Press
Cumberland County's TheDailyJournal.com: Long-shot candidate has Millville roots
It's been 101 years since anyone with roots in Cumberland County sat in the governor's office on more than a temporary basis.
And odds are very good that streak will continue after Tuesday's gubernatorial election.
Nobody ever faulted David Meiswinkle for quitting too easily, though.
"It would take a miracle and a lot of prayer," Meiswinkle acknowledged of his shot at winning the governor's seat. "But anything can happen."
Meiswinkle, a former Millville resident whose campaign platforms range from creating jobs to exposing an alleged cover-up of events preceding the 9/11 attacks, is one of 10 people running for governor as independents this year.
It's a group with fervent beliefs but not much money or recognition, and most pose no threat to the top tier candidates.
"I've got to say politics is my love, but I'm not going to kiss anybody," Meiswinkle said. "I'm not co-opted and can't be. Money isn't going to co-opt me or special interests."
His family came to Millville in the 1960s, looking for a better life than what was available in Pottsville, Pa.
His father sold products for National Cash Register. His mother, a World war II refugee, retired as head of the English department at Schalick High School in Pittsgrove.
Some family remains here, but Meiswinkle left Millville after college.
After a tour in the Army, Meiswinkle settled in New Brunswick and for 23 years was a police officer there.
For most of that time, he also was at war with the city's Democratic political machine over what he said was rampant corruption. "It's hard to imagine the pressure they can bring on you," he said.
Meiswinkle took three runs at the mayor's office and vied once for a seat on City Council. He lost all four times.
Now retired from the police force and working as an attorney, Meiswinkle is turning to voters again because it's time, in his view, for action that neither Democrat Gov. Jon Corzine nor Republican challenger Chris Christie will take.
Meiswinkle also doesn't think much of Chris Daggett, an independent in the race who has gained enough support to worry Corzine and Christie in the campaign's final weeks.
"This is a time for radical measures," Meiswinkle said. "Not for Daggett to say, 'I'm going to raise the sales tax.' The problems are systematic, to the very essence of society."
Meiswinkle believes New Jersey's decline is tied directly to international trade agreements, in particular the North American Free Trade Agreement. It's the core of his Middle Class Empowerment campaign.
Their cumulative impact has been to drain the state, and country at large, of its manufacturing base, he says.
"What made us great is our industrial manufacturing might, incomparable to any other," Meiswinkle said. "Now, we've shipped it overseas."
He sees the problem as a state's rights issue, a clash of roles between states and the federal government.
One of his platform positions is a proposal to call the state's federal lawmakers to Trenton, where they'd have to explain their votes on NAFTA.
Meiswinkle even ad-vances a plan, constitutionally questionable, to hold recall votes to remove federal lawmakers from office.
"It would appear it has never been done, and that an amendment to the U.S.Constitution would be in order," Meiswinkle said. "However, it could also be argued that the states never intended to delegate the authority to recall representatives, but only to impeach them, so in effect the states have retained the right to recall."
Meiswinkle said jobs creation is his top priority, because their loss directly affects tax rates in the state.
His campaign platform has a more controversial plank, though.
Meiswinkle wants a state investigation into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks along with a second federal investigation.
On his Web site, Meiswinkle alleges a cover-up of events leading to 9/11. "There are so many inconsistencies that you need a complete, objective and through investigation," he said.
While the governor's office is a reach, Meiswinkle said, the campaign could lead to formation of a new political party.
"I'm motivated because I love my country," he said. "I love the truth."
Full article at TheDailyJournal.com.
APP.com Capitol Quickies: Meet the candidates: David Meiswinkle
Independent David Meiswinkle, who is running for governor under the Middle Class Empowerment slogan, grew up in Millville and worked at the Wheaton Glassworks six summers while in school. He was student body president and an activist at Rutgers in New Brunswick, then eventually became a police officer in the city for 23 years.
