An Open Letter to Representative Frank LoBiondo, Republican Congressman from New Jersey’s Second District

Dear Representative LoBiondo,

I was born and raised in the district you’ve represented for the past 22 years. While no one in my family could be described as a straight Republican voter, we always have had a lot of respect for you, specifically for your positions on Israel and for veterans. I’ve met you on multiple occasions, though you likely don’t remember me. When you attended my parochial school’s annual fundraiser, I was selected to introduce you at least twice, and your office sent me a very nice letter congratulating me for being a 2004 National Merit Scholar. You’ve also met my brother, who covered you for years for The Daily Journal in Vineland. My father has been a huge supporter of yours ever since you came into office. And I know you’ve met my mother, who went to your office this past week to ask you about your position on ACA repeal. I know this, because she told me.

She also told me you personally called her on Thursday, February 23rd, to tell her that there was nothing you could do to stop the current Republican agenda. You said to her, “I’m just one legislator, what can I do?”

Sir. You are a Republican. The name of your party comes from “republic”, our form of government, where democratically-elected officials represent their citizens’ views by voting in the legislature. Representing your constituents’ views is your entire job. You are supposed to be part of the checks and balances on the executive branch, not serve as a blank check for the President!

Not only this, you have been serving in the House of Representatives for 22 years — five terms past your original promise of no more than six terms. You went back on your original promise, we were assured, because you could better serve the people of New Jersey with your experience and connections and seniority. Were you lying to us then, or lying to us now, sir?

What can one legislator do? If you’re looking for answers, I have three suggestions:

1) Use your influence, which you have built up as a senior member of the majority party in Congress, to change the party positions to better represent the positions that would help your constituents. You could bring your constituents’ stories to Paul Ryan and the other Republican leaders, explaining why they need to change their approach. You could talk to them about how my brother’s preexisting conditions — again, affecting someone you know and like, who covered you fairly as a journalist — mean that without the ACA, his insurance premiums would be unaffordable under COBRA. We will testify before Congress about how important this is. There are hundreds of stories like ours. All you need to do is invite us. You are also a member of the House Intelligence Committee: you could push for a thorough investigation of the administration’s ties to Russia, financial and otherwise. You have been there for 22 years: as my mother asked, don’t you have any friends?

2) If you decide you cannot stand up to your party, you could always vote with the Democrats when their positions better serve your constituents, lending them bipartisan support for their votes. You could even join the party! Democrats are a big tent anyway, and your purple-shading-to-blue district will likely approve. Sure, this will make you persona non grata with the Republican party, but it’s not like you were using your pull there for anything.

3) If you cannot find it within yourself to do either 1 or 2, if you cannot stand up to your own party and you cannot find it within yourself to vote with the other party, you can always do this: Resign. Say, “I cannot fulfill my responsibilities as a legislator and my constituents deserve a public servant who can do so.” This will be personally uncomfortable for you, and it’ll make a lot of news — a New Jersey politician resigning for a reason otherthan corruption! — but once it’s over, after the special election is held, you’ll be able to see exactly how much one legislator can do.

You have the honor of being the elected official of New Jersey’s second district to the United States House of Representatives. Don’t whine to your constituents that you can’t do anything. Do your job. Have you tried? What have you tried? Call my mother and tell her what you’ve done for people of this the district, every single day that Congress is in session. She, and thousands of other voters in New Jersey, will be calling you.

(And so that those voters know how to reach you:

Washington, DC Office
2427 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225–6572
Fax: (202) 225–3318

Mays Landing Office
5914 Main Street Suite 103
Mays Landing, NJ 08330–1746
Phone: (800) 471–4450 or (609) 625–5008
Fax: (609) 625–5071

People can also contact his district director, Linda Hinckley, at Linda.Hickley@mail.house.gov, to set up an in-person meeting, since you, Representative LoBiondo, are not holding a town hall meeting. A friend’s dad reports that you told him people would be “too mean” to you at a town hall meeting. You have so little faith in your constituents. We should have reciprocated years ago.)

One last thing, for which I have to thank you: my father has been a registered Republican for over forty years, though he’s always sardonically insisted that the only difference between the parties is that Democrats get better press. While he has disliked many politicians, Republicans and Democrats alike, he has always supported you, because you have been so good for veterans. No matter how he felt about the Republican on top of the ticket, he has always voted for you, through eleven straight elections. But after he heard your phone call to my mother, he updated his voter registration and he is now a member of the Democratic Party.

With one phone call, you accomplished what twenty years of my hectoring couldn’t do. Just look at what one legislator can do when he really sets his mind to it!

Sincerely,

Rachel (Landau) Lazerus

Graduate of Mainland Regional High School, Class of 2004