In the upcoming November election, voters in the 11th district will decide if they want to keep incumbent Republican Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen in office. Frelinghuysen told NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider that he has been getting acquainted with the newly redrawn district and hopes to continue to represent his constituents. On the national stage, Frelinghuysen said he supports Mitt Romney for president, but adds that he does support certain aspects of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act.
The redrawing of the district has added 270,000 new constituents and 14 towns to the 11th district. Some of them were previously represented by Bill Pascrell so Frelinghuysen said it’s been a number of years since they have had a Republican representing them.
Frelinghuysen said he doesn’t mind being called a moderate Republican. “I’m a fiscal conservative, but our job is to represent everybody and my job is to fight for New Jersey and I think most of the members of our delegation — Republicans and Democrats — have been able to count on me on the appropriations side to work on behalf of New Jersey, on our priorities,” he said.
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While some of the polls have shown Obama with a lead, Frelinghuysen said the political world can change every week. He said he supports Romney and believes Paul Ryan is a positive addition to the ticket. Frelinghuysen said he doesn’t agree with every aspect of Ryan’s tax plan, but that officials need to address changes to Medicare and Medicaid.
Frelinghuysen voted against the Affordable Health Care Act, also referred to as Obamacare, but said he does agree with certain aspects. “I like the idea of covering young people to the age 26,” he said. “I think portability is desirable, being able to take insurance from one job to another.”
Members of Congress have been criticized for not doing enough. Frelinghuysen said there is a lot of gridlock. “We have a president who’s busy running for reelection so he’s been sort of out of town,” he said. “We’ve got a Senate that can’t pass a budget and we’ve passed lots of bills to sort of put America back to work.”
Frelinghuyen said members of the House have come together and taken action, but have sometimes been blocked because of lack of action by the Senate. “Compromise is not a dirty word, but if we send 30 bills in there to sort of stimulate the economy, getting small business men and women back to work, I think the Senate has some obligation to act on those bills and if they don’t like them, they should change the bills.”