December 2002 - January 2003 Edition

Trawinski:  After the Election  Ed Trawinski, former Fair Lawn Mayor, lost in November's County Freeholder race. He said "losing when you put your heart and soul into it is never pleasant. It takes a while to come to grips with it, but it does build character and I will be back again to fight another day." When asked whether he was going to run for a seat next year,  (possibly for Fair Lawn Council, County Freeholder, State Senate, State Assembly or County Clerk), Trawinski said "I want to enjoy the holidays with my family and then figure out where I'm headed. I'm going to explore all my options". He thinks the Republicans lost the County Executive and two Freeholder seats for two reasons. "First, Torricelli dropped out and Lautenberg stepped in. Second, we were outspent almost 3 to 1. We ran a certain campaign based on Torricelli being in the race. What happens at the top of the race is important for the Freeholder race. We made a decision to talk about ethics and integrity. We made certain types of funding decisions based on Torricelli's candidacy, and we also decided not to make negative attacks." Trawinski said that in Fair Lawn, Jewish voters came out for Lautenberg, and Congressman Rothman's strong showing helped Democrats in the local races. He said that Fair Lawn tends to vote Democratic, it's about 2 ½ to 1 registered Democrats to Republicans. And, most of the undeclared voters tend to vote Democratic. Trawinski is concerned about two aspects of recent campaign: negative attacks, and more expensive campaigns. "Our opponents accused me of being unethical; they combined a series of facts to paint a distorted picture. These were completely baseless accusations. Unfortunately, the politics of personal destruction makes a difference. People believe the negative attacks and they want to believe that politicians are corrupt. It's little wonder that it's hard to get good people to run for office. It's one thing to attack another's record, another to attack someone personally."  He noted then when money plays a greater role in campaigns,  "winners feel pressures to help those who contribute". He noted that elected officials who need to raise a lot of money often end up hiring outside engineers and attorneys who contribute to their campaigns. Trawinski noticed that animals were used in several campaigns this year. The Democrats showed a picture of the Republican County Executive candidate Hank McNamara, with pigs in a trough. Another Democratic ad showed him as a trained dog of insurance companies. In Fair Lawn, a Republican ad for the council candidate showed the Democratic council members as sheep. Although he does not think it affected the outcome, he thinks that Fair Lawn News was an important mechanism for learning about the candidates, even more so than the traditional media. "It's not impossible to win as a moderate Republican in New Jersey, but it is hard to raise money.  I am pro-choice and even support Medicaid funding of abortions, but people told me that they were voting against me because Republicans are against abortion."  He thinks it is important for people to get past the stereotype of Republicans. He noted that New York City's Michael Bloomberg had the money to get past the Republican stereotype and win the Mayor's race in an overwhelmingly Democratic area. Trawinski is also Chairman of Fair Lawn's Republican party. He said, "Republicans are aggressively soliciting for three candidates for next year's Council elections. We are looking for people "who have good common sense, care about Fair Lawn, are willing to work hard and have been involved in the community. They also need to be a registered Republican, or willing to register as a Republican." "At the end of the day", Trawinski said, "I still believe in the American political process and the voters. If it turns out that after negative campaigning and big money, voters decided they made a mistake, they could very well return control of the Freeholder Board back to the Republicans."