Why did you run for county commissioner?
The biggest part of my motivation to step forward and try to get elected was I really felt like the light advocacy I did in the past wasn’t enough. The commission has been entirely controlled by the Republican Party for 25 years – and that’s no reason to not try.
I think it kind of worked. Unfortunately I was unable to convince enough people to vote for me this go around. But I was reaching people who traditionally wouldn’t have considered voting for a Democrat, and I think I can get more people to come around next time. I’m not giving up, and I now have the benefit of hindsight. I’m going to spend more time in front of people, talking to them.
Was offshore wind an issue in your county commissioner race?
Unfortunately the Republican Party in Cape May County, the leadership, made sure the wind farms weren’t really going to be an active issue for our race because they spearheaded years of lawsuits that shut down offshore wind in New Jersey. It was kind of a moot point for this particular election. There wasn’t much to advocate for because there weren’t companies willing to take up projects.
But I was able to talk to people about the disappointment. There was so much hard work put in to stop a project that would’ve had huge benefits for electricity prices and the environment. It was a bit more indirect – there was no ability to campaign for, well, getting wind turbines up to ease electricity prices. Instead it became highlighting the decision-making process rather than advocating for an opportunity.
Now the opening is for solar in Cape May County, and I advocated for easier solar panel installations on people’s private properties, on their homes, and using the county property to install solar energy. I think there's still a lot of low-hanging fruit there. But even then, a lot of people in the county actually have solar installed, and there are others who see limitations to putting solar on their property because of constraints on the grid. Some people here can’t attach to the grid.
Do you think that your perspective on this issue, your willingness to look up information and tell people about the complexities around this, has a place in Cape May County? Is there room for an agnostic or even pro-renewable energy candidate in Cape May County?
I think there’s room, but it’s not going to be the primary concern of most voters, to be honest.
There was a big movement amongst residents against the wind turbines, largely for aesthetic reasons. They didn’t want the shoreline to have wind turbines on the horizon. There’s others who are awash with a campaign that I might characterize as “concern trolling” where if you look into them, it’s not as pure of a win as it actually is.
Being able to talk to people and hear their concerns, I think it gained me a lot of room. I’ve had conversations with people who were skeptical about wind turbines, and after listening to something they talked about, I’d do research and then invite them into another conversation, and they’d see I am not dismissing them.
What I find is that what people are bringing up is not false, per se, but not a reason to stop offshore wind. It makes the projects an imperfect deal, not a bad deal.
What do you think it would take for Cape May County to be okay with offshore wind?
I think for it to change … I don’t know if I have the answer there. Financially I think the numbers need to be right for a company to come in to want to do it, number one. And if nobody wants to come and install the wind turbines, then I don’t know how much sentiment would matter.
But as far as sentiment is concerned, just seeing that it works in other places helps a lot, as people see a project doesn’t bring about the negative consequences they were worried about.
Also, from a human being standpoint … At some point electricity might get pricey enough that people might be more accepting of something they don’t think is aesthetically pleasing.
