By David Cruz
NJ Today
Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver is well aware that many pundits see her Senate primary campaign as a long shot. But the last of the Senate primary campaign to officially kick off made up for lost time with passion and bite as Oliver’s coalition of women, community activists, parts of the old Essex County guard and anti-Booker Newarkers laid into the front-runner.
“We should send a clear message to Cory Booker,” Sen. Ron Rice said in a fiery introduction speech. “You can be wealthy; you can go back to Harrington Park; you can go back to Hollywood. We just don’t want you around here and we don’t want you in Washington.”
While the other three candidates in this race — Booker and Representatives Rush Holt and Frank Pallone — were busy raising money and getting their ads on the airwaves, Oliver had been engrossed in her work as Assembly Speaker. But with a campaign kickoff that drew an enthusiastic audience of more than 100, Oliver began to define her role in this race as the only woman, saying it was time to break the glass ceiling of New Jersey politics.
“Knocking on doors, manning phone banks, licking envelopes, knocking on doors, affixing stamps, raising money, electing what historically in our party, has been men to office at the highest levels,” said Oliver.
Oliver pointed to inspirations like Shirley Chisolm and Newark’s first female at large Councilwoman Marie Villani as women who helped make her ascension to the Assembly speaker-ship possible. Like those women, Oliver says she is focusing on issues affecting the poor and the working class.
“I am running for women who are confronted with unique challenges and I am running for constituencies of people who, in many instances, have their issues ignored by elected officials,” she said.
Oliver says the Essex County elected officials — including Freeholder Blonnie Watson and others — who have endorsed her, are holding strong to the party line, unlike the county’s top Democrat, County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, who in addition to endorsing Cory Booker in the Senate race, has been unabashed about escorting Gov. Chris Christie around the county.
“In Essex County, [Christie] only got 27 percent of the vote and there’s no question, in his reelection, he’s going to do better than 27 percent of the vote here because he’s done, not only great things around the state, but he’s helped the people around here in Essex County very well,” DiVincenzo boasted this week during a walking tour with Christie in Newark.
Oliver says in a short race, anyone can ride momentum to victory, especially in a contest where less than 20 percent of voters are expected to turn out. In any case, she says she’s in the race now and expects to run as hard and as fast as the other guys.