Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie
The passage of a marriage equality law in Delaware last week leaves New Jersey the only Atlantic coast state north of Virginia to retain a discriminatory marriage law.
“[V]acationers this summer can travel anywhere from Portland, Maine, to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and all the way to Ocean City, Maryland, to enjoy the Atlantic coastline in destinations that treat all people equally — that is, only if they bypass New Jersey,” said Garden State Equality in a press release.
“It is a blight on our state’s record of leadership and social justice, and on our economy, that Governor Christie has vetoed marriage equality and that the legislature has not yet overridden that veto.”
The New Jersey state legislature passed a marriage equality bill in February, 2012. Gov. Christie vetoed it immediately. Since the bill wasn’t passed by a veto-proof majority, the race is on to secure 12 additional votes in the House and 3 in the Senate before the legislative session ends in January, 2014.
This is possible if Gov. Christie, who is known for enforcing party discipline, allows Republican legislators to vote their conscience. It would be in his best interest to do so, because he’s giving New Jersey a retrograde reputation.
Since his veto last year, Washington, Maine, Maryland, Rhode Island and Delaware have doubled the number of marriage equality states to 11. Minnesota is expected to become the 12th state on Monday, March 13, with Illinois following suit in the next few weeks.
In contrast, New Jersey keeps its loving, committed same-sex couples segregated into separate and unequal civil unions. Thanks to Gov. Christie’s veto, New Jersey embraces a discriminatory past while the rest of the country moves on. Eleven (soon to be 13) states plus the District of Columbia, President Obama, prominent Republicans including former NJ Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, Fortune 500 companies and the country as a whole have evolved on this issue.
Those so inclined can encourage Gov. Christie to get with the program by signing this petition sponsored by Garden State Equality and American Civil Liberties Union.
Cross-posted at Blue Jersey.
now lives in New Jersey. Sad that people’s rights are on hold because this guy wants to make it through GOP Presidential primaries.
…they will have to go through Pennsylvania which is also not yet an equality state, and probably won’t be under the current Governor and legislature.
At this point Christie has imploded as a 16′ candidate, I suspect its opposition from his own base that is keeping him from doing this, and possibly his own belief that the NJ Civil Unions/DP law affords the same rights and benefits. He was challenged from the right back in 09′. Here is hoping that NJ leg can overturn the veto, that would be a real win for equality.
is technically not a seaboard state, though I’ve always felt invoking that fact is cheating a bit. It’s a strange state politically, pretty far to the right of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. But every indication is that the current governor will be gone after the 2014 elections. With any luck the current legislature with him.
I saw a piece about Hillary Clinton doing very well in PPP polls in states like Kentucky, Texas, Florida, NC, etc. These polls generally tested support for marriage equality, which was very unpopular in Texas and Kentucky. I wonder what the polling on the issue is like in Pennsylvania.
…in the sense that Philadelphia is a major port and has been since colonial times. I’ve always liked the Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, swath of Alabama down the middle political description myself. It is often called swing yet has been presidentially blue for the last several cycles I believe. It elects conservative Democrats (Casey) and liberal Republicans (Spector), but got caught up in waves like 1994 (Santorum) and 2010 (Toomey, Corbett).
I confess that my prejudices are perhaps unfair, but in my view this just reconfirms the negative impression I’ve always had about New Jersey.
My wife and I just drove through New Jersey yesterday, returning from a Mother’s Day visit to the DC area. On our way through the state on I-287, we were hungry and low on fuel and followed one of the blue advisory signs promising an Exxon station and food. Only AFTER we were committed to the exit, too late to easily revert, did the little sign tell us that the oasis was THREE MILES away, on a suburban road with innumerable traffic lights. Once we finally arrived, we find that NJ law disallows self-serve gasoline, so we had to pay premium prices and wait while a surly attendant filled our tank. The “food” was a counter inside the gas station with some pre-made sandwiches.
We were left with the distinct impression that the misleading signs and silly restrictions exist to curry favor with local businesses — travelers be damned. Typical New Jersey. We waited until later for lunch, and decided that on future trips, we will ensure that we do not need to stop in NJ, for anything.
