Sherrill Ups the Energy Level on State Elections

PARSIPPANY – Mikie Sherrill isn’t running for anything – at least this year.

Still, Sherrill was just about everywhere this past weekend, crisscrossing a swath of New Jersey on behalf of state and local Democratic candidates.

Here’s an example of one of the upbeat messages the CD-11 congresswoman sent out on social media:

“First stop? Bergen County to help send Jodi Murphy to the State Senate, where she will stand up and defend reproductive freedom.

The energy is great here in Westwood and they’re ready to win up and down the ballot on Nov 7.”

Murphy is the Democratic candidate challenging incumbent Republican Holly Schepisi in LD-39, a pretty safe Republican district.

From there, Sherril returned to her own district to help kick-off Get Out The Vote efforts in Parsippany, complete with a vow to turn Morris County “blue” this November.

“These are hard elections. Sometimes, it’s hard to get people engaged,”  Sherrill said Monday after visiting Zimmer Biomet, a medical device company.

She’s right about that. Sad to say, not many voters are wrapped up in state legislative elections.

Over the weekend, Sherrill also visited Princeton and Hunterdon County to help state Sen. Andrew Zwicker, who is trying to fend off Republican Mike Pappas for the second election cycle in a row. This would be LD-16.

Showing that two can play the “House member supports me” game, Pappas had Rep. Thomas H. Kean Jr at his Saturday morning fundraiser.

Sherrill’s two days of campaigning also included stops in Union, Essex and Somerset counties.

Republicans want the election to be about “parents’ rights,” which encompasses a lot. In the GOP’s take, parents rights is the notion that parents deserve to know about curriculum and the sexual orientation of their kids.

Democrats are stressing “choice,” or in layman’s terms, the right of a woman to have an abortion.

Like many Democrats, Sherrill criticized the Republicans’ fixation on the rights of school parents, suggesting that “vulnerable kids are being targeted for political purposes.”

More broadly, she said all parents have the right to care about what happens to their kids in school. But she said what that actually means has to be up to individual parents.

Ever since Glen Youngkin won the governorship of Virginia two years ago talking about school issues, Republicans have taken the initiative on parents rights. We have seen crowds at school board meetings and at times fiery exchanges over how gay students are treated, books and curriculum in general.

Sherrill said of the Republicans’ approach:

“It’s not a kids-focused approach. It’s a political-focused approach,” adding that she thinks a lot of parents see it as offensive.

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