Trenton Rules, Literally, But So Might You

Assembly Chamber, New Jersey Statehouse, Trenton

As a social studies teacher and “activist citizen blogger” (is that what I’m called these days?), an important lesson that I try to teach my students every year has recently been reinforced by New Jersey’s latest “Bridgegate” crisis. State legislatures matter. They matter a lot.

All too often history and government courses, both on the high school and undergraduate levels, focus on Congress. On this D.C. stage our most dramatic national performances have been performed. Year after year, and with good justification, we teach our children to remember Congressional laws like The Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. All very important, all extremely impactful. But when educators focus exclusively on the Congressional setting, we skip the most important instrument of government in our personal lives; it is our legislatures that really regulate almost everythingin our day-to-day affairs.

Consider our legislature in New Jersey…Students are always surprised when I tell them that it is not against U.S. law to drive 100 miles per hour on a highway. This usually provokes a laugh, but technically, it’s true. It’s the State Legislature that ultimately passes all laws, or delegates authority (usually to municipalities, which are also its creation), on speed restrictions.

Our schools, our towns, our police forces, our toilet water, our roads, our universities, our personal relationships, our licenses, our marriages, how we must treat and care for our children and even our pets…these are largely the domain of the Legislature in Trenton. Most people in New Jersey have little or no idea what it is or how it works; for those who do know, they’ll commonly tell you it’s New Jersey’s version of Congress. It’s not, it isconsiderably more.

This is unfortunate, because these N.J. state lawmakers, 80 in the Assembly, 40 in the Senate, are typically elected on slim margins. They are particularly sensitive, whether they like it or not, to the influence of the everyday voter. Unlike Senators on the Federal level, state legislators are not voted in by millions of people. They don’t have tens of millions of constituents (as do U.S. Senators from, say, California or Florida). Frequently the margin of victory or defeat for state legislators comes down to less than 200 votes. Every year, in fact, some legislative elections are decided by less than 20 votes.

The recent Christie crisis has demonstrated the centrality of the Legislature. Christie is a national figure, of course. There are people in Iowa who are, at least according to some national polls, seriously considering supporting for him if he runs for President. But Christie’s present power is vested in a system where he ultimately answers to our state legislators and the voters. If, in the coming months, the Assembly votes by simple majority to impeach him (that’s just 41 votes! Not 41 million votes!), and the Senate tries and convicts him of an abuse of power, Christie isfinished. Even he would probably tell you that. All of his national exposure, his ability to raise money for the national Republican Party machine, his foreign trips to drum up a presidential image, will mean next to nothing.

I’m a Democrat that lives in, at least for now, a district represented by Republicans in the State Assembly and State Senate. But their margins of victory weren’t exactly monumental in the last election, and they know that. I have written many times to them (via email – very convenient) on issues that concern me, and I’m always impressed by their efforts to respond in a thoughtful and meaningful way. Again, they do this not only out of civic concern and duty but because they know that next time they might need my vote, or the vote of the people that listen to me, as I’ve proven to be civically aware.

I am not saying that from the point of view of a state legislator the power of a single voting constituent is equivalent of that to an experienced lobbyist. I’m not that politically naive. But it would be a mistake to conclude that, to these people, I’m completely irrelevant.

So to my readers I say, yes, you should always vote in national elections. It’s important. But arguably it is equally or even more important to vote in elections for our State Legislature, our most impactful “engine of democracy.” Voting for or against legislators and actively communicating with them can, in many situations, make a real difference. Lobbyists don’t elect legislators. Voters do.