“The goal here is to let New Jersey voters know that they have another alternative for governor besides the two mainstream candidates,” said Lily Benavides. “To hear Sherrill and Ciattarelli talk about it, they are the only two choices. But if you stand against the genocide in Gaza as many in New Jersey do, neither candidate will represent that point of view as governor. Neither candidate has spoken out loudly against the misuse of ICE and the National Guard, to ‘fight the enemy within’ as Trump proclaims.”

“The campaign gathered almost 500 signatures more than required, after having gathered 4000 signatures to get our first candidate, Steve Zielinski, on the ballot,” stated Madelyn Hoffman, campaign manager. “Sitting in the virtual courtroom watching the attorney for the Morris County Democratic Party challenge name after name of people whose names appeared to be either Muslim or Arab American or Latin America was akin to sitting through a virtual ICE raid. Neither Democrats nor Republicans care about disenfranchising the majority of the people in New Jersey, so we are walking, driving, speaking and handing out information about our Write-In campaign to give these folks another option.”

Campaign stops included the gubernatorial debate at Rider College in MERCER County; a march and rally to protest the police killing of grandmother Deborah Terrell in New Brunswick, MIDDLESEX County, an action which shut down Route 18 to draw attention to this act of police brutality; the Parsippany Fall Festival in MORRIS County; an event for Gaza in Woodland Park, PASSAIC County; Grief Circle for Palestinians killed in the genocide, Jersey City, HUDSON County as well as a Family Carnival Day; the UNION County Lieutenant Governor Debate, Kean College; CAMDEN County Rank the Beers (Ranked Choice Voting workshop), and the Farmers’ Market, Book Fair and South Jersey for Gaza Action vigil.

Lacey Township Day in OCEAN County; Stop the Bear Hunt protest in Paramus, BERGEN County; Cory Booker and Dale Caldwell, A protest at a canvassing event for these two candidates, SOMA for Palestine, ESSEX County; HUNTERDON County, screening of Gaza Fights for Freedom, SOMERSET County, Bound Brook, pro-immigration event calling for actions from the NJ Attorney General to stop the brutality of ICE raids and to close existing ICE facilities in NJ” and beyond.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” said Lily Benavides. “We will be at the 2^nd gubernatorial debate in New Brunswick on Wednesday night. Only Sherrill and Ciattarelli will be on stage because they raised the required $580,000 to qualify to participate. The cards are stacked against independent political parties and candidates who refuse to bow down to AIPAC and other big money PACs. We will continue to participate in whatever events we can to let the public know that these obstacles to real democracy won’t deter us.”