{"id":40802235975,"date":"2013-07-29T10:03:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-29T14:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/2013\/07\/29\/buonos-pick\/"},"modified":"2021-01-25T11:22:05","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T16:22:05","slug":"buonos-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/2013\/07\/29\/buonos-pick\/","title":{"rendered":"Buono’s Pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at PolitickerNJ<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

What\u2019s a guy got to do to get a major party Lieutenant Governor nomination in this state?\u00a0 Barbara Buono\u2019s pick of labor leader Milly Silva as her running mate means that women have been tapped for this post 80% of the time.\u00a0 Of course, there have only been five LG nominees in the state\u2019s history, so …<\/p>\n

The Silva pick, though, sends a message that is different from the other female LG nominations.\u00a0 Mainly, Buono is not trying to \u201cbalance\u201d anything.<\/p>\n

Current governor Chris Christie\u2019s selection of Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno in 2009 was made in part to appeal to women voters, a segment Republicans tend to lose.\u00a0 It was widely expected that former governor Jon Corzine would pick a woman as a matter of progressive principles.\u00a0 Ironically, his initial inclination was to select Buono until a corruption sting netted dozens of public officials, leading him to choose Loretta Weinberg, who was seen as a squeaky clean veteran legislator.<\/p>\n

Buono, on the other hand, picked someone who is just like her.\u00a0 Not just in gender, but in ideology and policy priorities \u2013 liberal on social issues, strong labor supporter, wary of education reform policies, etc.<\/p>\n

The one thing Silva doesn\u2019t have is political experience.\u00a0 And therein lies a key reason for the pick.<\/p>\n

Some observers say this pick will help excite the Democratic base and perhaps bring greater labor support \u2013 in terms of both money and voter turnout assistance.\u00a0 This is true to some extent.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Silva\u2019s lack of experience in elected or appointed office have led some \u2013 and not just Republicans \u2013 to call her \u201cunqualified\u201d for the position \u2013 whose main job requirement is to step in if anything happens to the governor. \u00a0\u00a0And that\u2019s the point Buono is trying to make.\u00a0 There aren\u2019t enough women who have been allowed to rise in the halls of power.<\/p>\n

Buono already knew this, but this governor\u2019s race reinforced her feelings about the party.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost impossible for a woman to get ahead in the New Jersey Democratic Party unless it serves some ulterior motive of the party bosses.<\/p>\n

Those who point to Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver as evidence to the contrary should pay close attention to her run for U.S. Senate.\u00a0 There have been rumblings for months that her speakership is not secure after this election.\u00a0 Moreover, when she attacks Cory Booker\u2019s \u201ccoronation\u201d on the campaign trail, she is also attacking the party bosses \u2013 specifically her heretofore patron Joe DiVincenzo \u2013 who are willing to toss her aside when the mood strikes.<\/p>\n

Compare Oliver\u2019s relationship with Joe D to Senate President Steve Sweeney\u2019s relationship with George Norcross.\u00a0 The men taken under powerbroker\u2019s wings are close friends and confidants.\u00a0 The women seem to be expendable.<\/p>\n

The Milly Silva selection is Barbara Buono\u2019s way of playing \u201cpowerbroker.\u201d\u00a0 She\u2019s instantly elevated a young, charismatic labor leader to become a statewide political player.\u00a0 Buono hopes this selection will turn Silva into a force that the state party has no choice but to reckon with; that Silva will be able to build a solid base where other women have not been able to do.<\/p>\n

There is one thing about the Buono\u2019s choice that is not unusual, though.\u00a0\u00a0 Women tend to get nominated to higher office as sacrificial lambs \u2013 when everyone else has written off any chance of success. \u00a0This seems to be another of those instances.<\/p>\n

Given the likely outcome of this election, it\u2019s hard to escape comparisons to Thelma and Louise.\u00a0 By all accounts, Buono and Silva seem to be heading off a 30-point cliff.<\/p>\n

In this case, though, Buono hopes that Silva will survive the crash and be able to demand the political support that she feels she\u2019s been denied in her career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at PolitickerNJ What\u2019s a guy got to do to get a major party Lieutenant Governor nomination in this state?\u00a0 Barbara Buono\u2019s pick of labor leader Milly Silva as her running mate means that women have been tapped for this post 80% of the time.\u00a0 Of course, there have only been five LG nominees in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":939,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40802235975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802235975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/939"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40802235975"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802235975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40802244174,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802235975\/revisions\/40802244174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40802235975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40802235975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40802235975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}