The bottom line? Marriage equality and our most recent annoyance both demonstrate to my satisfaction what “Welcome to New Jersey” actually means.
I have memorized which exits in Connecticut and upstate New York have gas stations right near the exit, and which ones tell you they do but you have to drive five to ten miles on a two-lane road.
I think the no-self-serve gas rule is stupid. The only other state doing that is Oregon, which is even worse. In most stations there you have to go in to the station, place your order, and wait for someone to come out to you. But suburbanites control the state so firmly that NJ gas prices generally are quite low. Only exception is smaller stations in the more rural areas, which it sounds like you were dealing with.
I amazed some attorneys at my new (temp) job when I critiqued their ad which was hung in the breakroom. It had their logo imposed over a black and white photo of a nicely uniformed ESSO gas attendant filling up a 47 Packard with the tagline “Full Service is Back”, and I retorted “it never left in Massachusetts”.
I think we have the best system where you can choose self or full. My dad refuses to go to a ‘jenny station’ that doesn’t offer full service (he is partly handicapped so it’s not entirely due to laziness). Last time he and my ma visited me in Chicago, after he dropped me off he pulled into a gas station and waited to get full service. Luckily on the south side a man pumped his gas for him and gave him a car wash, but he demanded a $5 tip. My dad later said “your gas guys in Chicago are very rude, he gave me a carwash I didn’t want and asked for a tip”, I then told me dad “there are no gas attendants in Chicago, that man didn’t work for the station”.
I’m sure other states do the same. I’m just saying that in Pennsylvania (along I-84, I-81, I-78, and I-76) I’ve never had this problem. Similarly, in Connecticut (along I-84, I-91, and the Merritt Parkway), Maryland (I-70, I-270, I-81) and New York (I-84, I-87) the “services” were located at or within sight of the marked exit. Maybe we’ve just been lucky. We generally start with a full tank in Somerville, we generally go south along I-84 and stop for gas in Port Jervis (at the PA border), and we make pit stops about every two hours along the way for bio-breaks. This Chinese fire drill in NJ is the only time we’ve had this problem.
We had to take an alternate route back because of a major closure of the I-81 chokepoint in Harrisburg. Hence our choice of I-78 east and our tour of NJ.
I’m confident that the no-self-serve laws exist to “protect jobs”. That’s the real motivation for restrictions in Massachusetts towns, and surely NJ is the same.
While jobs are an issue, we do know that:
Then, the research shows, the majority of these incidents are caused by drivers who leave the engine running in their car, smoking or re-entering one’s car while refeuling. Gas station attendants are likely to “remind” drivers to turn of their engines, unlikely to smoke while pouring gas and very unlikely to enter your car in the middle of refeuling.
Thus, having attendants pour gas is significantly safer than self-serve.
Westford has, or had a no-self-serve gas law. On one occasion, I pulled in to a place on Boston Rd. and the station kid put the nozzle in my tank and walked away. After a minute, I looked in my mirror and noticed a growing puddle under my car. The nozzle had fallen out, and was still pumping gas. On another occasion, the kid pumped the gas with a lit cigarette in his mouth. That was the last time I went there.
Those gas prices are generally among the lowest between here and DC even with the full service factor.
there’s a 20-30 minute wait for gas on the Turnpike these days.
I sincerely hope no one is driving 300 miles to get cheap gas. There is a gas station on Route 1 traveling South West from about a mile from 128, that is usually fairly cheap (cheaper than the average locally).
Just talking about when you happen to be passing through NJ anyway!
Mass. has some of the lowest prices in the NE. I find the Natick/Framingham area and up Route 1 heading north pretty cheap.
or we might get more nonsense about how “we desperately” need the XL Pipeline. And sad pictures of coal miners in West Virginia. Beetlejuice. There, I only said it once. Hopefully the troll will remain silently under his bridge.
…when I drive between here and DC I do try to manipulate my gas needs to coincide with my time on the Turnpike.