Tonight in Morris Township, New Jersey, Democrat Jeff Grayzel (pronounced "Gray-ZEL") made history. For the first time since Watergate, a Democrat will serve on the township committee in this staunchly Republican town just south of Morristown. Jeff's website Grayzel, a 10-year resident of Morris Township has been active in the community since 2002, when he led the fight to prevent a toxic waste plant from being built in the town. He decided to run in 2003 for town council, where the Republican Party had all five seats (and had held all of them since 1976) and were ignoring local concerns.
Jeff drew 45% in 2003, then 47% in 2004, then 49% in 2005. His persistance in running has been admirable, both for "taking it to 'em" in Morris Township and for being willing to campaign against incredibly tough odds every year.
Then last November, Jeff Grayzel won. At least on Election Night.
On November 7th, Jeff was ahead on Election Night by 5 votes over Republican Joseph Cavanelli. Calvanelli called for a recount, and it resulted in the Republican winning the seat - by one vote. There were 11 disputed ballots, so Jeff took the race to court. What ensued was a crazy judicial process that came to an exciting conclusion...in Thailand. A voter who had moved from Morris Township overseas in late October (after casting his absentee ballot)would be tiebreaking vote between a Grayzel victory (by 1 vote) and a tie. Sadly, the man couldn't remember who he had voted for - so the judge ordered a special election for today, May 1st.
Meanwhile, the GOP (taking the 1-vote win for granted) seated Calvanelli on the town council. He stepped down for the revote, and so a heated race was on. All the credit in the world goes to Chip Robinson, the Morris County Democratic Field Organizer and his impressive array of volunteers, who over the course of the weekend and today canvassed every single precinct in Morris Township.
Let me try and put this into perspective, for those who live in Democratic or swing areas of this country. Morris County is deep-red: it last voted Democratic for President in 1964, when Barry Goldwater recieved 30% of the statewide vote. It's the home turf of elite Republicans like the Keans, Freylingheusens, Whitmans (remember EPA goof Christine Todd Whit-less? That's one of 'em) and similar country-club types. The GOP leaders that come out of Morris county are the closest we have to an American aristocracy. Poorer Republicans like Richard Nixon hated these folks (listen to his audio tapes to see what I mean), but they ran their estates - oops, excuse me - local government with an iron fist.
Until now.
Until recently, Morris County was solidly Republican, with the exceptions of Morristown, Dover and a few select localities where the candidate offset the Democratic label. But times are changing. More and more families are moving in, families with more progressive beliefs like the Grayzels. Democrats now control several towns in Morris County, and are establishing beachheads in a number of places.
Jeff Grayzel is the latest of those breakthroughs in a changing Morris County. Tonight, a town of roughly 10,000 registered voters - of whom Republicans vastly outnumber Democrats - gave Jeff 56% of the vote in the special election! To put this in perspective, one precinct in Morris Township has 440 Republicans and 140 Democrats (plus a large number of Independents). Jeff carried that precinct!
I quote Jeff from his speech tonight (courtesy of BlueJersey.net):
"We've been telling people change is coming, change is coming. Well, change is here."
And from PoliticsNJ.com:
"There is no such thing as a safe election for Republicans," said Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan, who supported county and local Democratic efforts with staff and resources and appeared at a rally for Grayzel this afternoon. "One of the best ways to build the party is to strengthen its foundation at the local level. And we aren't afraid to challenge Republicans, even when they think they have homefield advantage."
50-state strategy, 21-county strategy, 566-towns strategy: that's how we're going to win back the reddest parts of New Jersey, and how we're going to take our country back. It will take time - hell, it took Jeff Grayzel FIVE times - but time is on our side. If we hammer away long enough, and speak truth to power, we WILL prevail.