TO:             All CWA Local 1081 Members

FROM:       David H. Weiner, President

DATE:        November 4, 2009

SUBJECT: Rex Mortuus Est, Vivat Rex

“The King is Dead, Long Live the King”, in Latin above, is believed originally a French expression used to describe the ascension of one king to the throne upon the death of his predecessor. Today, one day after the hard-fought political battle for governor of New Jersey, the expression will hopefully mean the institution of governor of New Jersey will responsibly live beyond the political demise of Jon Corzine.

CWA members in New Jersey worked hard to try to re-elect Governor Jon Corzine, having been fired up by public attacks upon public workers and CWA by the Republican candidate for governor, and now Governor-Elect, Chris Christie. Christie had declared war on state workers, bragging in campaign ads and interviews that he'd bust contracts and lay off thousands of employees. Mr. Christie also vowed to eliminate public workers' defined benefit pensions. He said that he would break up parts of New Jersey’s child welfare system, and privatize it, and he opposed paid family leave.

Hopefully, with the Democrat Party in New Jersey having maintained its sizable majority in the Assembly with yesterday’s elections, the rancorous campaign rhetoric directed toward public employees by Mr. Christie will be tempered by legislative leverage. Hopefully, as well, Mr. Christie will appreciate the invaluable contributions of New Jersey’s public employees and come to less contentious conclusions as governor than those he championed as a candidate during the considerable heat of the campaign.

Following the historic election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, TV and radio comedian Rush Limbaugh shamefully stated he wanted President Obama to “fail”. During last night’s TV news coverage of the election for governor of New Jersey, several of the Democrat leaders interviewed after Mr. Christie was declared the winner asserted they wanted Governor-Elect Christie to “succeed”. CWA Local 1081 assiduously agrees with the latter, just so long as Mr. Christie does not measure his success by how much pain he can inflict upon New Jersey’s public employees, their families and the residents of our state these employees so conscientiously, and successively, serve.