By Nancy Colasurdo
I couldn’t quite put my finger on why I felt such relief at seeing Tammy Murphy’s announcement suspending her campaign to run for Senate on Sunday. Up to this point, I was only lightly invested in that race, dipping in and out of the news to keep up.
And then when I watched her video, I realized what the feeling was – a sort of bliss at not having to take a stand on one more thing.
“It is clear to me that continuing in this race will involve waging a very divisive and negative campaign, which I am not willing to do,” Murphy says in the video. “And with Donald Trump on the ballot, and so much at stake for our nation, I will not in good conscience waste resources tearing down a fellow Democrat.”
Yes. Yes.
Here’s how this landed on me. I have nothing against most of the stances held by New Jersey’s first lady. As most voters in our state know, this race has been largely focused on “installing” candidates – as in the wife of our governor -- and the audacity of it all.
I don’t want to give the impression that I don’t care about my state’s politics or this race. What this is about is my crowded brain and overtaxed emotions. I can’t take any more parsing, researching, engaging in political fights this year. Like many of my fellow citizens, I’m exhausted from it. My joy at this announcement is coming from a place of perhaps caring too much.
As I write this from my home in Hoboken, my mayor, Ravi Bhalla, is challenging incumbent Rep. Rob Menendez, largely on the calculation that he’s vulnerable because of his Senator father’s alleged misdeeds. So we’re now in a position here to ponder the “installed” narrative all over again (it was an issue when he was elected the first time), and potentially ignore or minimize a congressman with an existing record because of his father’s slimy behavior and alleged crimes.
In an eyebrow-raising twist here, the buzz is there are people who will vote for a polarizing mayor because they love the prospect of shipping him to Washington, D.C. Hoboken’s last city council election in November was so contentious I can still feel the chill from some in town for daring to endorse a Bhalla-backed candidate who was strong on an issue I care about.
See what I mean? Are you exhausted just from reading this?
I love being an engaged citizen, but truly this year I can just about handle trying to do my part to stave off a looming wannabe dictator who knows no bounds. Murphy got that right in her video statement.
In the grand scheme of things, once in Congress, would Murphy have voted much differently than Andy Kim on things I care about? Probably not. But now we don’t have this specter of unfairness hanging over the whole election. One less decision to make for voters.
Please, let me get back to seething over NBC hiring an insurrectionist supporter in Ronna McDaniel and trying to keep together my family relationships that have suffered since the election of Trump. Allow me to sigh over escalated cases of measles, wring my hands at the thought of the ACA being gutted, and the potential loss of Social Security and Medicare just as I’m qualifying for it.
It’s good to have more time to fret over threatened rent control laws, major news organizations dropping their AP services, and keeping up with how to filter my news to eliminate foreign interest posts peddling misinformation.
Thank God I live in a state where women can still get proper healthcare. If a company wants to send its employees, even the pregnant ones, here on business, they can come without fear of having to sit in an ER parking lot waiting until their life is in danger to get an abortion/facilitate a miscarriage. Same for young women who go to college here. Or people who want to vacation at the Jersey Shore or set up hard-earned medical practices.
Thank you, Tammy Murphy, for freeing up my headspace for the myriad concerning issues at this dire time in our state and nation. I sincerely believe there will be a place for you to wield your influence and deliver your message as we all press on in this frenzied atmosphere.
But for now, one less thing for us conscientious New Jerseyans to have to mull feels oh so liberating.
Nancy Colasurdo is a columnist and life coach who lives in Hoboken.