For eight of those years in the Hub City, Meiswinkle engaged in a lengthy political fight with the administration of then-Mayor John Lynch that began when he says a criminal investigation he was conducting was steered away from suspects who had political connections to the department brass. He ran four times for mayor, developed his own newspaper and exposed practices he says led eventually to federal corruption convictions.
He and, particularly, his then-wife tired of the city’s political brawls and moved to Hillsborough. He stayed involved in politics with the Reform Party, even serving as Pat Buchanan’s bodyguard when he came through New Jersey as that party’s presidential nominee in 2000. Now divorced, he lives in East Windsor with two of his children. An attorney, he does some work with with the Office of the Public Defender in New Brunswick.
“I don’t have to (run),” Meiswinkle said. “There’s a lot of things I can do, and I never get bored. But here’s the situation: Whatever happens here in the state and nation, things are changing and they’re changing quick. The fabric of this country will never be the same if it’s not halted soon.”
He’s referring primarily to job losses in the United States he blames on international trade agreements and said more needs to be done to revive industry. And he leads from that into criticizing China and adds that other candidates won’t do anything about that.
“I’m the only one that can,” Meiswinkle said. “Christie or Corzine or Daggett, to me they’re all established politicians. Daggett calls himself independent, but that’s just a name. He’s not independent, he’s a liberal Republican. But they’re established politicians, they’ve got the money, they get the coverage. But they can’t solve the problems. They can’t address the problems. They can’t put their finger on the problem because if they do, nobody will give them money. The moneyed people like what’s going on because they’re making a lot of money.”
He’s got unique plans for what he’d do as governor. He says he would call all the members of Congress from New Jersey to address a joint session of the state Legislature to address the nation’s trade policies and have proposals on how to bring jobs back. If they have no plans, he wants to create a process to recall them from office. And he would call a conference of governors from around the country to come to Trenton to discuss the states’ economies and how to reverse trade-related job losses.
“I’m controversial, but I’m on the edge of change. I’m very progressive and hopefully I have a vision that other politicians can’t because they can’t see the forest for the trees. I’m on the outside and can see where we’re going, and I don’t like it because we’re going to the waterfall,” Meiswinkle said.
Meiswinkle does have some closer-to-home proposals, such as supporting initative and referendum, or this one about better monitoring authorities in New Jersey that can issue debt, which he calls a breeding ground for corruption. But a top priority would be creating another 9/11 commission, headed by his attorney general, to do a better job investigating the 2001 terrorist attacks. He alleges that President George W. Bush’s administration tried to cover up the events leading to the attack and that Chris Christie, as the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey beginning a few months after the attack, “betrayed New Jerseyans who died in that holocaust” by never bothering “to investigate the greatest crime in history.”
“What was wrong with it? There wasn’t anything right,” he says of the first 9/11 Commission.
OCTOBER 28, 2009 • 9:22 AM
By Michael Symons
Cumberland County News: Independent Gov. candidate Meiswinkle says neither Dems nor GOP are looking out for middle class
By Joe Green
October 20, 2009, 1:59PM
MILLVILLE — Independent gubernatorial candidate David Meiswinkle appealed to his home town Friday night in a push to draw frustrated voters away from both major parties.
Meiswinkle’s brother and media coordinator, Robert Meiswinkle, joined him in front of Glasstown Art Glass LLC on North High Street during the city’s Third Friday celebration, as the team handed out cards and discussed the candidate’s platform, “middle class empowerment.”
Meiswinkle contends that Republicans and Democrats coddle wealthy Wall Street interests at the peril of the middle class and democracy itself.
He said government, in part through federal trade agreements, facilitates the exodus of manufacturing jobs from the U.S. to please big companies seeking cheaper labor overseas. That idea itself is not new, but Meiswinkle is looking to take his beef at the state level and carry it to the federal.
The reason?
“The jobs (being lost) are in the states, not in Washington, D.C.,” he said.
And as jobs are lost locally and statewide, he said, taxes only go up.
“There’s no ratable base to support taxes, so they’ll just continue to rise,” he said.
