Jim Johnson is a Democrat running for Governor of New Jersey. This is the first of a series on candidates running for the office of Governor. Since the primary is fast coming up in June I thought now would a good time to examine the candidates, so once a week I will highlight each person that is running. I am starting with the Democrats and then I will go onto the Republican candidates.
Mr. Johnson’s campaign website says this about him, “Four generations of Jim’s family have served New Jersey. That background forms the bedrock for Jim, who grew up in Montclair with his two siblings, his dad – a U.S. Marine – and his mom – a church organist and teacher. Over three decades of service to the public and in business, Jim has been tested and is prepared to clean up Trenton, open the door to people who’ve been ignored for too long, and bring real change to state government. Jim is running for governor to improve our schools, give all families a leg up and rebuild an economy that has crumbled along with its roads, bridges, water system and mass transit.”
Johnson public jobs were as former federal prosecutor, former chair of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law and U.S. Treasury official where he was assistant Treasury secretary for enforcement. He was appointed to a task force to investigate church arsons by President Clinton and by Governor Corzine as the chair of an advisory committee on policing that recommended an end to federal monitoring of the State Police.
He has not held a publicly elected office and he identifies as a progressive liberal Democrat. So what does he have as his platform? Well he believes in universal Pre-K, wants to eliminate political insider cronyism, wants to rebuild our state economy and revitalize our neighborhoods. All in all sounds like a man on a mission to lift up the little guy and make sure that New Jersey becomes all that it should be.
The big problems are that he has never held an elected office, is a progressive liberal supported by out of state liberals and he has a very up hill fight to even to be recognized. All in all negatives that will continually plague his campaign, his biggest problem will be recognition and that will cost a large sum of money to overcome. Can he raise enough money to run television and radio advertisements that reach the entire state is the big question?
That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike
