Dear Editor:
Recently, Councilman Fulop announced that he was quitting his day job in order to focus on his mayoral campaign full-time. Mayor Healy responded to Mr. Fulop’s decision by claiming that the councilman had poor attendance at council meetings and that Mr. Fulop was in America’s minority – the one percent actually – and that’s how he’s able to dedicate the time to run for mayor.
The Jersey Journal proved the mayor’s statements about Mr. Fulop’s attendance to be false. They reported: “Last year, [Fulop] had perfect attendance at all 22 regular meetings and made it to 18 of 22 caucuses.” After reading that article, it became clear that the mayor is seeking to draw attention away from the issues regarding local governance; and as a life-long resident of Jersey City, I find this political ploy offensive and an insult to the intellect of Jersey City’s voters.
As a fellow Marine, I’m proud that Mr. Fulop is in the nation’s one percent. He is in the one percent of Americans that took an oath to defend this country as a military service member. He is in the one percent of Americans that put their career on hold for the service of the greater community. Mr. Fulop clearly possesses esprit de corps. The Marine Corps’ values have been essential in Councilman Fulop’s career thus far. He furthers his commitment to community by ending his career in finance to focus on becoming mayor of this great city. I believe Mr. Fulop’s decision definitely puts him in the one percent of his profession because it displays selflessness and we all know that selflessness has no home in the world of finance.
To the mayor and Councilman Fulop, I hope that in this election the focus will be on the issues at hand, like crime, jobs, taxes and corruption, not personal attacks. The public expects more from its civil servants and I hope that we will receive a level of civility from the two of you during this election.
Semper Fidelis,
Mahdi Hemingway