The solution? According to Meiswinkle, bring industry back to America, back to New Jersey.
He uses part of his own past as an example. 30 years ago, he said, he was young, pre-20’s union worker at Wheaton Glass (when there was such a company).
He was able to work his way through college and earn pretty good money at a steady job for a company with a bright future - at the time.
Not a lot of college students now - and for quite a while before now - can say that.
Instead, Meiswinkle argued, big businesses have become comfy in the pockets of the well-oiled Republican and Democratic machines. He said the partnership has helped pour millions of jobs overseas, especially to China.
Despite an ideological rivalry, the U.S. has become an cozy business partner of the world’s dominant, officially Communist country, which Meiswinkle calls “a brutal dictatorship.”
“Now we are a close partner with China to our great detriment,” he said.
At one time, he said, “The U.S. was the biggest creditor nation in the world. Now we’re the biggest debtor.”
For Meiswinkle, part of the fight against the trend comes at the state level. He feels voters in New Jersey should be able to bring about legislation, recall state officials, and repeal existing laws in referenda.
He calls the concept more “direct democracy,” and such options exist in some form in 24 states, he cited.
In particular, Meiswinkle said New Jersey voters should be able to petition to have a question placed on the ballot regarding legislation or recalls.
He contends that residents should have the option to unseat legislators who don’t live up to their promises.
He added that legislators at times impose laws that give judges no discretion in dealing with offenders who are not truly dangerous or habitual offenders.
Meiswinkle said judges cannot give a lighter penalty to a person who committed an offense even through an honest mistake. Such statutes are one example of those voters could possibly overturn through a referendum.
While he eagerly discussed other ideas during the Third Friday celebration, Meiswinkle acknowledged that his efforts may eventually help spawn a new party.
After all, “before 1856, there was no Republican party,” he said.
Cape May County Herald: Meiswinkle Calls for Congressional Accountability in State Job Loss
Politics | Wed, 10/14/2009 - 4:05 pm | Read 157 | Commented 0 | Emailed 1
Tags: Governor election, West Trenton
By Herald Staff
TRENTON — Independent candidate David Meiswinkle, running on a ticket of Middle Class Empowerment has stated in a release that if elected Governor, he would hold all New Jersey Congressmen and United States Senators accountable for federal legislation and trade policies they supported which have contributed to massive job drain and higher taxes in New Jersey.
Meiswinkle asserts that much of the increased taxes in New Jersey are the result of the loss of manufacturing and industrial sector jobs. Most have gone to Mexico and overseas to countries where United States corporations are making huge profits utilizing cheap labor at the expense of the economic health of the United States, their country of origin.
Meiswinkle stated that he would call Congressmen as well the United States Senators to Trenton on an emergent basis. They would be requested to come to the State House and address the New Jersey State Assembly and the Senate to explain why federal legislation has been crafted to make the United States a country of services at the expense of manufacturing and industry, and what policies they can propose to reverse the loss of manufacturing and industry from our state.
If the Congressmen are not receptive to changing the federal trade policies, Meiswinkle made clear that he supports, initiative, referendum and recall; and he will move to implement it. Meiswinkle explained, “We will apply recall to Federal officials elected by New Jersey residents. If they do not change these trade policies to favor our States, and bring our jobs back home, they will be dismissed through a recall petition of the citizens and replaced by more patriotic representatives.” Meiswinkle stated, “The Congress is supposed to represent their constituents, New Jersey citizens, not special corporate interests or Wall Street banking interests”. “New Jersey citizens want and deserve jobs,”
In addition, Meiswinkle said that he would host a Governor’s conference and invite to New Jersey all United States Governors to discuss the federal trade policies that have so disastrously altered the United States economic landscape. Meiswinkle asserted, “Federal policies have affected the State economies. Washington D.C. remains aloof and removed from the States and with its thousand of bureaucrats does not feel the sting of these policies, as we on the State level do.” Meiswinkle stated that, “economic wellbeing of New Jersey has become a States rights issue which he intends to defend.”
