For the last 10-months or more, there has been discussion of forming a New Jersey chapter of the LCR, all with little result. Due to the calendar constraints of last year's campaign, it was not possible to have an impact on the 2004 Election. The one meeting that has held was in late-October, just weeks before the Election. As a follow-up to that meeting, I wrote hopefully on the prospects of the 2005 Election-season to one of the local organizers;
"... We do have a gubernatorial race in 12-months to select McGreevey's "elected" successor and a number of statehouse positions, as well as deal with any backlash against NJ's newly-instituted domestic partners registration. Perhaps once the mad-scramble of the 2004 campaign-season is finally over once the Electoral College or the House of Representatives name the winner of this year's contest, Jeff and the LCR will be able to assist in organizing a northern New Jersey chapter. From what I saw and heard last night, with such a same group of potential active-members, I think that a state-wide chapter is both too ambitious; and too unwieldy given the geographic and political distances involved. A North Jersey Metropolitan chapter centered on the northeastern counties; plus Morris, Middlesex, Monmouth and possibly Ocean (Asbury, Ocean Grove and Belmar) might be feasible. Even that might be too decentralized, and just concentrate on the counties on or with the I-287 beltway; Hudson, Bergan, Passaic, Essex, Morris and maybe Middlesex."
In December, I e-mailed the LCR-NJ organizers my concerns about the pending Corzine entry into the Governor's race. At this point, there was still discussion of having a follow-up meeting to form the LCR-NJ.
".... With Sen. Corzine in active pursuit of the Governor's office, does it make more sense to concentrate at the County-level and State House-levels?
From the stand-point of the South Jersey TV/radio/MSM-markets, both Shundler and Forrester are ciphers as far as their positions on issues of interest to our community. Since we already have relatively broad discrimination protection and the new domestic partners legislation in-place, what will be the issues from our perspective at the State-level? Gay marriage is dead-on-arrival. And I'm not sure there's the support for for a major, bruising civil unions-push right on the heels of the DP here in NJ, and the debacle at the national-level over gay marriage."
Earlier today, I wrote a political friend;
" ...Just thought that I'd vent a bit on my feelings about LCR-New Jersey in-light of Sen. Corzine's apparent coronation as our next Democratic Governor.
It's now been 10-months (I just checked my e-mail logs) and we still do not have a New Jersey or North Jersey chapter started...and the Governor's race is apparently already over. If you remember, we did have that abortive meeting Oct 20th with Jeff Cook from LCR-Natl., and that was muddled and had absolutely no impact on the Presidential or Federal races as we had already lost the 2004 campaign-season.
I have since have several e-mail exchanges on the subject of a follow-up meeting for LCR-NJ, the last of which has gone unanswered. At this point I have to wonder if "they" (the North Jersey group, or LCR-Natl) have abandoned the idea of New Jersey being able to have an effective LCR chapter, ...(deleted by author)... My current thought is that LCR just doesn't have the outreach resources for NJ, or just doesn't care.
At one level, I can see there being a political calculus to not waste resources and time in New Jersey, and devote them instead to states where LCR might make a difference. I note the lavish attention and press spent on the effort in California by LCR-Natl and LCR-California to establish an dedicated outpost in Sacramento, Ca. California is a electorally-massive state, and is home to millions of gays and to many gay-enclaves and gay-centric cities and towns. It's also the base of several gay-friendly Republicans and Republican organizations outside the LCR. By comparison, the bulk G/L community here is a reflection of the urban, radicalized Liberal-Democratic G/L communities of New York City and Philadelphia. Also, here in NJ our Republican elected-officials are predominately of the Social-Right and the county Republican organizations are fairly homophobic in outlook considering their Evangelical support. I certainly would place my own Congressman in that category, "pro-life" is his main campaign stump-speech and claim to fame. I can see where LCR-Natl might well just write us off as not worth the effort.
At the moment, I feel isolated and politically-abandoned."
