Blue Jersey?

And the Democrat leadership has done wonders for us, lol. When will the people of this state wakeup?

igotkavorka -- So the Republicans controlled Drumthwacket and both houses for eight years and did better?  During the best economy the country had ever seen our taxes skyrocketed, our investment in infrastructure collapsed, our pension plan went to hell, our motor vehicle systems got worse, auto insurers fled the state while those who stayed kept increasing their rates, and let's not forget the Parsons and EasyPass debacles.

The state is a mess.  i'm not going to deny that the Democrats have had a significant hand in it, because they have.  

My point is that neither party has been good for the state.  You may think one or the other was better, but they are both full of legislators who are too weak to do the tough work that needs to be done to fix the problems we face.

So please don't try to make this a partisan issue.  There's more than enough evidence of incompetence on both sides.

Once we get past the barriers of the labeling of "liberal" for certain policies and simply realize that the ideals behind contemporary liberalism yield positive results for the state and country, then perhaps the larger sea change of progressive national politics will be furthered. Promoting a clean environment and preserving open space, sustaining economic benefits for small businesses and workers through unions and tax incentives/rebates, allowing individual freedoms through correcting the law when those freedoms are curtailed -- these aren't just the tenets of liberal utopianism but instead constitute some of the founding, core ideals of this country. 

In N.J., besides abolishing the death penalty and getting close to a real family leave bill, I can't help but think that two further bills that should be considered would be: a straightforward marriage equality bill and an impeachment bill for both Bush and Cheney. I would imagine that the former is a more realistic option than the latter, but our state legislature should make up for Congress' inability to act on impeachment. At the least, the substantial legislative accomplishment of recent years, particularly the death penalty abolishment, should hypothetically create a domino effect for similar legislative and judicial action in other states, since this legislation is indeed the right, just and necessary thing to do.