Mountain Lakes mom runs for State Assembly seat

by Enid Weiss
NJJN Bureau Chief/Trenton

Janice Schindler may have lost her war as a Kerry for President volunteer, but she’s found a new battle to fight: the Mountain Lakes mother of three is running for a New Jersey Assembly seat.

She and Democratic running mate Thomas Jackson are trying to oust Republican incumbents Michael P. Carroll and Richard Merkt in Dist. 25.

The district has traditionally been a Republican stronghold. It includes the Morris County communities of Boonton, Denville, Dover, Jefferson, Mendham, Mine Hill, Morris Township, Morristown, Mt. Arlington, Mountain Lakes, Randolph, the borough of Rockaway, Rockaway Township, Roxbury, Victory Gardens, and Wharton.

Merkt is in his fourth term in office; Carroll, his fifth.

Carroll made headlines two weeks ago for his opposition to stem cell research when the Assembly debated acting Gov. Richard Codey’s stem cell research plan. Carroll, who in previous elections has been endorsed by the NJ Citizens for Life, spoke to protestors gathered outside the Capitol in Trenton, calling the plan too expensive. During a teenaged victim’s testimony to legislators about how stem cell research could cure her of juvenile diabetes, he again spoke against the research.

There are two slates of Democrats running in the primary this year. Two candidates from Dover — Gaston Parraga and Alderman Patrick Fahy — are also on the ballot. Schindler and Jackson are endorsed by the Morris County Democratic Committee, the county’s regular Democrat organization, and will be on the ballot with Gubernatorial candidate Sen. Jon Corzine.

Morris County’s changing demographics are also in Schindler’s favor, she said. The area is becoming more suburban, with many young families moving in. More Jews are moving in, too, something else she hopes tips the scales in the Dems’ favor.

“It’s forced us to get ourselves organized and get out there,” Schindler said, looking at the silver lining on her primary battle. “We’re meeting reporters, canvassing the neighborhoods. I’m knocking on doors every weekend.”

Politics is not something new to her, or her family. Not only did Schindler work on the Kerry campaign, but husband Barry Schindler and their three children Danielle, Rachel, and Max did, too. Max even set up a blog — an Internet Web page chat venue — to promote the Democratic candidate.

“We’re a very political family,” Schindler said. “We talk about issues. We joke about how some people watch baseball or football — our sport is politics.”

When she wasn’t volunteering for political causes Schindler — Schindler a graduate of Cornell University and Brooklyn Law School — was involved at her synagogue; she’s sat on Congregation Agudath Israel of West Essex’s sisterhood, religious school, and nursery school boards. She’s also held offices on the Mountain Lakes League of Women Voters and the Mountain Lakes Home and School Association. She had to step down from the Women Voters board to become a candidate because the group is non-partisan.

So why is the attorney turned stay-at-home-mom running now?

Through the Kerry campaign she got to know county Democrats and learned about the local organization, she said. She also worked with Tom Jackson, who in March asked her to be his running mate. At the time she was preparing for the b’nei mitva service of her twins, Rachel and Max.

“I was devastated when Kerry lost and for the Democratic Party to get back, it’s got to start at the local level. The timing was right for me. I said [to Jackson] I can’t do anything until April 4,” Schindler said. “I got petitions signed and filed by April 11.”

Schindler said she hoped to make a difference on issues such as public education, stem cell research and property taxes and bring “fresh perspective to state politics” as a newcomer. As first-time candidates, she said she and Jackson “are not beholden to interest groups.”

And “for my three children,” she said. “If you’re going to teach your kids to lead productive lives, you need to set an example. As a Jewish person I believe it’s important you give back to the world. I’m proud to run as a Jewish female.

“We have very few females in the Assembly,” Schindler said. “In New Jersey we have few elected officials that are women. I’m a Democrat and I’m Jewish.”

Schindler is one of 41 women running for an Assembly seat in the June 7 primary, of whom 18 are Republicans, including 11 incumbents. The Center for Women and Politics, the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, ranked New Jersey 41st in the country in the number of women in the state legislature, according to a press release issued by Debbie Walsh, director of the CAWP at Eagleton.

In her interview with the NJ Jewish News, Schindler talked about the statistics in women in politics statistics. “We are half the populations; why aren’t we half the representation in office,” she asked?

Enid Weiss can be reached at enid@njjewishnews.com.