NJ’s top women Democrats stump for Sherrill

About 18 days before voters cast their ballots in this year’s election, many of the state’s top women legislators were in the 11th district campaigning for Mikie Sherrill.

Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, Sens. Nia Gill, Linda Greenstein and Nellie Pou stumped for the former federal prosecutor at a press conference in Montclair on Friday, as did Assemblywomen Angela McKnight, Nancy Pinkin and Britnee Timberlake.

“We know who Webber is, and Webber has told you who he is by his votes, by his action and by his association with the most right-wing, oppressive policies embodied in the body of Donald Trump,” Gill said. “So, he’s telling you ‘this is who I am.’ And as my grandmother would say, when somebody is trying to tell you who they are, believe it.”

The legislators hammered on Webber’s association with Trump, which something of a political quagmire for Sherrill given the President’s popularity in the district, and his legislative record, which they said was decidedly anti-woman, citing a number of votes including Webber’s no vote on an equal pay bill the state recently passed.

Webber has previously contested Sherrill’s claim that the vote marks him as opposing equal pay for women. The bill, Webber has said, was largely symbolic, did little to change existing policy to guarantee equal pay and could open the state up to litigation over some of its definitions.

Though, Sherrill and the surrogates present on Friday didn’t buy that explanation.

“I would suggest that the assemblyman didn’t read the bill, because this bill is a lot more than symbolism,” Weinberg said. “It is the strongest pay-equity bill in the country.”