5 compete for 2 Assembly seats

STEVE BARRATT

Why are you running for the state Assembly?

We need to provide a government that is free of corruption and accountable to the people. This is to be accomplished by making elections more open and competitive and by expanding transparency.

I support Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill’s plan for transparency and accountability.

What are the top three things you aim to accomplish if elected?

We all understand the relationship between supply and cost. Taking wind farms off the table reduces energy supply, which in turn drives up energy cost.

1) Ethics and transparency in government are key to accountability. As part of this initiative, we must restore the 10-year look back on electoral law violations and the fee-sharing in the so-called OPRA (Open Public Records Act) reforms to ensure citizens can hold their government accountable.

2) We must study and understand the factors driving our very high property, income and sales taxes.

3) LD 24 should be represented from the majority for a change. We’ve been sending Republicans to Trenton for years with nothing to show for it except to “Stop the Democrats.”

The Sparta school system has had kids learning in trailers for generations. We should look for a way to move those classrooms under a permanent roof.

What makes you the best candidate for this position?

I’ve lived in New Jersey for almost 35 years. My kids have grown up here and are thriving here.

When I hear people say. “There’s no point in voting; nothing ever changes,” I see the need to make public policy visibly more aligned with public opinion. When people can see that this is happening, they will have more confidence in the government.

I have no designs on further political office. I just want to do the right thing for the people of LD 24.

DAWN FANTASIA

Why are you running for the state Assembly?

Sussex, Morris and Warren counties need strong leaders in Trenton who will fight for us against progressive insiders. I will oppose the failed Murphy-Sherrill radical agenda of higher taxes, school funding cuts, costly and unachievable clean energy mandates, and attacks on parental rights and the Second Amendment.

What are the top three things you aim to accomplish if elected?

My top issue this election is restoring true affordability by tackling New Jersey’s worst cost-drivers: energy and school funding.

Families are opening obscene utility bills averaging $800 a month, the direct result of the Democrats’ reckless, unaffordable energy mandates that sidelined reliable nuclear energy and clean natural gas in favor of costly experiments.

At the same time, a broken school-funding formula has crushed rural and suburban towns, spiking property taxes while schools fire staff and cut programs.

I will continue to fight to end Trenton’s tone-deaf policies, secure a fair school-funding formula, and stabilize utility costs so families can afford to stay in New Jersey.

I will also use my position on the Education Committee to defend parental rights and support age-appropriate curriculum in our schools.

What makes you the best candidate for this position?

I’ve served in local and county government, helping residents with real problems up close - because constituent service is at the heart of this job.

I spent three years on the Franklin Borough Council, including as council president, and five years as a Sussex County commissioner (freeholder), including time as director.

I am now a Republican Assemblywoman serving on the Education; Commerce, Economic Development & Agriculture, and Aging & Human Services committees.

Background and qualifications:

My career in education began as a teacher and later as a principal and district administrator in both traditional public and public charter schools.

As a mother of three, I bring both professional and personal perspective to advocating for working families and rural communities.

EUGENE GRINBERG

Why are you running for the state Assembly?

I’m a husband, a working father of two boys, a product of New Jersey public schools and an immigrant living the American Dream. I want that dream to be available to my family and yours. I care about the same things you care about. And I want New Jersey government to work for working people.

What are the top three things you aim to accomplish if elected?

We want to keep things affordable by keeping government accountable - transparency in government makes it harder for corruption to affect New Jersey’s bottom line and for representatives to lie about basic facts.

Unfortunately, there are too many representatives that will either blindly follow their party leadership, no matter how bad the policy might be for New Jersey, or will complain about the other party instead of offering real solutions.

Take one recent example to illustrate both: you may have gotten a mailer saying that energy costs are up because of electric car mandates and offshore wind farms. I trust New Jerseyans to use common sense: how does an EV mandate that doesn’t take effect for 10 years drive energy prices up now? It doesn’t.

While it may be true that we do not yet have enough wind and solar for the entire grid, both are a strong investment for the future: local energy security, independence and affordability, including domestic manufacturing.

Until then, there’s nothing wrong with an “all of the above approach,” but we should invest in our future instead of selling out our clean air and kids’ futures.

What makes you the best candidate for this position?

I’m not a career politician; in fact, I’ve never run for anything before.

But I have spent most of my life here and I’m excited to raise my kids here, and I’ve gotten tired of the approach that some elected officials have taken: saying “no” to whatever the other side proposes.

I have a wealth of experience in both the public and private sector in learning how to bridge gaps without compromising on core values.

MICHAEL INGANAMORT

Why are you running for the state Assembly?

I am running for re-election to ensure that northwest New Jersey and our common-sense conservative values have a strong advocate in the Assembly.

Our state government has drifted too far from the priorities and concerns of average residents. Rising taxes, reckless spending and one-size-fits-all mandates from Trenton are hurting families and small businesses.

I hear from too many constituents that it is becoming difficult to stay in New Jersey and to prosper here. It doesn’t have to be this way.

In the Statehouse, I have earned a reputation for effectively challenging the Democratic majority, championing common-sense solutions to make life more affordable, and delivering tangible results and first-rate constituent services for the people of Sussex, Morris, and Warren counties.

What are the top three things you aim to accomplish if elected?

My top priority, which relies on Jack Ciattarelli being elected governor, is to drive down New Jerseyans’ highest-in-the-country total tax burden. We should reduce income taxes and business taxes to be more regionally competitive, index tax rates for inflation, and make the first $50,000 of small-business income tax-free.

As a former mayor, I’m particularly concerned about state mandates on small towns. It’s why I introduced a 20-bill package called the Small Town Rescue Plan, aimed at getting state agencies out of the business of running our municipalities.

Onerous state mandates run the gamut from requiring municipal permitting of tree removal on private property to impractical high-density housing mandates. I will work to advance each of these bills.

What makes you the best candidate for this position?

As a father and a husband, I am deeply motivated to make life better in New Jersey. In two short years in the Assembly, I am proud to have advanced bills on children’s safety, human trafficking, better transit access for seniors and the disabled in rural areas, and promoting manufacturing and workforce development. In short, I’m just getting started.

LANA LEGUIA

Why are you running for the state Assembly?

Americans keep falling for the lie that we must continue voting to stop one party from being in power instead of voting for the future we want. In doing this, the same people get elected based on the same promises that are never kept and nothing ever gets better.

I decided to accept the nomination to run for office not because I wanted attention, notoriety, money, power or immortality but because I am tired of being powerless to change.

As the state grows bigger, my freedom shrinks, my livelihood diminishes and my future becomes bleak. I am tired of hearing people drowning in taxes, victimized by corruption and unable to progress in New Jersey.

What are the top three things you aim to accomplish if elected?

New Jersey has the highest property tax in the country, one of the highest income taxes in the country, is one of the most regulated states in the country and one of the most inhospitable environments to small businesses in the country.

My focus is ending New Jersey’s income tax and repealing the seemingly endless list of regulations choking small business, housing markets and individual freedoms.

As long as you are living your life in peace, no person or government agent can tell you how to live your life. The government does not exist to take care of us but to defend our fundamental rights when infringed.

What makes you the best candidate for this position?

I am someone who cannot be bought or coerced into submission, a quality that our state Assembly is in great need of. New Jersey is one of the most corrupt states in the country.

Background and qualifications:

I have experience working through bureaucracy as director of political affairs for the New Jersey Libertarian Party, working directly with local governments, speaking out against unconstitutional ordinances and laws.

I will continue to work tirelessly to end state control in our lives whether I am elected or not.