Full article at CapeMayCountyHerald.com.
Cape May County Herald: Meiswinkle Believes 9/11 Has Bearing on Governor's Race
David Meiswinkle, independent candidate for governor.
EAST WINDSOR — The 9/11 Commission completed its work and released a report in August 2004. The report concluded that the 9/11 attacks could have been prevented and issued lengthy recommendations for institutional change. The commission and its conclusions have come under extensive criticism, even from its own commissioners, according to a release by David Meiswinkle, independent candidate for governor.
He believes issues concerning the 9/11 investigation have a direct bearing on the campaign for New Jersey governor. .
Meiswinkle, who is an attorney and a retired 23-year police officer, has accused the Bush administration of actively trying to cover up the events leading to the 9/11 disaster. “This is the greatest failure to defend our country from attack in our nation’s history.
There were many warnings but they were not heeded. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfield had every reason to cover up their failures. The original 9/11 commissioners believed that the CIA, Pentagon, FAA, and NORAD representatives were deliberately deceiving them. They even wanted to refer criminal prosecution to the justice department.”
In August 2006, Kean and Hamilton published a book titled “Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission.” In it, they stated that the 9/11 Commission was "set up to fail," and that the commission was so frustrated with repeated misstatements by government officials that they considered referring obstruction of justice charges to the Justice Department.
Meiswinkle stated “Chris Christie is basing his campaign as a corruption fighter. But recent revelations about Christie’s political ties to Karl Rove and the White House raises suspicion as to why he was chosen to be U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.
“The collusion extends to the selection of Christopher Christie as the top Justice Department official for the state,” Meiswinkle asserted. “Bush nominated Christie for the position only three months after 9/11. Yet, Christie never bothered to use the powers of his federal office to investigate the greatest crime in history. He betrayed New Jerseyans who died in that holocaust.
“Christie got his nomination solely because he was the biggest New Jersey fund raiser for Bush — he had no criminal law expertise. Christie’s previous experience was as a lobbyist, County Freeholder, and an attorney. Clearly, Christie was put in place as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey as a political favor and to squash any federal investigation of 9/11.”
If elected, Meiswinkle would empower a new 9/11 commission headed by the New Jersey Attorney General and would call upon President Obama to compel the Justice Department to investigate charges presented by the original 9/11 commission.
For information on the candidate visit: http://www.meiswinkle4governor.com/
The News of Cumberland County: Millville grad running for governor
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
By JASON LADAY
jladay@sjnewsco.com
MILLVILLE - In 1968, he was president of his senior class at Millville Senior High School.
Now, he's running for governor.
David Meiswinkle, who grew up in Millville and now works as a public defender in New Brunswick, is running as an independent candidate for governor under the theme "middle class empowerment."
Meiswinkle stated neither Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine nor Republican challenger Chris Christie represent middle class interests.
Press of Atlantic City: Candidate for New Jersey governor calls for second 9/11 Commission
TRENTON - David Meiswinkle, one of the independent candidates for governor, called for a new 9/11 Commission on Friday, saying the original commission was flawed.
"It's no secret that the Bush administration opposed the first 9/11 Commission, then they under-funded it, and then they placed an unreasonable 3-month deadline to complete its task," Meiswinkle said in a statement. "Even its co-chairs, Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton, said the original commission was 'set up to fail.'"
Meiswinkle also criticized Republican candidate Chris Christie for not investigating the attack while a U.S. attorney.
The Alternative Press: Former New Brunswick Police Officer, David Meiswinkle, Runs for Governor
By Elizabeth Cooper
8/4/2009
David Meiswinkle considers himself a radical. And that’s a good thing, he says.
"The Greek word means going to the root," he said. "I go to the root of the problems." Meiswinkle stated that he admires the Founding Fathers, who were radicals in their own time. "They are my heroes," he said. "They started this great experiment in government. They were the beacon for a free world, and risked their lives for their vision. We have lost that direction as a nation."
