The candidate did not respond to the questionnaire.

Age: 50

Hometown: Lyndhurst

Occupation: Retired/Security Consultant

Personal or professional background: I’m the son of hard-working Italian-American parents, married for 24 years to a teacher and blessed with two great children. Our son is a Sophomore in high school and our daughter is a nurse. I served nearly 27 years as a Special Agent in U.S. Government, retiring in 2024 as an executive with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). At HSI, I created national violent crime programs and led numerous investigations into gangs like MS-13 and TdA, combated fentanyl and seized proceeds from money laundering networks. I served as the President of the Lyndhurst Board of Education and coached various youth sports.

What is your top issue this year? New Jersey is currently facing many significant issues in this election cycle. The Governor has said our State is financially strapped, so he has proposed a “Fun Tax”, the BPU has increased utility costs by 20% and want to make us pay based on income and not usage; Sanctuary status; broken bail system; reinstating COLA for public workers; flawed school funding formula; and the highest business, income and property tax leading to significant outmigration. Small business is facing increasing regulation. However, I think the top issue affecting District 36 and New Jersey, is the State overdevelopment mandate.

What are your specific proposals for making New Jersey more affordable? New Jersey currently has the highest income tax rates, business tax rates and property tax in the United States. House prices and healthcare costs have skyrocketed. People and business are racing to leave. I will start by dissecting our State budget and finding ways to cut waste and return money to the taxpayers. Cut tax rates. Significantly cut or eliminate property taxes for Seniors. I will seek to encourage and incentivize shared service agreements across municipalities. If we truly want to fix our affordable housing problem in NJ, we don’t need mandates we need to build homes people can afford.

Do you support the state law designed to increase the amount of affordable housing and if not, how would you make housing less costly for residents? I am in favor of providing affordable housing to those who meet the need financially, but also to our Veteran’s, Seniors, and adults with developmental disabilities. I am not satisfied that the current law takes into account buildable land, impact on aged utility infrastructure, anticipated increase in school population, or the effect on public safety resources. Towns may be forced to build new schools. The State mandated numbers of units for each town are based on data and court case from 1975. NJ is a much different place today, with about 1.5 million more people in the same space.

How would you manage potential federal funding cuts to social services, health care, education, and other areas, particularly in light of the state’s budget challenges? The State budget has increased significantly over the last 8 years, from $34.8B to $56.7B proposed this year. That is an increase of over $20B. I believe we need to find ways to lower that number and return it to the taxpayer. It is still unclear as to exactly what federal cuts New Jersey will face. Some of the cuts that have been proposed are directly related to programs that are in contradiction to the President’s agenda and/or Executive Orders. If we eliminate these policies and programs, we may not face as many cuts.

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The candidate did not respond to the questionnaire.

Age: 46

Hometown: Carlstadt

Occupation: Assistant to the Principal at an Elementary School

Personal or professional background: My name is Diane DeBiase. I have been married for 24 years to my husband Ron. We have three children, McKenna 23, Ronald 21, and Jackson 16. Currently, I am an assistant to the Principal in our local elementary school. Currently, I am in my sixth year as a Carlstadt Councilwoman. I have served as Council President, and currently lead the Borough Equipment and Building Planning committees. I am also the liaison for the Borough Planning Board. I serve on many local groups, including the Women’s Club of Carlstadt as their fundraising chair, and on the Vic’s Hoofer’s. Community Service is something I feel very deeply about, and I have made it a mission in my life.

What is your top issue this year? This year, the top issue of my campaign is tough to choose. There are numerous issues affecting our constituents. While walking around door to door and meeting the residents, we have heard many stories about the hardships they are facing. Living in New Jersey has become close to unattainable. The taxes are so high, and the utility rates are going through the roof. Many residents feel they will need to move out of New Jersey in order to afford the essentials like food and clothing. Right now, they are facing the reality that they cannot pay their utility bills and rent, and still have money left over for other necessities. This cannot be happening. This needs to be addressed immediately.

What are your specific proposals for making New Jersey more affordable? The ways in which we can make NJ more affordable are to first off, to replace the BPU members and follow a new Energy Plan that would begin to use natural and nuclear energy. So much time and money have been wasted on the WInd Farms that have done nothing to help our residents. If we ban the offshore wind farms, we can get the money back to the energy plants and start exporting energy again, instead of being reliant on importing it for our users. We also need to cap property taxes. Simple things like revamping our school funding formulas will, in turn, make our property taxes stable. By really dissecting the budget, we can pick apart wasteful spending and give the money back to the taxpayers.

Do you support the state law designed to increase the amount of affordable housing and if not, how would you make housing less costly for residents? I absolutely support affordable housing; however, I do not support the high-density mandates that are given by the state. The Mt. Laurel Doctrine of 1975 was put into place 50 years ago, and the amount of housing and the formula that is being used are not in the best interest of the towns. Each individual town/city should be able to give a number to how much afforable housing they could handle. These mandates do not take into account the lack of infrastructure, the lack of police and fire personnel, and the burden to schools. Each town knows they have an obligation; however, the state needs to be cognizant of extenuating issues that they don’t take into account.

How would you manage federal funding cuts to social services, health care, education, and other areas, particularly in light of the state’s budget challenges? The state budget that has just been passed is almost $22B more than it was 8 years ago when Governor Murphy took office. Yet, we are still raising taxes to cover the school costs, healthcare costs, and general assistance. The state needs to buckle down and find out where there is a leak and fix it. Spending on these pork projects cannot continue. As an elected official, we need to be fiscally responsible for what we spend the hard-earned taxpayers’ money on. Once we can stop the unnecessary spending that is happening throughout the state, we can better understand our finances and budgets.

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