Campaigns for mother Hillary, Democratic Party Presidential Candidate
By John Burton
HAZLET – With just a few weeks until the state’s primary election, Monmouth County Democrats were treated with a Clinton visit. No – it wasn’t the candidate Hillary or her spouse, former president Bill. But the crowd of the party faithful wasn’t disappointed; quite the contrary as they embraced the appearance of daughter Chelsea.
The 36-year-old former first daughter visited Monmouth County on Tuesday, appearing at Charley’s Ocean Grill, Long Branch, and then at Monmouth County Democratic Headquarters, Airport Plaza, Highway 36.
Chelsea Clinton and her husband Marc Mezvinsky live in New York and and are expecting their second child. Chelsea has been campaigning for her mother, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. But given she’s expecting her baby this summer and flying is now out of the question, she is limiting her stumping to New Jersey for the June 7 primary.
Before a supportive and enthusiastic crowd of nearly 200, filling the party headquarters, the younger Clinton hit the right notes for audience, telling them that the Nov. 8 election is “The most critical presidential vote of my life.”
“It really matters that people know how to create change,” she said, asking for votes and support for Hillary Clinton, saying her mother has been a merchant for change since her days as first lady of Arkansas, advocating for early childhood education and health care throughout her career in the public eye.
“I worry that everything I care about is at risk,” she said, ticking off a list of progressive policy items she called “our core values,” such as economic equality and health care issues.
With Republican candidate Donald Trump supporters gathering on Airport Plaza’s curbside, offering their own take on the Clinton campaign, Chelsea Clinton shared with the local party faithful how she’s been upset by the “hate speech going on in the Republican campaign,” with language against immigrants and women.
“None of that,” she added, represents the “country I want to live in and raise children in.”
Belmar residents Hannah, 11, and Claire Doherty, 8, daughters of Belmar Mayor Matt Doherty and Democratic county freeholder candidate, offered Clinton a “onesie” infant pajama for her coming child. Hannah added, “I was glad she answered my question.” The 11-year-old soccer player asked about wage inequality for the women’s World Cup Soccer Team, which earns considerably less than their male counterparts. Clinton answered that wage equality has always been a concern for Hillary. Later that day, Chelsea Clinton posted on Twitter: “So impressed by Hannah & Claire from Hazlet, NJ who are already concerned about pay equity for women!”
For the others in the crowd, having Clinton appear was the gift for them.
“I was tempted to go to both locations,” here and in Long Branch, said supporter Robyn Cocciardi, Ocean.
“I think she is very articulate and she addressed every issue” (that the audience raised), Cocciardi said.
“She really has the best of her mother and father,” observed Wasim Khan, Morristown. “She has it all. They should be very proud of their progeny.”
“I’ve been a big Hillary supporter for quite a while,” said Matawan resident Diane Doolittle, who got to meet Hillary last summer at a political fundraiser at the Molly Pitcher Inn, in Red Bank.
As for Chelsea, Doolittle offered, “I think she did great,” noting “she made all the right points about her mother.”
Monmouth County Democratic Committee Chairman Vin Gopal deemed the appearance a success. The announcement of Clinton’s visit generated nearly 1,000 additional names to the party’s county database.
That database is used to solicit donations and encourage volunteers.
The county Democratic organization had endorsed Hillary Clinton for the party’s nomination early in the primary season. Gopal personally endorsed her even before, announcing his support more than a year ago.
In 2008 Clinton won the New Jersey primary by a comfortable 10 percent margin.