It is belief in this message that Meiswinkle hopes to bring to the Statehouse in Trenton as a candidate for governor. The divorced father of three believes he would be a good candidate because "I am well-rounded."
Meiswinkle was born February 7, 1950, in Pennsylvania, the oldest of seven children. In 1964, his family moved to Millville, in southern New Jersey. He attended Rutgers College, where he was a preceptor working for the dean of students. Meiswinkle was a student activist, leading and participating in several demonstrations. He also organized the Davidson Reconstruction Committee, a student group for dormitory reform. This is where his interest and involvement in politics was nurtured. He was elected student body president, running on a theme of student power and co-education. Meiswinkle organized a co-education drive to admit females to Rutgers. In 1972, he graduated with a bachelor of arts degree. Meiswinkle served as coordinator of handicapped affairs at Rutgers, securing a grant to buy the first specially equipped handicap-accessible van at the college. He also helped disabled students establish a group that receives funds advocating for the interest of disabled students. This group, Friends of 504, is still in existence today.
He received his master’s degree from New York University, and his juris doctorate from Seton Hall University Law School. Meiswinkle served as a New Brunswick city police officer for 23 years. He was a harsh critic of then-New Brunswick mayor John Lynch Jr., and vigorously pursued corruption in the city. In 2006, Lynch was convicted on tax evasion and fraud charges, and received three years in prison.
In 1989, Meiswinkle became a lawyer. He now works as a per diem attorney for the office of the public defender, assigned to a judge and a public defender team in Middlesex County. He taught philosophy as an adjunct professor at Bergen County Community College, and co-founded the New Brunswick Reporter, a community newspaper that exposed political corruption and published exposés that led to federal investigations.
Meiswinkle worked with former presidential candidate Ross Perot and the Reform Party, eventually becoming the secretary of the New Jersey Reform Party. He served as a delegate to the Reform Party National Convention that endorsed Pat Buchanan as its 2000 presidential candidate. Meiswinkle also made an unsuccessful run for New Brunswick mayor in 1982 and 1986, running against Lynch. He also ran for a position on the New Brunswick City Council in 1984, which was also unsuccessful. His campaign was marred by an effort to intimidate those who would vote for him, he said. Meiswinkle currently lives in East Windsor with two of his children.
Meiswinkle’s views on government are straightforward. "As your governor, I will vigilantly defend our rights," Meiswinkle said on his Web site. "I seek to empower the middle class and protect our standard of living. I will reduce the tax burden on hard-working citizens."
He said he will regain the public’s control of government by implementing the following programs: promoting direct democracy through initiative, referendum and recall; enforcing honest government; and creating jobs and protecting small businesses in the state. With the initiative process, he explained, citizens can create laws when the Legislature fails to act on their issues. "Initiative empowers the people," he said. Referendum allows the citizens to prevent "undesirable laws from getting on the books," he said, and also takes the undesirable law off of the books. Recall allows citizens to vote an elected official out of office when he or she does something contrary to the public will or interest, he said.
What is Meiswinkle’s stance on ethics and political reform? "The public good is an essential value that a politician should have," Meiswinkle said. "Most do not. Lobbyists and many politicians are not thinking about the public good, or the overall welfare of the society. They have selfish profit motives dictating their positions, not enlightened positions." He continued, "The primary value of a politician should be, ’how can I make for a better society? How can I improve things overall?’" He added, "If the public good is paramount," he asked, "where then do the more selfish interests fit in?"
Meiswinkle said, "Sometimes the interests become so skewed that the selfish interests dominate the entire political process and the people, public good, middle class become alienated from their own government, as if it is a stranger," he said. "All politicians swear allegiance to the [U.S.] Constitution, and to working for the public good...There should be "no double-dipping, dual officeholders."
Environmental/green issues are very important to Meiswinkle, as well. "Green is good," he said. "So is manufacturing. Combine the two. My motto is: Be faithful to the Earth. Treat it sacredly. Spur discovery, giving free reign to those who have the ideas, but not the financial means or political connections to make those ideas materialize into the material world."
Meiswinkle said there should be more oversight on state finances, especially of quasi-government agencies that amass incredible debt through "bonding prerogative. We must be more accountable with government officials double-dipping. Inflating their pensions cannot be tolerated." "Put honest people into government," he continued, "in leadership positions, and lead by example."
Meiswinkle also courages a roll back of taxes. Regarding spurring the creation of jobs, Meiswinkle said that businesses need an incentive to stay in New Jersey. "Give preference, when possible, to award contracts to New Jersey business," he said. "Give tax incentives and favorable tax enterprise zones. Encourage innovation and new ideas," he continued. "Put some money into developing the alternatives; link the initiative with the university professors and graduate and undergraduate students." He said it is necessary to push at the state level for the rescission of NAFTA and GATT trade agreements that "have cost Americans millions of good-paying jobs. Pressure Washington and all the New Jersey politicians who have input, not only at the state level, but at the federal level to rescind [NAFTA and GATT]."
Teachers should be encouraged to be "innovative and interesting. Teachers should have a passion for their course material. A boring teacher makes for a depressing class," he said. Meiswinkle suggested reviewing all school curricula to see whether what is being taught is "the most beneficial to the students, and over all for the public good." Exorbitant salaries and benefits for top school administrators must be stopped, he said. Provide vouchers where the school situation is "so poor and the student would be disadvantaged by attending that particular school," he continued. "Those bad schools must be addressed with radical procedures if nothing seems to work."
Meiswinkle also wants to see the issue of gangs addressed. "Why is there a need for the gang?" he asked. "We must de-emphasize violence."
Meiswinkle’s running mate is Noelani Musicaro. A licensed insurance agent, Musicaro is a single parent who raised two children: Vanessa, 25, a biologist and musician; and Daniel, 23, a musician and landscaper. "I am very serious about ending social injustice," Musicaro said on Meiswinkle’s Web site. "People are suffering needlessly. Our politicians are ‘bought and sold’ by corporate powers, and as a result, the middle class is burdened, feels helpless, and has a poorer standard of living than in the past."
"Unlike other candidates, David and I are not professional politicians, and I believe that is our strongest asset," she continued. "We are ordinary middle class folk motivated by a desire for justice and truth. As John Lennon once sung, ‘Just give me the truth.’"
Photo above: David Meiswinkle
Noelani Musicaro
Home News Tribune: Longtime New Brunswick political figure sets sights on governor's seat
By JARED KALTWASSER • STAFF WRITER • July 20, 2009
NEW BRUNSWICK — David Meiswinkle's first political campaign was in the seventh grade, when he successfully lobbied his middle school basketball teammates to attend an end-of-season professional basketball game, instead of the pro hockey game the eighth-grade players wanted.
"We had to lobby and play politics with the sixth-graders. They were afraid the eighth-graders were going to beat them up,'' Meiswinkle said. "So we voted and we won ... so we go to the basketball game. It was in Hershey, Pa. It was the night Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points. I was there.''
If Meiswinkle, 59, is successful in his latest political foray it will be equally historic.
Meiswinkle, an attorney, public defender and longtime political figure in the city, has launched a longshot independent bid for the governor's office, running on a platform of middle-class empowerment.
"The middle class don't really have representatives because these two parties are controlled at the highest level by finance,'' he said. "They're not representing the average person.''
Meiswinkle moved to New Jersey from Pennsylvania at the age of 14. He attended Rutgers College, where he started the Davidson Reconstruction Committee, a group of students advocating for better conditions at the Davidson residence hall, and was elected student body president, during which time he successfully worked to make Rutgers College coeducational.
After obtaining a master's degree from New York University and spending two years in the Army, he worked as the coordinator of handicapped affairs at Rutgers, setting up the first transportation system for handicapped students.
In 1978, he joined the New Brunswick Police Department. Meiswinkle said a turning point in his life came in 1981, when he publicly accused police detectives of covering up a shooting and fire at an apartment in the city. Meiswinkle said he nearly lost his job over the matter, but he prevailed in a termination hearing, and he says the two detectives involved in the alleged cover-up were reprimanded.
Meiswinkle claims the two detectives tried to cover up the incident because the two suspects were politically connected. The mayor at that time was John Lynch.
"So when I saw what they were about, I said this is enough, I've got my cause now,'' Meiswinkle said. "So these guys are the bad guys, so I challenge Lynch.''
Meiswinkle ran unsuccessfully against Lynch in 1982, 1986 and 1990. He also lost a bid for City Council in 1984. Meiswinkle found more success, however, publishing an independent weekly newspaper, which he used to investigate Lynch and others at City Hall.
"He (Meiswinkle) knew a lot of what was going on there... and he was able to really pinpoint it and zero in on it,'' said Albert Valeri, a campaign volunteer for Meiswinkle during the 1980s. ""And he kept us in line from just getting soured on the system.''
Lynch pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges in 2006 and was sentenced to 39 months in federal prison. Meiswinkle believes former U.S. Attorney and current Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie let Lynch off too easy.
"They treated him with kid gloves, it was a gentleman's agreement,'' Meiswinkle said. "Christie didn't do the job on that, he only did part of it. He (Christie) didn't do anything to attack the system he (Lynch) created. It'll be there when he gets back. It's still in place.''
The Christie campaign did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
"I admire his dedication and his courage at great personal risk,'' said Michael Cote, a friend and the editor-in-chief of Meiswinkle's newspaper, the New Brunswick Reporter. ""I believe he is driven by a sincere desire to change the world for the better, and his political ambitions are not driven by greed, but it comes from a moral base.''As governor, Meiswinkle said he would use direct democracy to empower the people. He wants to use voter initiatives and referenda to bypass the Legislature when it won't pass laws the people want, or to repeal bad laws the legislature passes. Meiswinkle also believes in voter recalls to yank ineffective politicians from office.
"You have direct democracy and you have Main Street running things...'' Meiswinkle said. ""Wall Street is running things into the ground. We want Main Street, and when I say Main Street, I'm talking about middle class, small businesses, small farms.''
Meiswinkle opposes trade agreements such as NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) and GATT (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), which he says have resulted in a loss of American jobs.
Meiswinkle wants to restore jobs in the manufacturing and technology sectors by embracing green technology and also setting up a division of government designed to encourage innovation by connecting those with good ideas to universities or corporations that can make those ideas into realities.
Meiswinkle said he believes many of the politicians in power are corrupt and in government for the wrong reasons.
"We've become alienated from our government, so we speak bad about it. We should speak bad about it,'' Meiswinkle said. "What are we going to do about it? We're going to take it back. We're going to make it our government.''
Meiswinkle acknowledges that he has a long way to go before he can be in serious contention for the governor's office. But he said he plans a vigorous campaign, which he believes may result in a larger movement that lasts beyond the campaign.
"I feel that I'm compelled because I've got a message and I think I represent the sentiments of a lot of people,'' he said. ""Lots of times people can't express what their deep down feelings really are. I think I can touch that.''
Jared Kaltwasser: 732-565-7263; jkaltwasser@MyCentralJersey.com
Windsor-Hights Herald: EAST WINDSOR: Township man seeks third-party nod for governor
EAST WINDSOR: Township man seeks third-party nod for governor
Friday, June 26, 2009 10:51 AM EDT
By Sean Ruppert, Staff Writer
EAST WINDSOR — A township resident with a background in public service and an eye for reform is aiming to break the two-party lock on politics in New Jersey.
David Meiswinkle, of Jamestown Road in Twin Rivers, will be on the ballot this November running against incumbent Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, Republican Chris Christie and nine other independent or third-party candidates for the state’s highest office.
