Dear Editor:
As someone who was active in local and national politics for quite some time, I would like to express my great admiration for Beth Mason and her entire council slate, and encourage people to vote for them on May 12.
I spent several years serving alongside Mason’s campaign manager, Jake Stuiver, on the steering committee of Hudson DFA, the local arm of Democracy for America. Jake, myself and several dozen other committed activists worked long and hard to establish a Hudson County brand of the DFA agenda, which is to promote socially progressive, fiscally responsible candidates, from the City Hall to the White House, to enact needed change in our communities, and, most importantly, to foster grassroots participation in all levels of government.
As a Hoboken resident, I am proud to have Beth Mason, Vinny Addeo, Raul Morales II and Anthony Pasquale standing to advance that agenda in the community I call home. I have met Beth several times over the years and have been deeply impressed at how she embodies the same fundamendal American values I stand for. In her crusade for government transparency and accountability, she has proven not only that she is a champion of grassroots politics but that she is willing to fight for those values even when she’s not running in an election. I have seen her out on the front lines time and time again, long before she became a candidate for office.
Improving our government requires widespread participation and awareness on the part of its citizens. Beth has fought tooth and nail to spread awareness of what’s going on and build a groundswell of public involvement from the bottom up. Unlike the machine-backed candidates in this race, who have repeatedly revealed themselves to be working for top-down organizations that aren’t out to involve the little people in our communities, Beth and her running mates are true grassroots candidates.
I’m proud to stand behind them in this election, and encourage all my neighbors who believe in the “small-d” democratic values on which this nation was founded to do the same.
Sincerely,
Gina Tosatto