MORRIS COUNTY — NJ Board of Nursing Public Advocate, Avery Hart of Kinnelon, has announced she is a candidate for NJ Assembly in District #26, challenging Jay Webber and Betty DeCroce. She has been endorsed by the Sierra Club and other groups.
“I care deeply physical, emotional, and economic well-being of people, and the health of the environment,” she said in a prepared statement. “And I know from my work of the NJ Board of Nursing that NJ has a looming health care crisis, due to a nursing shortage and problems in home health care. I want to take my problem solving skills to Trenton to avert that crisis.”
“If the incumbents were doing a good job for the people of New Jersey, I wouldn’t run. But their votes have not helped our state. For instance, they voted against meeting NJ’s pension obligations and that contributed to the lowering of NJ bond-ratings. And they’ve really done nothing to help solve NJ’s on-going property tax problems. Even worse, Webber is the NJ Chair of the notorious ALEC, the front group that pushes corporate written laws. And Decroce takes multiple pensions from the state – all tax payer money. According to NJ Watch Dog she is the #1 “double dipper” in the Assembly. Lastly, their talk does not match their actions. For example, they talk about transparent government, but voted against opening the books of the Port Authority and private prisons.”
A retired Clinical Psychotherapist, Hart is also an award-winning playwright and author, whose books have been translated into several languages. “My life experience has uniquely prepared me to serve as an Assemblywoman,” she said in a prepared statement. “I’ve successfully held positions in the judicial, educational, medical systems, and was also involved in the arts, which taught me the value of thinking outside the box.”
In Kinnelon, Hart created,a grassroots environmental group, called Kinnelon Conserves. She wrote a Citizen’s Petition signed by nearly1400 voters that helped defeat artificial turf in the Highlands preservation zone, saving tax-payers over $1.7 million.
“Webber and DeCroce caused a lot of discord in Kinnelon because artificial turf was not allowed there until they co-sponsored a bill to permit it. They also voted by abstention to allow the Pilgrim Pipeline to run through four district towns, including Parsippany, I would have voted NO since the pipeline offers residents 100% risk and no benefit whatsoever.
It seems clear to me that health – physical, economic, or environmental – is not on their to-do list. How else can you explain their vote to refuse US Medicaid dollars that would have insured thousands of residents at no extra cost to NJ taxpayers? Presumably they voted to help Gov. Christie’s presidential campaign in Iowa. But the result in New Jersey is more crowded emergency rooms and fewer insured patients.”
“What drives me is a vision of New Jersey as a renewed Garden State where opportunity and creativity abound, the truly vulnerable are protected, quality health care is accessible, and the natural environment is protected. My goal as an Assemblywoman will be to bring fresh air, positive energy, and sensible innovation to our state to accomplish those goals.”
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