Mikie Sherrill, who represents Verona in Congress, yesterday endorsed Verona resident Laura Fortgang and Christine Clarke in their bid to win seats in the 26th state Assembly district in a statement on her personal Facebook page:
I’m not interested in rehashing the 2018 election. But I am committed to supporting our democracy and it is with that in mind that I feel a responsibility to call out those who seek to spread lies in our political system.
Early in my campaign, a Republican who ran against Jay Webber said it was one of the nastiest campaigns he had seen in North Jersey with doctored photos and misrepresentations of his record. I saw some of this last year when Assemblyman Webber lied about where he stood on the issues and my campaign platform. But I focused my race on building a coalition of support, and that coalition was dedicated to a different kind of politics.
I believe deeply in our democracy, and as the Chairwoman of the House Science Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, I’ve held hearings on disinformation on the internet. We just saw Twitter move to ban political ads on their platform. We know that Russian assets spread disinformation on Facebook that reached millions of Americans in 2016.
It’s critical that the federal government catch up to the digital age, but above all we must count on our elected officials to stick to the facts. Assemblyman Webber fails the public trust when he spreads misinformation.
Vote for a different kind of leadership for New Jersey on November 5th. Vote Fortgang and Clarke.
