By Phil Garber, Staff Writer Interview in Recorder Newspapers Wednesday, February 27, 2008 2:30 PM EST Ellen Greenberg hopes her passionate opposition to the war in Iraq wins her the 11th District Congressional seat. Greenberg of Mendham Township and Harry Hager of Chester are the latest Democrats hoping to win the seat from veteran incumbent, Republican Rodney Frelinghuysen of Harding Township. They join Tom Wyka of Parsippany in the race for the Democratic nomination in the June primary. Wyka lost to Frelinghuysen two years ago. Frelinghuysen has said he intends to campaign for an eighth, two-year term. A petition with at least 200 signatures must be submitted by April 7 to qualify for the primary. The 11th District includes all of Morris County; in Essex County, Caldwell, Essex Fells, Fairfield, North Caldwell, Roseland and West Caldwell; and in Somerset County, Bernards Township and Raritan; and parts of Sussex and Passaic counties. Greenberg and her husband, Robert, moved to their Samantha Lane home in 2000. They have a son, Brian, 35, and a daughter, Monica, 38. First Run An attorney specializing in bankruptcy and real estate, Greenberg said she has never run for office before but has been involved in presidential campaigns since Jimmy Carter won in 1976. Greenberg said she considered running for Congress in 2006 but instead gave her support to Wyka. Now, she’s ready to try for herself. “I got tired of complaining,” Greenberg said. “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” She said she thinks many voters in the 11th District are fed up with Frelinghuysen. The addition of 22,000 formerly unaffiliated voters to the Democratic rolls in the February presidential primary is a further sign of the growing opposition to the Republican policies, she said. “It’s palpable that people are ready for a change and that this administration has nothing but failed policies,” Greenberg said. “A lot of people are angry about Congressman Frelinghuysen’s rubber stamp for war spending, tax cuts for the very wealth and voting against SCHIP (Supplemental Child Health Insurance Program).” Greenberg said she would begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq within two months. Like in Vietnam, she said the U.S. is waging a losing war. “I want the troops home and I want the money spent at home,” Greenberg said. “Who will be the last soldier to die in Iraq in a war we cannot win. How many generations will pass to get rid of the hostility this war has caused?” ‘A Lot Stronger’ Greenberg also said the U.S. occupation has attracted al Qaedain numbers that were not there before the invasion. “The terrorists are a lot stronger than before the war,” she said. “The Iraqi dictatorship at least served a purpose of keeping the religious fanatics out.” She said the war has made the U.S. less safe and that the nation should concentrate more on port and border security and should negotiate with Iran. “You negotiate with your friends and your enemies,” she said. “You don’t push your enemies away.” She said she was against the start of the war and believed in 2003 that Bush was misleading the American public when he claimed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Greenberg also said the government has wrongly controlled the latitude for news coverage of the war. “Why can’t we at least get the coverage we had in Vietnam,” she said. “Americans have a right to see where the blood is spilled.” Country ‘Failing’ She said the Bush tax policies benefit the wealthiest 1 percent of the nation and that many of the rest of the nation are paying the price. “Our country is failing,” she said. “We don’t want to see other nations without democracy and yet we're losing that here. At what point do you look around and say that you are king of a nation that is crumbling.” She said she supports universal health care, stem cell research, efforts to slow global warming, rebuilding the economy and improving the U.S. reputation around the world. Greenberg said the Bush policies to make it harder to declare bankruptcy have hurt many Americans in a time when pensions are being cut, retirement portfolios are suffering and home sales have fallen. “War and the economy are inextricably interwoven,” Greenberg said. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Greenberg has her undergraduate degree from Montclair State University and a law degree from Brooklyn Law School. |
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Paid for by Ellen Greenberg For Congress, 88 East Main Street, Suite 301 Mendham, NJ 07945, (973)543-7171
