Raymond Lesniak the off then on again candidate for Governor has been a Democrat State Senator for many years is a bit of a mystery because of his progressive stance on government. And yet he is for legalized sports betting, against the death penalty (he was one of the driving forces behind striking it down), for legalizing marijuana, for a 21 year old drinking age, for additional teacher benefits and yet he is for the state paying quarterly pension payments.

He is one of New Jersey’s consummate politicians and when it comes to the state collecting money from the taxpayers he is one of the top individuals wanting to maximize the state’s take without regard to how hard the taxes we have now are much too repressive for the middleclass taxpayer.

What he is a typical Progressive Democrat that has served a long time in the state senate and he has failed to achieve any real party support for his gubernatorial run. He was a member of the assembly and was booted out by fellow Democrats in 1981 by Thomas G Dunn, the then mayor of Elizabeth who Lesniak tried to replace with himself in 1981.

One of the major problems that Lesniak faces is the cold hard truth that he will not get a significant party support in his run for governor of New Jersey. It seems that while he has done many things that other Democrats like, they just see him as someone that does not qualify as gubernatorial material. He just strikes me as a political opportunist and yet he should be lauded for the many fine things he has done.

Without party backing I just can not see Lesniak getting enough political traction to be a major player in this year’s gubernatorial election. One of his problems is that he can not stand out from the pack of others running and without some political achievement(s) that would endear him to the Democratic Party and the voting public he stands little to no chance of even being seen as a viable candidate.

I already have written about Phil Murphy awhile back and thus I will next week start writing about the Republican candidates. If there is time after doing the Republicans, then I will revisit the minor players running for governor on the Democratic side.

That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike