By Sunayana Prabhu
The 6th Congressional District includes most of Middlesex County as well as the Bayshore and oceanfront areas of Monmouth County. The outcome of this race will affect the balance in Congress.
Candidates currently on the ballot include incumbent Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D), Monmouth County Commissioner Sue Kiley (R), Eric Antisell (Move Everyone Forward), Tara Fisher (Libertarian Party), and Inder Jit Soni (New Jersey First). Candidates Fisher and Soni did not respond to repeated requests for comment by press time.
To learn more about each candidate and their views on issues facing their community, visit onyourballot.vote411.org.
Frank Pallone Jr. (D – incumbent)
Pallone currently represents New Jersey’s 6th congressional district. His current term ends Jan. 3, 2023. He was sworn in for his 17th full term in the U.S. House of Representatives Jan. 3, 2021. Pallone began his political career in Long Branch. He was elected to the Long Branch City Council in 1982. In 1983, he was elected to the state Senate, representing the Monmouth County coastline. In 1988, Pallone was elected to Congress from New Jersey’s former 3rd district, encompassing parts of Monmouth and Ocean counties. After a new Congressional district map was adopted in 1992, Pallone was elected to represent the 6th district that included large portions of Middlesex and Monmouth counties in November of the same year.
“Contrary to what political pundits say, Congress passes legislation that directly responds to serious issues New Jerseyans face, including local issues constituents bring to me. I want to share a few examples with you.
We all agree we need to repair and rebuild our infrastructure and protect coastal towns from major storms and flooding. This year, New Jersey has received $1.3 billion to repair roads and $246 million to rebuild bridges from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Highlands will receive $128.7 million to begin the Borough’s flood control project. The state will also receive $24.4 million to replenish beaches along the Monmouth County coastline that face major erosion.
Many residents, businesses, and boaters tell me about the urgency of dredging our area’s rivers. I secured $26 million this year in a House spending bill for maintenance dredging of the Shrewsbury and Navesink Rivers, including the entrance of the rivers at Sandy Hook and the channel of the Shrewsbury River along Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach to Long Branch. The Navesink River will be dredged to Red Bank. I also secured $2.1 million to repair Municipal Harbor’s bulkhead in Atlantic Highlands. Previous federal spending bills included funding for the ongoing construction of Port Monmouth’s flood control project and $8 million for the dredging of Shoal Harbor and Compton Creek in Belford. These projects will help communities and the fishing industry in Monmouth County.
As Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, I helped pass significant reforms to our health care system in the Inflation Reduction Act that a majority of New Jerseyans support. According to a poll conducted last year, 84% of voters in New Jersey support allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. This new law allows Medicare to do just that and caps what seniors pay for drugs annually at $2,000 and $35 per month for insulin. No one should have to choose between paying for food and paying for lifesaving medications.
As your representative in Congress, I’ll continue to build on these accomplishments, listen to you, and support legislation that helps hardworking New Jerseyans.”
Sue Kiley (R)
Kiley is serving her second, three-year term on the Monmouth County Board of County Commissioners, curently as deputy director. Prior to becoming a commissioner, Kiley served on the Hazlet Township Committee from 2014, as a committee member, deputy mayor and mayor. Before entering the political arena, she had a 30-year career in the health care industry.
“I did not enter politics to grandstand or make a name for myself. I entered it to be able to help my constituents, the people in my neighborhoods, and my residents that were really struggling and need help. So, the things that I try and bring forward for some years are the things I’ve heard from people that are struggling. It’s not about partisanship. It’s about how can we help our residents and our voters. That’s always been the way we’ve behaved as a commissioner board. If it’s going to help our residents, we’re going to do it. And we have had “conversations” on the other side and again, I and the people we’ve worked with, have had the same philosophy. Locally makes it very easy, nationally I’m sure it might be more challenging, but that’s what drives me. And I think there’s not too many people that don’t want to help the people in their neighborhoods or in the state.
We know that we’re struggling with lots of issues that have to be fixed. And if anyone comes up with a great policy that will work to reduce inflation and reduce our gas prices, etc. I’m going to be all for it. I don’t care whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat that brought it up. The school situation right now is a calling. And I would like for parents to have a whole lot more rights than they do right now and have a whole lot more communication. That’s number one. Another issue obviously is inflation. How do we bring that down? What kind of policies do we create or change in order to bring inflation down? The other is energy. Nobody wants to be sitting in a cold house during the winter because they don’t have enough electricity. The border is critical. We’ve got to find a way to close that border. We’ve got to find a way to have better policies for people that want to immigrate to this country.
I’m very much looking for ward to being in the congressional seat and having an influence over the solutions that we’re going to bring.”
Eric Antisell (Move Everyone Forward)
Antisell was born in Red Bank and earned an associate degree from Brookdale Community College in 2011 and a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University-New Brunswick in 2013.
“The main problem I see today is the top-down nature of how the political agenda is set. The President and whoever controls the majority in the House and the Senate are only concerned about building enough consensus among members of their own Party to pass their side’s bills. Thus, the other side is only concerned about winning the next election to be the majority and do the same. My commitment if elected is to hold digital town halls with constituents for 30 to 90 minutes, 3 to 5 times per week, setting the agenda from the bottom-up. One never knows when an everyday person who does not have ties to the media has a game-changing idea, if only someone in a position to implement the idea would hear it. Many people, deep down, feel disempowered today. If elected I would be radically available to constituents in the form of digital town halls, where constituents could tell me, a sitting member of Congress, their most powerful arguments, and put me on-record as to how I will represent them nationally. Representative Frank Pallone went 2 years without holding a single town hall, even a digital one, during this last 2-year term he’s been elected to. During this time I had one game changing question for him that I submitted to him digitally and he never answered, that I could have asked him at a town hall: Will you amend federal drug laws, which place the federal government between adults and their doctors who can prevent overdoses in State- and locality approved supervised injection sites? He had taken sides to protect the brand “Democrat”, at Representation’s expense.
Even if I disagree with a constituent’s view, I will not dodge or straw-man it; I will strengthen its presentation the best I can on-record and make sure everyone’s voice is heard by whichever political party in Congress it applies to. I will hold to account both sides, which is at least twice what Frank Pallone will do, because he has a conflict of interest with the Democrats. With your help, we’ll move both Republicans and Democrats forward.”
The article originally appeared in the October 20 – 26, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
