In an editorial, Progressive Democrats of Hudson County member Hector Oseguera details why he feels Jersey City voters should not elect Hudson County Democratic Organization Chair Amy DeGise to council-at-large.
Election season is upon us, and although normal campaigns herald endorsements for
candidates seeking office, I’d like to flip this tradition and wholeheartedly un-endorse the one candidate no Jersey City resident should vote for; because under absolutely no circumstances should anyone vote for the princess of the Hudson County machine, Amy DeGise.
Amy has no discernible record of leadership on any issue despite being politically involved her entire life. Not once has she involved herself in the issues of the day, nor has she leveraged her considerable power to help everyday people.
On affordable housing, public safety, infrastructure, taxes, and education, Amy’s track-record is completely blank. Attempts to pin her down on specific policies only result in platitudes and word salad.
Her one big idea is “workforce housing,” a euphemism for her new patronage mill, giving insiders freebies at the taxpayer’s expense, while you and your family drown in cost-of-living increases.
She has no vision for where Jersey City needs to go, and no idea how to get there.
The only time she was elected to a position of public trust, Amy fled the board of education, abandoning Jersey City’s children as schools were slammed with hundreds of millions of dollars in state-aid cuts.
Rather than stay and make tough decisions, Amy cut-and-run on your child’s future.
And rather than present a plan to improve Jersey City’s standard of living, Amy wastes time dishonestly levying racist dog-whistles against her political opponents.
Her campaign is an empty shell, lacking any semblance of a policy platform, expecting simply to ride the mayor’s coattails to more power for herself and her network of cronies.
The only issue on which Amy has any identifiable position is her own power and aggrandizement, where she’s proven herself mostly inaccessible and dangerously unaccountable.
She asks the people of Jersey City to trust her with the City’s budget while the Democratic organization that she chairs is in debt to the tune of over a hundred thousand dollars.
At every turn, corners have been cut to grant Amy undeserved special privileges. At a recent candidate forum hosted by the Journal Square Community Association, Amy abruptly exited falsely stating that she would attend a youth rally at City Hall.
Social media images captured her at a campaign event in the Heights, and the youth rally at City Hall was held the following day. If any other candidate for office was caught in such a bald-faced lie, it would be the end of their political career.
But the kid-gloves stay on for Amy. The moderator of the upcoming at-large candidate debate is a far-right wing blogger and incidentally Amy’s most ardent sycophant.
The audience cannot expect a fair debate when the moderator is already openly in the tank for one of the participants.
Amy’s greatest accomplishment is being born into a politically connected family. Her father is the county executive, and as the Hudson County Democratic Organization’s Chair, she controls the all-powerful County Line.
How much more power does one family need to amass? This November, you have a very important decision to make and there are several amazing independent at-large candidates who deserve your attention and your vote.
But unless you’re a political insider, enamored with the status quo, wishing to further entrench this nepotistic and corrupt system, you have no reason to vote for the dishonest, unaccountable, inaccessible, power-hungry scion of the Hudson County political machine, Amy DeGise.
Hector Oseguera
Progressive Democrats of Hudson County