Mr. Meiswinkle, an attorney in New Brunswick, will run on the Middle Class Empowerment ticket. The two-year East Windsor resident collected 1,296 signatures on his nominating petition for the ballot, the second most of any of the independent candidates, according to the state Division of Elections.
Mr. Meiswinkle, 59, said he would focus on cleaning up corruption, increasing citizen participation and bringing jobs into the state.
”We need to develop new industries,” he said, “and come up with novel and progressive ideas.”
The son of an American World War II veteran and a German immigrant, he was raised in Millville. Mr. Meiswinkle was the president of his class at Rutgers University before graduating with a degree in geography in 1972.
Thinking he would like to work in the college administration, Mr. Meiswinkle went on to earn a master’s degree in student personnel administration from New York University in 1974. But then he had a change of heart and joined the Army, and he was stationed for much of his time in Germany.
Upon returning home, Mr. Meiswinkle said, he traveled to 47 of the 50 states during the bicentennial year. He then joined the New Brunswick Police Department, where he stayed — except for a six-month leave of absence in the early 1980s during which he traveled across the world to countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Nepal — until his retirement in 2001.
During his last years on the force, he took night classes at Seton Hall University School of Law, and is now a private practice attorney who works in conjunction with the Middlesex County Office of the Public Defenders.
He is divorced, and has three adult children.
As a police officer, Mr. Meiswinkle said, he was a fierce critic of then-New Brunswick Mayor John Lynch. Mr. Lynch — who also served as a state senator from 1981 to 2001 and was the president of the Senate in 1990-1991 — was convicted in 2006 on tax evasion and fraud charges, and sentenced to three years in prison.
Mr. Meiswinkle said he leveled repeated corruption charges against Mayor Lynch, both in a newspaper he helped produce in the 1980s called the New Brunswick Reporter and as an unsuccessful candidate against Mr. Lynch in four mayoral elections during that time.
Mr. Meiswinkle said he ran against Mr. Lynch as a Republican, a Democrat and an independent.
”My party changed, but my policies didn’t,” he said, explaining that he has switched parties throughout the years to try to give himself the best chance of unseating Mr. Lynch.
He said he is running for governor because he doesn’t believe either of the two major candidates offers much of an alternative.
”Corzine made his fortune at Goldman Sachs, and Chris (Christie) was a Bush appointee,” Mr. Meiswinkle said. “Neither one has middle-class interests. They are two sides of the same coin.”
Mr. Meiswinkle said, if elected, he would look at providing tax incentives for bringing new “green” industries into the state, such as alternative energy companies. He said he also would put a great deal of effort into lobbying the federal government to repeal the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he believes has cost New Jersey a significant number of jobs.
”I would call all the senators and legislators and congressman in the state into my office on the first day, and tell them to start pressing for a repeal of NAFTA,” he said. “I would tell them that I am coming after them politically if they don’t.”
”Some people think NAFTA is a national issue, not a state issue,” he went on to say. “But the jobs that are being lost aren’t in Washington, D.C. They are in New Jersey and Michigan and Indiana. That makes it a state issue.”
He said he also would look to get citizens more involved in the state, by promoting more “direct democracy” practices like ballot initiatives, referendums and recalls. Mr. Meiswinkle also said he would work to expose corruption in state government, and that his history of opposing Mr. Lynch and others gives him credibility on the issue.
”I know what corruption looks like,” he said.
He acknowledged that it is a hard road for independent candidates, who must raise $340,000 in order to qualify for matching funds and appear in debates. He called the amount “arbitrary and capricious,” and said he was still formulating a plan on how to raise the funds.
He said he hopes the independent and third-party hopefuls on the ballot can come together and coalesce around one candidate.
”Hopefully, I can be that candidate,” he said.
”I don’t have all the answers, but I have the energy to take the good ones and run with them,” he added.
For more information, visit Mr. Meiswinkle’s campaign site at www.meiswinkle4governor.com. The site is currently under construction, but will be completed soon, Mr. Meiswinkle said.
