvious that some politicians lie. So even if he claimed progressive policies, that doesn’t mean he’s not just lying. I highly doubt many Republicans who switch to D just before running in an election honestly had a sudden change of heart.

              But you’re saying if he supported that stuff he’d have lost, now youre saying he did support that stuff…

              I’m sorry, maybe it’s me but I can’t understand what point you’re trying to make here. I’m not seeing any logical consistency

              And I don’t think that’s going to be as easy to change as a letter by a republicans name.

              But maybe you should take a minute to Google a politician before blindly supporting them like you just did? That’s pretty much the blind support based only on the letter by someone’s name I was just complaining about

              • @Candelestine
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                211 months ago

                I did not say he supported that stuff, I asked if he had. My sentence ended in a question mark, because it was an honest question.

                If he had called for abortion rights, for instance, then that is calling for abortion rights. It’s publicly supporting that position in the public space.

                Do recall, my original thesis is “we will see how he votes.” I have not expressed any support or opposition to him, merely caution and a wish to observe.

          • ElleChaise
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            111 months ago

            How do you know he wasn’t elected because the only other alternative?

            How do you know he wasn’t elected because people liked his politics?

    • @[email protected]
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      711 months ago

      If he votes too much with the Republicans he’ll lose party support. There’s a reason party members tend to vote the same. Without party support he’ll have a hard time getting reelected in a red district unless he flips parties again.

      • Veraxus
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        711 months ago

        Unfortunately, the DNC has a real problem with extreme far-right infiltrators who wear the D but only actively support fascist GOP policies and agendas.

      • @Candelestine
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        111 months ago

        I guess we’ll see, huh? Just hope he realizes people are paying attention. Smart ones, anyway.

  • @[email protected]
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    3911 months ago

    Ohio.

    Virginia.

    Kentucky.

    New Jersey.

    Pennsylvania.

    A message was delivered to the party of Donald Trump last night. And the message was this:

    Fuck off!

    • @0110010001100010
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      1911 months ago

      Proud to be a small part of the “Fuck off!” from Ohio!

    • ForestOrca
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      511 months ago

      Funny how the media I’ve been reading doesn’t seem to see any clear message.

    • Nougat
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      11 months ago

      What happened in PA? I’m familiar with all the rest.

      Edit: Expanding majority on the PA Supreme Court it seems.

  • AutoTL;DRB
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    211 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Decision Desk HQ projects that Democrat Avi Schnall has won a seat in the assembly, unseating incumbent Republican Assemblyman Ned Thomson.

    Voters in each New Jersey legislative district choose two assembly members to represent them, so the contest was a four-way race featuring two Democrats and two Republicans.

    Schnall was elected alongside incumbent Republican Assemblyman Sean Kean in the 30th district.

    Schnall is a former New Jersey director of an organization that advocates for the interests of Orthodox Jews called Agudath Israel of America.

    The New Jersey Globe reported that the district supported Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli in 2021 by 28 points and has not elected a Democratic lawmaker since 1992.

    The district will now have a relatively rare split delegation between its Assembly seats, with one Democrat and one Republican representing its residents.


    The original article contains 210 words, the summary contains 135 words. Saved 36%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!