Politics NJ’s Wally Edge has some thoughts on our story on the death penalty. His notion is that Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein “waits to see how her Republican colleague, Bill Baroni, votes before she makes a final decision” on legislation.
He then takes her to task for having no position on the death penalty and likens it to her abstention on an Assembly resolution “opposing the Bush Adminstration’s plan on Iraq.”
Refusing to take positions on core issues like Iraq and the death penalty won’t help her gain enthusiasm among Democratic base voters for her re-election campaign.
While I agree that her non-position is vexing to say the least, and a bit off-putting, I doubt that Democrats will be abandoning her at the polls. The logistics of electoral politics and the importance of maintaining a majority end up overshadowing any misgivings voters have about candidates.
This is especially true in the wake of the 2000 presidential race, one lost by a sitting vice president because he didn’t carry Florida. There are still Democrats who are angry at Ralph Nader for cyphoning votes in Florida and a couple of other close states and possibly tilting the vote toward then-Gov. George Bush.
I doubt that declared Democrats would be willing to allow something like to happen to Greenstein, no matter how angry they might get.
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Hank Kalet 