I will protect your pensions. Nothing about your pension is going to change when I am governor. - Chris Christie, "An Open Letter to the Teachers of NJ" October, 2009

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

A Courageous Teacher Needs Your Help

This is Marie Corfield.

Marie is an art teacher, a mother, and a fighter for teachers and parents here in New Jersey.

Marie became a minor national celebrity when she stood up to a bullying Chris Christie at one of his phony town hall meetings and told him to stop attacking New Jersey's great public school teachers. She was drafted to run for a seat in the NJ State Assembly; that meant putting the rest of her life on hold while waging a tough campaign.

There are powerful people in this state and in this country who fear a tough-minded parent standing up for middle class families everywhere. They don't like the thought of a teacher gaining political office, because that would mean they might finally have to be held to account for their plans to destroy public education.

So Marie was targeted by hedge fund managers, who spent a fortune to defeat her. It didn't work; the race against her tea partying opponent, Donna Simon, is still too close to call, and very likely will trigger an automatic recount of the vote. Superstorm Sandy made matters much, much worse, as there are many provisional ballots, absentee ballots, and electronic ballots to consider.

So Marie needs help now, more than ever. She writes:
We have incurred a number of bills over the last couple of days as a result of our ongoing monitoring of the ballot counting process. With no winner the counting could eventually lead to a recount which could last for many days and even weeks. We urgently need our supporters to help us yet again. You've cast your ballots but now is the time when we need your help the most. 
I would not be asking for more funds if it wasn't so urgent. We ALL have put too much time and effort into this campaign to let it slip through our hands at this point. Please make a donation today to help finish this campaign with a victory.
I am asking you to help out a fellow teacher and a fellow parent. I am asking you to stand up for one of our own.

You can make a donation to Marie Corfield's campaign here.

Marie, thank you for all you've done for us. We've got your back.



1 comment:

Marie said...

Duke, thank you so much for your continued support of my efforts, and for all your work in educating the public about education 'reform'. We were hoping to get some word today, but as you said, Hurricane Sandy led to an unprecedented number of electronic and vote by mail ballot requests. The county clerks have been swamped. No matter the outcome, the most important thing is that every vote is counted and that every vote counts.