SEA ISLE CITY – Carolyn Rush, 63, a mother of five, spent most of her life in Medford. She graduated from Montclair State University with a degree in computer science, and spent 35 years working as an engineer.
In the earlier part of my career, the company that I worked for was responsible for the initial design, implementation, installation and integration of E-ZPass.
I took a job with Lockheed Martin, in the defense industry. I had moral qualms about working there, but I took a job in an area that worked on the Aegis program, a defensive system that went on all of the naval ships. It was a system that was put in place not to attack others, but rather to defend our young men and women who serve our country.
I spent about 20 years there and retired early because I felt a calling to do something different. I got into community activism, and that turned into a desire to see if I can make change from within, instead of just trying to affect change from outside, as a private citizen. So that’s when I decided to run for office. And as a representative, I will be holding town halls.
What are your priorities if elected?: Fighting for the rights of the citizens of New Jersey, given what’s happening at the federal level. Prior to President Donald Trump starting his second term, my answer would have been very different.
I’m very interested in making sure that we protect women’s rights, the rights of the LGBTQ community, all the marginalized communities. I’m very interested in making sure that we protect our planet, because I feel that we have ignored climate change for so long that we’re suffering the consequences of that right now.
I believe that New Jersey has some of the best gun safety legislation in the country, and therefore some of the lowest gun violence occurrence. I support that, and I would oppose anything that tries to undo any of the good laws that we have in place.
Affordability has to be at the top, given the fact that people are struggling so much. It’s happening already, but it’s going to just continue to get worse in the next three years.
What are the biggest issues affecting southern New Jersey?: Affordability, definitely. We’ve got a growing homeless population, we’ve got people who can’t afford to keep their insurance, people that need to choose between purchasing medication or purchasing food. People that can’t pay their utility costs. There’s a lot of problems with affordability that definitely need to be addressed.
What can be done to address the high cost of living?: I believe our taxes are too high. I would love to see them lowered, but I think the only way to do that is to make some significant changes at the state level, and some of those changes would be consolidating school districts and municipalities and stuff, because right now, we are spending so much money educating our children, and we’re still failing them in so many ways.
I believe part of the problem is too many school districts that have so much overhead. If we were able to consolidate, which would take compromise, that can bring those costs down.
If you were to combine municipalities — making sure people are part of the decision-making process — you could find savings in police forces and municipal jobs like trash collection. This plan could help the government to use the limited resources better and possibly stop increasing taxes all the time.
I cringe every time I hear somebody say that they’re going to bring down taxes. There’s a balancing act that needs to happen.
Cape May County suffers from seasonal unemployment, poor transportation infrastructure and a lack of industry. What can be done to improve the economic situation, which depends solely on tourism? How can transit improve the local economy?: If people down here could commute to a job, or if people from out of the area could come here to work via mass transit, then people might be more inclined to start businesses here beyond the seasonal stuff.
If they knew that people had a way to get to where the jobs are. I really do believe that having transportation in this area will improve the ability to get to work. Like if they wanted to work in Philadelphia, to be able to go to Philadelphia on a bus.
Atlantic City Electric has implemented several rate hikes this year. What plans do you have to assist the consumers? Is the answer more power plants? If not wind, what type of new energy-generating plant do you propose?: I think we need to produce more energy, and I do not want to see it come from fossil fuels. I would like to see an expansion of our solar program.
Because of the density of our population, wind would have to be offshore. We don’t own real estate for land-based wind systems. I know there are objections to wind farms here, so if we’re not going to increase our energy capacity via wind, I think we have to pursue nuclear as well.
We need to move forward producing more of our own energy and keep it clean. The limited energy that we have is being gobbled up by these companies that are providing AI services, the supply and demand becomes a problem.
We need the people who are using the energy to run their AI initiatives to pay a higher rate than the residential folks. So increase energy supply, and price it properly depending on who the user is.
What do you think of the NJ REAL regulations?: At the most basic level, I think this should have been handled as legislation instead of an executive order. I would have preferred it to go through the legislative body and had more discussion.
I know that something has to be done; we have ignored the effects of climate change for over 50 years, and we’re now seeing the consequences. But I don’t think planning for the worst-case scenario is the best course of action. It has to be phased in.
I would love to see more plans to curb climate change, by decreasing our use of fossil fuels, maybe we wouldn’t need to plan for the worst case. But as it stands now, NJ REAL is a bit too much.
Do the changes recently proposed by the DEP change that opinion at all?: It is now slightly less onerous than before, so that’s a good thing, but my first two thoughts still apply. It should have gone through the legislative process, and it should be phased in. We shouldn’t deal in 2025 with what might happen in 2100.
Homelessness, drug abuse and mental health problems are prevalent in your district. What initiatives do you plan to address those issues?: You have to look from two different angles, the long-term solutions as well as the short-term.
In the long term, we need more affordable housing available so people aren’t in homes that they can’t afford. In the short term, we need more funding to help these folks.
In Cape May County, there is no homeless shelter. The only way that these folks can get any assistance is through nonprofit organizations. Now the commissioners are talking about having the county provide funding to some of these nonprofits so that they can better serve the homeless community. That’s a start.
I would like to see money set aside at the state level to help them, then we need to get places for these people to live. I actually started a nonprofit with the intent to build small houses.
We need to purchase or lease abandoned office space or retail space. The state should take over those properties and build affordable apartments in them, then provide people with wrap-around services.
What you need to do is put a roof over their heads, help them get some food and then help them get over whatever was the cause of their becoming homeless, whether it be mental health, substance abuse or anything.
We can provide job training, that would mean making more grant money available. I also think mass transit is key.
– By J. CAV SCOTT/For the Sentinel