2021 ended up being a mixed year for the good guys, Save Jerseyans, with Phil Murphy winning reelection but Republicans picking up seven legislative seats, several county-level post and 100 local seats across the Garden State. For my fellow nerds? It was sort of like the end of Star Wars A New Hope: we blew up the Death Star (version 1.0) but the emperor is very much still in charge and he’s already building a second one. The key point is that there’s now hope notwithstanding the long road ahead. We have a real resistance again (as evidenced by the ongoing battle over the State House vax mandate).
Before 2022 dawns, we’re asking our readers to vote for the “resistance leader” (sorry, I know, this is nerdy as all hell) who most deserves the title of “Save Jerseyan of the Year” for 2021.
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What makes someone a Save Jerseyan of the Year? There’s some room for interpretation, but these nominees (which were submitted to me via social media, email, and in countless conversations over the past few weeks) all embody the spirit of holding the power elite accountable. They’ve taken on the establishment in this politically diseased and made a real difference. There are plenty of others who deserve honorable mention over the past 12 months, but the following trio stood out to most of your:
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- Edward Durr: A truck driver-turned political giant slayer, Gloucester County’s Senator-elect Ed Durr become a national figure in November by upsetting Senate President Steve Sweeney (formerly the second most powerful elected official in New Jersey) with a couple of grand, a lot of work, and an unapologetically conservative populist message. It was 2021’s ultimate David vs. Goliath story and was easily the biggest story of the cycle (a close second to the gubernatorial victory in Virginia).
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- Jean Stanfield: A contemporary Cincinnatus, Stanfield jumped back into the political arena in 2019 to run for Assembly after former Republican State Senator Dawn Addiego (D-8) switched parties and placed the GOP’s final remaining Burlington County stronghold in jeopardy. She could’ve retired after her tenure as sheriff, hugged her grandkids and washed her hands of an ugly situation; she didn’t, and two years later Stanfield successfully defeated the traitorous Addiego in the season’s most highly targeted State Senate contest.
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- Woke Zombie: She isn’t elected to anything… we think? We don’t even know who she is, but conservative New Jersey Twitter’s favorite anonymous tweeter (@AWokeZombie) has been a one-woman Trenton watchdog going back to the beginning of the pandemic, supplying solid mathematical analysis of the Murphy Administration misleading (often deliberately so) Covid-19 pronouncements. She’s an activist, a social media general, and a symbol of the ongoing resistance to Phil Murphy’s disastrous pandemic response.
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Voting opens immediately and will conclude on January 2nd at 11:59 p.m. Unlike most elections in this state? There will be no last minute absentee ballot dumps.
Vote below!
