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Wyka wins support at Democratic Convention
(by Cindy Forrest - April 30, 2008)
Committee members rallied around Tom Wyka during the first Morris County Democratic Convention at the Knoll Country Club in Parsippany last week. In a landslide victory, Wyka garnered 111 of the 149 votes cast by committee members. Ellen Greenberg an attorney from Mendham received 35 votes and Harry Hager, a retired banker from Chester, received three votes.
“This was one small step in an uphill climb,” said Wyka after the voting.
In the 11th District Congressional race, there was, in the past, typically one Democratic candidate running a lukewarm campaign against incumbent Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen. That cycle stopped two years ago when Wyka, a virtual unknown going in, ran a strong race against the incumbent with very little money. According to Wyka, he captured 37 percent of the vote with only $30,000.
So this year, when three hopefuls threw their proverbial hats into the ring the party decided to take quick action. Lew Candura, the Morris County Democratic Party chairman, pulled together the unprecedented convention to choose an official party candidate in order to start building momentum more than six weeks prior to the primary.
Candura said that the convention would assure that the party choice would be someone who embodies all Morris County Democrats. In the past if there were more than one candidate, it was the chairman who chose for the party.
“Sometimes there would be screening committee but ultimately the chairman would make the decision,” he said.
During the convention, each of the three candidates was given 10minutes to make his case, followed by a question-and-answer period and a vote.
The reason Candura gave for not letting Democratic voters choose the party candidate came down to money.
“If Steve Forbes moved to Morris County from New York and threw his considerable financial assets into the campaign,” Candura explained, “he could easily buy a nomination. The Democratic Party is a representative organization and by making the decision in this way, we ensure that all of the Morris County Democrats are spoken for by the party candidate.”
On the Republican side, Kate Erber of Morristown filed a last-minute petition to challenge Frelinghuysen. In that case, the voters will decide the race between the Republican candidates for the party nomination in the June 3 primary.
“We believe in letting citizens decide for themselves who should represent the party,” said John Settee, chairman of the Morris County Republican Committee, “while the Democrats believe in letting party insiders make that choice. The difference is that we believe in democracy.”
A consistent message
Although Erber is now a contender for the GOP nomination, the focus at the convention was on unseating the incumbent.
“Rodney’s gotta go” was the theme of the evening and it was expressed repeatedly by Candura and each of the candidates. Frelinghuysen’s support of the war was a central point of separation between the congressional hopefuls and the GOP record.
“The Iraq War is the worst foreign policy blunder in this nation’s history,” said Wyka.
Greenberg added, “Rodney Frelinghuysen has fully supported bad initiatives. Rodney’s record is not one to be proud of.”
Hager noted that Frelinghuysen voted for the war five times, he voted for tax breaks for oil companies and for ethanol subsidizes, and he voted against prescription drugs for seniors.
The economy, healthcare and the widening gap between what Greenberg called, “the haves and the have-nots” were all topics that the Democratic candidates seemed to agree upon. So the decision about who should be the party candidate came down to history, experience and personality.
Hager, a Vietnam veteran, a bank VP and a former Chester school board member, said that he was the only one of the candidates with “a track record that’s germane.” His campaign slogan is, “Send a combat veteran to Congress.”
A lifelong Democrat and political activist, Greenberg said that 23 years in private practice specializing in bankruptcy and real estate law has given her insight into the current economic situation.
“This is not a normal cycle we’re in,” she told the crowd. Greenberg called for the de-funding of the war and to bring “our troops and our money back home.”
Wyka, clearly the committee favorite from the outset, said he that his moment of truth came during the John Kerry campaign.
“ ‘What can I do’ became my political mantra,” he said. The answer was to fight for democratic ideals against all odds. Although he knew those odds were great when he first ran against Frelinghuysen, he said he did it anyway because, “it was the right thing to do.”
Wyka told committee members, “It’s not enough to be right; you have to connect with people, you have to listen to their concerns.”
In addition to his commitment to end the war, Wyka’s plans include healthcare reform, corporate answerability, campaign reform and to ease the burden on the middle class.
“Affordability of higher education is a very big issue for me, as it is for so many middle class families. The 109th Congress (the Republican-controlled Congress prior to 2006) presided over the largest cuts in student aid in history, with agreement from Congressman Frelinghuysen. While the Democratic-controlled Congress has made efforts to reverse this, I really feel that it’s not enough to just get back to the levels we had before. Student debt is large problem and affordability not only threatens the savings of middle-class families, it threatens our competitiveness as a nation,” he said.
For Wyka, the convention vote was a turning point
“Now,” he said, “it’s time for accountability, its time for a plan. I have a vision for the world I want to pass on to my children and I want to start building that world tonight.”
Many in the race
The Morris County Democratic Congressional race had looked as though it would mirror the national Democratic dilemma of too many candidates too late in the game; however, Wyka’s decisive victory may have taken that problem off the table. May have. Challengers, Hager and Greenberg said after the vote that they have no plan to drop out yet.
Hager said that he would participate in an upcoming debate at Drew University. Greenberg was a little less sure about what course of action she would take.
As for Wyka, he said in 2006 he wouldn’t go away and he’s kept that promise. He started this Congressional campaign early, November 2007, and he intends to build on the progress he made two years ago. In that race he won the traditional Democratic stronghold towns of Dover, Victory Gardens and Morristown in Morris County. He also won a narrow victory in the Essex County town of Livingston.
Going into the convention Wyka said that he had the support of Somerset and Essex County Democrats. The 11th Congressional District encompasses all of Morris County and small sections of Essex, Passaic, Somerset and Sussex Counties.
A native of Clifton, Wyka, his wife and two children moved to the Troy Hills section of Parsippany 15 years ago. A graduate of Bucknell University, he went on to receive an MBA from Seton Hall University. Wyka works as a project manager for a banking software company in Springfield.
One reason for the Democratic convention, the overt optimism of the committee members, and possibly the interest of multiple candidates this year may be the change in county voting demographics.
Prior to the presidential primary in February, 22,000 new Democrats and 12,000 new Republicans registered to vote in Morris County. However, while the new numbers clearly shows a shift that favors the Democrats, the congressional elections and all other campaigns in the county continue to be in the hands of the “swing voters.” For those voters, the decision about the candidate they choose is more often based on the individual running and specific issues rather than on party platforms or loyalty.
According to the county superintendent of election’s office, of the 297,038 registered voters, 120,798 are unaffiliated with any party. Republicans still hold a majority with 109,135 registered voters and the Democratic Party is at an all-time high of 66,998 in Morris County.
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