Assemblywoman Barbara McCann Stamato has earned our strong endorsement. In her first term in the state legislature, Assemblywoman McCann Stamato has come out strongly in favor of needed zoning reforms to help produce more housing. She co-sponsored legislation on single-stair reform (link), which would lower the costs of mid-rise apartment production on smaller lots in dense urban areas like Jersey City and Bayonne.
We appreciated McCann Stamato’s nuanced and cautious approach to legislating around issues that could stymie affordable and market-rate housing production. Where most other candidates rushed headlong into endorsing changes to the 30-year exemption for new rental apartments from rent control, the Assemblywoman rightly recognized that such changes would likely adversely impact new housing supply. She offered a similar approach to defining unconscionable rent increases, recognizing such a policy could have unintended consequences.
Furthermore, the Assemblywoman has proven herself to be a supporter of further protections for Liberty State Park, opposing commercial development and privatization of the state’s public parkland, and supporting the Caven Point Protection Act.
If we have one area of critique, it is her position on widening the part of the Turnpike over Newark Bay up to 14A. Despite this, she remains the best candidate running in LD-31 on this particular issue. We appreciate her concerns around congestion and her willingness to find compromise but we hope, with more data on the project and the toll of highway widening projects, that she might come to see the more realistic compromise is a replacement of the Newark Bay Bridge that forgoes any additional lanes. Her responses in support of congestion pricing and exploring HOT lanes gave us hope that she would be open to other suggestions that might better solve Bayonne’s congestion problems related to its port traffic.
Finally, the assemblywoman’s support for transit and transit-oriented development is also essential for a representative in such a densely populated part of the state. While we appreciated she was one of the few respondents to recognize the downsides of a corporate transit fee, we similarly hope her potential support of other revenue-raising methods related to highways like HOT lanes might allow for more dedicated revenue to support New Jersey Transit.
It is our hope the voters of LD-31 nominate Barbara McCann Stamato to serve a second term in Trenton. We believe the policies she supports would do well to continue the economic growth and renewed vitality seen in Bayonne, Jersey City, and Kearny. While we have chosen not to endorse her running mate Jacqueline Weimmer due to Weimmer’s position on the Turnpike widening project, we would prefer to see her nominated along with McCann Stamato over the HCDO-backed slate in LD-31.
Importantly, we believe McCann Stamato will be a much better representative to the people of LD-31 than her HCDO-backed primary opponents Commissioner Jerry Walker and Assemblyman William Sampson IV. Walker would be a poor choice due to his past support of commercializing resources like Liberty State Park. His ties to Paul Fireman-backed groups like Liberty State Park for All and the extensive financial support Team Walker received from Fireman makes him particularly unsuited for office. And Sampson’s disinterest in legislating and complete support of the Turnpike widening make him simultaneously an ineffective representative in Trenton and dangerous to the future prosperity of Hudson County communities.
We are proud to offer McCann Stamato our strong endorsement for the June 10 Democratic primary.