By all appearances, it’s been a disappointing year for Hudson County progressives.
In the primary elections this summer, a slate of progressive freeholder candidates fell to establishment Democrats. A summer of Black Lives Matter protests led to little systemic change. And in the fall, the Hudson County Freeholders ignored scores of activists and voted to continue housing Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees at Hudson County jail.
But the string of failures has not demoralized activists. Instead, the defeats have galvanized what progressives say is an unprecedented county-wide movement.
“This is something that we’re really hunkering down for,” said Hector Oseguera, a Union City activist and attorney who challenged U.S. Rep. Albio Sires in the Democratic primary. “We’re prepared to make this a fight that we take all the way home.”
That spirit was evident Tuesday night, when a group of activists staged a protest at a fundraiser for Hudson County Freeholder Anthony Romano. About 30 protestors, still upset over Romano’s vote in favor of a 10-year agreement with ICE to house immigrant detainees at the county jail, held signs and chanted outside a fundraiser at Hoboken’s Malibu restaurant.
Jake Ephros, an activist with the Abolish ICE NY/NJ Coalition, said the group wanted to make a statement that ignoring their calls is unacceptable.
“We are garnering attention to make sure that the entire state sees what is happening in Hudson County,” Ephros said.
Romano, who called the 20-person event “more of a get-together with friends,” defended his vote and called the protesters disrespectful.
“If you are going to have a cause and you expect to have people work with you to better that cause, I don’t think that is the way to go about doing it,” Romano said. “I think that dialogue is always healthy and there is always a right to protest. But at the same time there should be some decorum.”
He said protesters knocked over a table and got in the way of people trying to enter the event.
When protesters arrived, it was “instant chaos,” said one attendee of the Romano fundraiser, who asked to remain anonymous. Video posted on social media shows a line of activists holding signs and shouting slogans outside an outdoor dining tent.
“They knew their voices could be heard and they definitely used them,” the attendee said. “The only thing I didn’t agree with is the screaming, the cursing. That was inappropriate. But they definitely toed the line as to what was permissible and legal in a sense.”
For now, after a failure in the primaries, activism is one of the few tools progressives have. And many recognize that protests will only go so far.
“We have recognized that activism alone doesn’t get us through,” said Ron Bautista, the president of the recently formed Progressive Democrats of Hudson County. “It has to be both activism and running for office, challenging those seats (so) that we can move the needle forward.”
Bautista mounted an unsuccessful bid for Freeholder Anthony Romano’s seat in the July primary. The Progressive Democrats group, he said, has the goal of giving local candidates the resources they need “to make sure that nobody else has to run from scratch.”
This is easier said than done. Hudson County Democratic Organization-backed candidates can count on fundraising advantages, name recognition, and bundles of endorsements from other HCDO members.
Plus, there is that singular New Jersey hurdle to get over: the party line. New Jersey’s ballot design groups down-ballot HCDO-backed candidates with Democratic candidates for House, Senate, and President, while challengers are forced into other boxes.
Micah Rasmussen, the president of Rider University’s Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics, said the party line “makes it a complete insider game.”
“If you have the line, you almost always win,” Rasmussen said. “Effectively, it stifles that diverse set of viewpoints. It really serves to amplify the viewpoint of the leadership of the party.”
It’s also possible that progressives are simply misreading the will of county residents, Rasmussen said. Absent accurate local polling, it’s unclear whether or not the majority of Hudson County voters support more centrist positions at odds with their progressive counterparts.
Amy DeGise, the chairwoman of the Hudson County Democratic Organization, could not be reached for comment. But in an interview in July, she said HCDO candidates’ victories in the summer primaries were a sign of genuine public support for their positions.
“I don’t even see how you can call (the party line) that much of an advantage,” she said. “Because in the same token you’re calling voters dumb, and saying that they’re not going to be able to look around the ballot and locate names.”
But Oseguera believes that, without the political cover the county line provides, the vote on the ICE contract would have turned out differently — and protests would no longer be necessary.
“If some of those freeholders had to fear repercussion from voters, they would not have voted the way that they did,” he said.
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December 03, 2020 at 05:16AM
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Protest at freeholder’s fundraiser shows that Hudson County progressives aren’t going away anytime soon - NJ.com
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