As the Democratic National Convention winds down in Charlotte, New Jersey delegates are weighing in on how the event is going. Assemblyman Lou Greenwald (D-6), the majority leader, told NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider that the DNC “has been amazing.” He discussed Bill Clinton’s speech, contention among Democrats over revising the party platform and the relationship between Republicans and Democrats in the state.
Greenwald, who is at his first DNC, said he has seen a noticeable difference in the first two nights of the DNC compared to last week’s RNC.
Democrats at the convention had to decide on a revision to the platform recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, which Newark Mayor Cory Booker classified as an omission. The decision to change the platform wasn’t unanimous, with many in Charlotte voicing their opposition. “I think what’s great about our party is that open dialogue and communication,” Greenwald said.
He added that Democrats have a strong relationship with the Jewish community. “Clearly in a district like mine representing a strong Jewish community, this is an issue that’s very important to the constituents that we represent,” Greenwald said. “But what’s most important is that as a party we listen to those constituents and we react and we respond.” He said he fully supported the addition.
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Former President Bill Clinton laid out the economic priorities of the Democratic Party during his speech. “I think what President Clinton laid out last night is what people like myself have been trying to lay out over the course of the last six months that I’ve been in the majority leader position and really during the first three years of Gov. Christie’s administration,” said Greenwald. He views New Jersey as a microcosm of the national debate.
Greenwald said Christie is out of touch wanting income tax breaks for the wealthy, which lawmakers in the state rejected. “They came out and very strongly want property tax relief. And they want meaningful property tax relief,” Greenwald said. “So after Gov. Christie relented after months and months of hammering trying to give large breaks to the wealthy and ultimately recognized that property taxes were the problem, he wanted to throw small pieces to the middle class families and in the meantime to give the greatest aspect and the greatest chunk of that money to the wealthy.”
Shared sacrifice and shared responsibility will bring prosperity, according to Greenwald. He said President Barack Obama’s policies are taking hold and starting to grow at the national level and New Jersey should follow his lead.
“The plan that we put forward in the legislature would have given immediate tax relief to over 95 percent of the households. So they could have that relief if Gov. Christie would break from his bond with the wealthiest 1 percent and really what is misguided policies that you saw last week at the national convention that are not resonating in this country and are not working in New Jersey,” Greenwald said. “That’s why we have almost one out of 10 people unemployed in the state.”
When asked if the climate in Trenton will be more confrontational and less cooperative, Greenwald said no. “I think what our hallmark of our success is we want to find compromise, we want to work together,” he said. “But we want to work together in a way that it’s going to prop up and support middle class families and drive prosperity for everybody.”
He said solving the property tax problem should be the number one goal, along with creating jobs and a strong economy. “One out of 10 people unemployed, losing jobs in New Jersey’s not the place that we should be,” Greenwald said.