The OU had a major voter push for the election yesterday but didn't state publicly whom they were endorsing or why. I didn't wan't to say anything until after the primary election because i didn't want to undermine their efforts but now that the elections are over I'd like them to explain. They pushed for all schools and shuls in the area to vote so there must be something going on that they should share with the community.
In District 37, which includes Teaneck, Englewood and Tenafly the only election that had more than one contender was the democratic primary for governor, which was pretty much a foregone conclusion. In fact Barbara Buono won by 76 points. And whoever wins is going to get destroyed by Christie anyway in the general election.
Perhaps their push was in District 38, which includes Bergenfield, Fair Lawn and Paramus where there was a close call for state senate.
If one of the two candidates has a strong position on school vouchers or anything else that affects our community it's important that we know about it. Especially since that would affect out turnout in the general election in November.
If the reason for the silence is that they are concerned about their tax exempt status by being involved in politics we all know that is not true. Tea Party groups & others are doing almost nothing besides politics and they still got to keep tax exempt status despite extensive scrutiny by the IRS.
One of the letters from a school or a shul said that we should vote simply to show elected officials that we vote in large numbers. This seems like a very strange reason since we have closed ballots & no one will know in what percentage our community voted.
I applaud the OU's efforts to push for legislative solutions to work in tandem with other solutions (austerity, communal fundraising, etc) to solve the tuition crisis, but I wish they would be a little clear on whom they are endorsing and why.
