Things are heating up in New Jersey’s 14th District Senate race. Yesterday, NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider spoke with Republican Peter Inverso who is running to reclaim his old Senate seat from the Democratic incumbent Linda Greenstein. In an interview today, she told Schneider that her campaign is taking Inverso, as well as other “threats,” seriously.
“We work extremely hard and what makes it, I would say, a tad easier is we’re always responsive to the people of the 14th,” said Greenstein. “We work on that all year long seven days a week so that when it comes to campaign season, it’s just more of the same.”
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One of the reasons Inverso cited for entering the race was a series of robocalls against him. He called it a deciding factor. “The fact that the Democrats started a robocall campaign against me before I had even announced that I was going to seek the position basically threw it over the top for me,” said Inverso.
Greenstein said the robocalls did not come from her but from the Democratic party. Still, she said the robocalls served to remind voters of Inverso’s record while he was in office, specifically during Gov. Christie Whitman’s term. She said Inverso supported legislation that allowed the state to use the pension fund as an ATM machine in balancing the budget. It’s a move Greenstein described as “one of the worst things to happen financially” in the state. The consequences of that decision continue to reverberate, she said.
“I think it’s what has put our state into a bad financial situation for all these many years,” said Greenstein. “That’s something [Inverso] championed. So people don’t remember all the details. It is a complicated issue but it is one I think people will understand when it’s explained to them.”
In his budget address, Christie said that he would fully fund the pension system. Greenstein noted that payments to the pension system began with Gov. Jon Corzine and that while progress is being made, the pension system is far from being fully-funded.
“We are moving closer because every year we are doing some payments,” she said, “and all these many years we’ve been dealing with the fact that our pension system went under.”
Many GOP candidates hope to ride the coattails of Gov. Christie, who continues to enjoy record high approval ratings. But Greenstein said she’s not running against the governor. She said, first and foremost, she would run on a record that is long and very appreciated by the people of her district.
“I have so many things that I’ve worked on from ethics reform, I’ve worked on the tax issue, I’ve worked on consumer issues, protecting children,” Greenstein said. “I’ve taken leadership positions with many of these bills and I really believe my record is full of things that the people of the 14th are happy with and I will remind them of some of the things that I’ve done and I believe they’re going to be happy with the service that I’ve given them.”
Related: Peter Inverso Seeks to Reclaim His Senate Seat in 14th District