Politics & Government

Collingswood Resident Seeks to Recall Gov. Christie

Collingswood man Timothy O'Neill joined forces to create the NJ-CAN organization, in an effort to break Democratic reign.

Collingswood is home to a local man with a lofty goal. 

Timothy O'Neill, who on Collingswood Public School District's Board of Education this past fall, has taken on a new, larger-scale mission. 

And O'Neill is confident his organization, NJ-CAN, will achieve its mission—to gain the petition signatures of 25 percent of the state's registered voters—and recall current New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

Find out what's happening in Collingswoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

O'Neill spoke to Collingswood Patch about NJ-CAN's aims this Tuesday. 

 

Find out what's happening in Collingswoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Collingswood Patch: Tell us how NJ-CAN came about.

O'Neill: It began with the idea to remove Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver from their positions of power. It stemmed from a comment made to Assemblyman John S. Wisniewski, when someone in the audience (at the Industrial Union Council Convention at Rutger's University Labor Center June 10) commented on how undemocratic Sweeney's and Oliver's behavior was, how the two betrayed Democratic principals.

This person asked Wisniewski to get the caucus to remove them from their positions. And Wisniewski wasn't too thrilled with that, but he wanted to see how the healthcare and pension bill vote went, if it went through or not. There were several issues with that bill: especially that it was a double-issue bill, when the state constitution says you can only have single-issue bills in New Jersey. 

A hearing was set, the Senate Budget Committee hearing in June, and I got escorted out after a group of us stood up, locked arms, and began chanting, "Worker's rights are human rights." Everything still got passed. 

CP: And that paved the way for NJ-CAN?

O'Neill: Yes. It's really a 3-phase plan. After the vote, when we could see who'd voted for the bill—the Democrats, who, in voting for it, voted against labor and collective bargaining. These individuals were labeled, "Christiecrats."

So a group of us got together and decided to get a petition together, like in Ohio. But because the attacks were coming from Democrats and not Republicans, like in Wisconsin, we chose to petition the state Democratic chairman and democratic caucus in the assembly—to remove Sweeney and Oliver from their positions of leadership. 

And they gave Christie a humungous victory. That was the first part.

The second phase, we designed a strategy to—after the petition for the November election—put write-in candidates in the districts where Christiecrats were running. And to educate union members and progressives in New Jersey about how to write-in a vote, and give them the right name and ask them to vote for that person and only that person.

CP: How will this aid NJ-CAN in achieving its goals?

O'Neill: It's a win-win strategy for us. Because these people really have a chance of wining—it's been done before—because no one's running against them and the turnout's low. But even if we don't win, we're still sending a powerful message (to governmental leaders): "If you don't stand up, act like Democrats, and fight for the people, come next primary election, we'll be back. We'll be back with more people, stronger, better-funded, and more committed to not seeing you get past the June primary."

CP: Tell us about Phase Three.

O'Neill: After the election, we also want to join other grassroots organizations in New Jersey in an effort to recall Gov. Chris Christie. In New Jersey, you don't need a reason to recall an elected official. But we have plenty of them. 

It's going to be difficult, but I don't think we're going to run into a lot of opposition. We just need signatures. 

To make this recall happen, we need 25 percent of the registered voters in New Jersey (to sign our petition).

CP: Why did you choose the name, "NJ-CAN."

O'Neill: The name of NJ-CAN's campaign is, "Dump the Christiecrats." People ask us what "NJ-CAN," stands for, and I tell them it stands for exactly what it says: New Jersey can. We can do anything we want, anything we set our minds to, because the only power anyone has over us is the power we give them.

And if we don't do anything, we give them all the power. 

So when I say New Jersey can dump the Christiecrats—we absolutely can. 

To find out more about NJ-CAN, or to learn how to sign the recall petition, visit http://NJ-CAN.org


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