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Heather Gordon

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Heather Gordon
Image of Heather Gordon
Personal
Profession
Small business owner
Contact

Heather Gordon was a 2017 Independent, Honest, Reliable candidate for District 2 of the New Jersey General Assembly.

Biography

Gordon's professional experience includes being a small business owner and author.[1]

Campaign themes

2017

Gordon's campaign website highlighted the following issues:

Save the Earth

  • As a citizen of Earth, Heather Gordon believes protecting our planet is of the utmost importance. As part of the generation who will be among the first to experience the devastating impact of climate change and global warming firsthand, she knows that swift and serious measures must be taken toward becoming a green and sustainable society. She is afraid of the current administration's insistence that climate change is a hoax, and backs science over alternative facts. FOR THE SAKE OF OUR CHILDREN, SAVING THE EARTH IS ONE OF GORDON'S TOP PRIORITIES.

No! to North Jersey Casinos

  • Gordon strongly opposes allowing casinos in North Jersey, and she knows this would only add strain to Atlantic City's struggling economy. If elected, Gordon would fight tooth and nail to ensure that no legislation allowing North Jersey Casinos is passed.

College Affordability

  • Heather Gordon believes that a prosperous population is an educated population. As a millennial and a current local college student herself, Gordon believes that ensuring college affordability to our upcoming generations is essential. Any person who works hard and has a desire to educate themselves should be able. Banks should not be getting rich by saddling tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt on the backs of our youth.

Legalize It

  • Heather Gordon fully supports the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in New Jersey. She would suggest legislation that would legalize marijuana and require annual public consent regarding how the collected taxes would be used.

Lowering Property Taxes

  • New Jerseyians pay the highest property taxes of any state in the nation, with rates in some areas more than doubling the national average. This is an issue that people all across the political spectrum would like to be addressed.
  • Gordon would seek innovative solutions for wiser spending within our legislature, including developing a new system to ensure that pay-to-play is kept in check when it comes to spending tax dollars, and closing the tax loopholes for the rich.[2]
—Heather Gordon[3]

Elections

2017

See also: New Jersey General Assembly elections, 2017

General election

Elections for the New Jersey General Assembly took place in 2017. All 80 seats were up for election. State assembly members are elected to two-year terms. The general election took place on November 7, 2017. A primary election took place on June 6, 2017. The filing deadline for the primary election was April 3, 2017.[4] Legislative districts in the New Jersey General Assembly are multi-member districts, with two representatives in each district. In Democratic and Republican primary elections, the top two candidates move forward to the general election, and the top two candidates in the general election are declared the winners.[5] The following candidates ran in the New Jersey General Assembly District 2 general election.[6][7]

New Jersey General Assembly, District 2 General Election, 2017
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.png Vincent Mazzeo Incumbent 28.56% 27,601
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.png John Armato 26.58% 25,683
     Republican Vince Sera 21.54% 20,814
     Republican Brenda Taube 21.33% 20,611
     Independent, Honest, Reliable Heather Gordon 1.25% 1,208
     Green Mico Lucide 0.74% 718
Total Votes 96,635
Source: New Jersey Department of State

Races we watched

Ballotpedia identified eight races to watch in the New Jersey General Assembly 2017 elections: three seats with two Democratic members, three seats with two Republican members, and two seats split between the parties. Based on analysis of these districts' electoral histories, these races had the potential to be more competitive than other races and could possibly have led to shifts in a chamber's partisan balance.

This district was a Race to Watch because the district was split between the parties following the 2015 elections, both incumbents had margins of victory that were less than five percent, and an incumbent of the opposite party from the 2016 presidential winner did not file for re-election. In the 2015 elections, all four candidates for District 2 were within five points of each other. Incumbents Chris Brown (R) and Vincent Mazzeo (D) received 26.5 percent of the vote and 25.5 percent, respectively. Their challengers Colin Bell (D) and Will Pauls (R) received 24.4 percent and 23.6 percent, respectively. Brown was first elected in 2011 and Mazzeo was first elected in 2013. Brown did not file for re-election in 2017 in order to run for the District 2 state Senate seat. District 2 was one of 28 New Jersey state legislative districts that Democrat Hillary Clinton won in the 2016 presidential election. Clinton carried District 2 by 11.4 points. In 2012, Democrat Barack Obama won District 2 by 20.8 points. As of 2017, District 2 contained parts of Atlantic County.

Democratic primary election

The following candidates ran in the New Jersey General Assembly District 2 Democratic primary election.[8][9]

New Jersey General Assembly, District 2 Democratic Primary, 2017
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Vincent Mazzeo Incumbent 37.46% 7,197
Green check mark transparent.png John Armato 29.13% 5,596
Ernest Coursey 20.05% 3,852
Jim Carney 6.65% 1,278
Theresa Watts 4.81% 925
Rizwan Malik 1.90% 365
Total Votes 19,213
Source: New Jersey Department of State

Republican primary election

Vince Sera and Brenda Taube were unopposed in the New Jersey General Assembly District 2 Republican primary election.[10][9]

New Jersey General Assembly, District 2 Republican Primary, 2017
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Vince Sera 50.70% 5,551
Green check mark transparent.png Brenda Taube 49.30% 5,398
Total Votes 10,949
Source: New Jersey Department of State

See also

External links

Footnotes


Current members of the New Jersey General Assembly
Leadership
Representatives
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
District 5
District 6
District 7
District 8
District 9
District 10
District 11
District 12
District 14
District 16
District 17
District 18
District 19
District 20
District 21
District 22
District 23
District 24
District 25
Aura Dunn (R)
District 26
District 27
District 28
District 29
District 30
Sean Kean (R)
District 31
District 32
District 33
District 34
District 35
District 36
District 37
District 38
District 39
District 40
Al Barlas (R)
Democratic Party (52)
Republican Party (28)