HOWELL-Amy Cores, a challenger to New Jersey State Senator Robert Singer has invited the longtime senator who represents Lakewood to carpool with her to an upcoming candidate session hosted by the Asbury Park Press.
“Dear Soon to be Former Singer Robert Senator,” she wrote. “I would like to extend an offer to carpool to the meeting with The Asbury Park Press next week. We can live stream from the car and let the constituents see us chatting about local issues. I’d be happy to pick you up at your place… in Island Heights… if it is convenient. Just let me know a time. Best, The person replacing you after this election. #coresforsenate #residentofLD30 #whereisbob #IslandHeights”
While it’s doubtful the reserve and often elusive senator will not accept Cores’ invitation for a lift to Neptune, she faces a tough battle to win a seat that has firmly been Singer’s since nearly the beginning of recorded history, or so it would seem.
New Jersey’s 30th district is the home turf of Lakewood and the city has carried Singer back into office for almost a quarter-century. He won his first election for Senator back in 1993 after serving years on the Lakewood Township council.
In 1993, the average cost of a new home in New Jersey was $113,000 and the average income per year was just $31,000. Rent averaged about $500 per month and gasoline had just broken the $1 mark. It costs just $4 to see a movie in the theater, a new car would cost about $15,000 and a loaf of bread was $1.57. Annual tuition at Harvard was just $23,500 per year.
Bill Clinton had not yet “had sexual relations” with Monica Lewinksy and the first bombing of the World Trade Center by Islamic terrorists had taken place earlier in the year.
The space shuttle program was in full swing and the Cold War was finally warming up.
Beanie Babies became all the rage the year Singer was first elected to office and Intel announced their first Pentium processor. Windows NT 3.1 had revolutionized the PC desktop office and the World Wide Web was born, thanks to Al Gore, of course. Naturally, the first online ads on the World Wide Web appeared that same year.
America had just abandoned the Star Wars SDI program since Russia was no longer our enemy.
The world has changed drastically since then.
In 2013, Singer won the district, which had been recently gerrymandered to remove Jackson Township 70% to 29% against William Field, previous opponents haven’t fared much better against the man who is royalty among Lakewood citizens.
Since 1997, Singer has raised over $2.6 million in campaign contributions, averaging almost $400,000 per election cycle.
Today, Cores took another jab at Singer, saying “New Jersey can’t afford more Bob Singer.”
Singer criticized Singer for the woes of the Lakewood public school system.
“Bob thinks that he should take credit for the great NJ public schools! He is so out of touch with what is going on in this district that you have to wonder why he is even bothering to seek reelection,” she wrote. “The Lakewood public schools are literally falling apart. The state keeps pumping money into the district, while the private schools in the district keep sucking it out to the detriment of the public schools. Bob, in part, created this problem during his time on the Lakewood town council and as Mayor of Lakewood.”
Despite the large block vote in Lakewood, Cores will also have to battle voter apathy and low voter turnout in her district if she intends to win.
