UPDATE: This story has been updated with comments from the Morris County Democratic Women’s Caucus.
Winning election to the Morris County Board of Commissioners is more than an uphill battle for Democrats; it’s like scaling Mt. Everest.
No Democrat has reached the summit since the Watergate era. And A.J. Oliver’s climb just got steeper.
NJ 11th for Change, the grassroots organization that in 2018 helped flip the 11th Congressional District to the blue column after decades as a GOP bastion, has withdrawn its endorsement for Oliver.
The nonprofit says Oliver, Morristown’s Democratic chairman, concealed his anti-abortion stance from NJ 11th for Change and from his running mates, T.C. McCourt and Dina Mikulka.
Oliver, a veteran of 17 years in the U.S. Army, called the revoked endorsement “unfortunate and disappointing.”
“As a pastor, veteran, community leader, and Morristown Democrats Chair, I have tried my best to conduct my life with a sense of honesty and integrity. The reality is that I have never hidden the fact that I am pro life. The endorsement questionnaire that my running mates and I filled out said that we are all feminists and support women’s rights and that is completely accurate,” said Oliver, who also serves on Morristown’s environmental- and shade tree commissions.
Leaders of NJ 11th said their endorsement had been based on a summer questionnaire in which the slate declared itself “pro-woman” and “feminist,” the directors said this week on the nonprofit’s Facebook page.
But they recently came across a video from December of Oliver addressing Democrats for Life of America, an anti-abortion group that has endorsed him. Oliver also has urged people to lobby legislators against the state’s Reproductive Freedom Act, according to NJ 11th co-Executive Directors Leslie Bockol and Mara Novak.
“Given the revelation that Oliver’s position is far removed from what most of us would consider ‘pro-woman’ or ‘feminist,’ we feel strongly that continuing to endorse this candidate would be a betrayal of our members’ values, which are and have always been overwhelmingly pro-choice. Moreover, Oliver’s lack of transparency with his team and running mates, and then with us, is antithetical to our organization’s core values,” said their posting, first reported by New Jersey Globe.
On Friday, the Morris County Democratic Women’s Caucus also rebuked Oliver.
While the Democratic Party prides itself on respecting diverse perspectives, the caucus said in a statement, “we cannot and will not stand silent while one of our commissioner candidates actively works to thwart our efforts to secure a women’s right to reproductive freedom.”
“For decades, women have been forced to fight tooth and nail for the same civil rights already afforded to men, very specifically body autonomy,” said Meghan Lynch, the caucus chair. “We cannot support a candidate who is working to undo our progress.”
The caucus still supports Oliver’s running mates, but its executive board expressed disappointment that the county’s Democratic Committee did not vet Oliver more thoroughly.
Oliver said he intends to continue his campaign, advocating to reduce food insecurity, the maternal mortality rate, homelessness and mental illness.
Morris County Democratic Chairman Chip Robinson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The withdrawn endorsement for Oliver sparked a flurry of online questions among NJ 11th members. Some who already cast absentee ballots asked if they could nullify their initial votes and vote again. (No, according to Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin.)
Others suggested voting for McCourt and Mikulka and writing in a third candidate. Another member pondered the merits of switching to open primaries, without party-line selections by party insiders.
Morristown Councilwoman Sandi Mayer, a Democrat, defended Oliver.
“I’ve found that many people in both parties are not in lock-step with the platforms of their party but in general, believe in what their party stands for,” Mayer said.
“I support his decision to run for elected office just as anyone is entitled to. He has fresh ideas and is thoughtful in his manner and it would be nice to see a change on the county level. Reproductive rights isn’t something that is usually decided at the local level but again, he’s entitled to feel as he does,” the councilwoman said.
It all should make for an interesting virtual debate on Oct. 26, 2021. The League of Women Voters will put questions from the public to the Democrats and to incumbent Republicans Stephen Shaw, Deborah Smith and John Krickus.
Ex US President Ronald Reagan , a long time member of the Democratic Party once said” I did not leave the Democratic Party , it left me!”
Mr Oliver should do the same thing.
I have meet him and I can tell you he is a classy person. I wish him the best in whatever he does or wherever he goes.
@ “Not Represented”, the MC Dems are not even slightly more polite. I was on the MCDC and I never met a more solipsistic condescending bunch of dilettantes in my life. It also doesn’t help that the MCDC chair is totally clueless.
I’ll be voting for Ederle Vaughan on the WFP line in addition to the other two Democratic candidates. With a woman’: right to choose under siege, we can’t take a chance on this anti choicer.
The Morris Dems are so lost – they keep trying to be Republicans, but with the less savory bits removed. Basically a bunch of wealthy suburbanites in favor of gentrification, businesses over workers, putting real estate interests first, happy to jail “undesirables”… The condescension towards lower income people and non managerial class is still there, just like the GOP, but slightly more polite.
These is the same Dem leadership that had a freeholder candidate (the mayor’s wife, because, of course) doing fraud for her run and pushing another candidate off her slate because the mayor’s wife didn’t want to offend her “friend”, Ms. Grossi.
The disdain the MCDC has for anything left of the likes of Mike Bloomberg is just a wonderful self-own.