politicians-from-new-jersey

"Virginians did not vote for this. Senator Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, and their sidekick, Abigail Spanberger, supported a government shutdown. They chose politics over people and left families wondering how they’ll pay their bills. At a time when Virginians need leadership, they chose to play games."

"Spanberger’s inauguration arrives at a moment when the political temperature around LGBTQ+ life remains volatile across the country. But in Virginia, the 2025 election cycle produced a quiet rebuke of grievance-driven politics. Democrats swept statewide offices, and efforts to weaponize transgender existence as a campaign issue failed to deliver the electoral payoff Republicans had promised. That shift is already visible in the composition of the incoming government. Lt. Gov.-elect Ghazala Hashmi appointed Equality Virginia Executive Director Narissa Rahaman to her transition team, embedding LGBTQ+ leadership into the fabric of the new administration. Millner said he hopes Spanberger will explicitly name LGBTQ+ communities in her inaugural address — not as symbols, but as people whose lives are bound up in state policy. He added Spanberger made a “concerted effort to engage queer and trans folks” not only in her campaign but in its leadership — a move that promises “seats at the table that we haven’t had... for the last four years.”"

"On January 17, transgender people in Virginia will be able to breathe easier knowing they have ally in the state’s governor’s mansion again. Anti-trans Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin will be out, and a historic Democratic woman will be in the governor's seat. When Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer and three-term member of Congress, takes the oath as the Commonwealth’s 75th governor, the parade that follows will not simply be ceremonial. It will be political. It will be cultural. And, for LGBTQ+ Virginians who have spent years bracing against erasure and rollback, it will be deeply personal. Marching through downtown Richmond will be Virginia Pride and Diversity Richmond — queer organizations whose presence in the inaugural procession marks a sharp departure from the Youngkin years, when LGBTQ+ communities were routinely sidelined as legislative battles over transgender students, classroom speech, and public accommodation laws reshaped daily life. “This dark cloud that has hung over Virginia, particularly as it pertains to the dignity and the rights of LGBTQ folks, is going to be lifted,” said James Millner, executive director of Virginia Pride, who described the moment as a “huge relief” for queer and transgender Virginians who have felt their lives become political weapons."

"Virginians are already facing the dire impacts of DOGE, reckless tariffs, and attacks on their healthcare coverage. And now, our Commonwealth faces totally unnecessary job cuts as President Trump promises to enact mass firings. With each new attack from the White House, Winsome Earle-Sears fails to stand up for Virginia’s families, workforce, and economy. Just yesterday, when given multiple opportunities to publicly ask the President to stop further cuts to Virginia jobs, she outright refused to do so. We need a Governor who will put Virginia first, no matter who is in the White House or which party controls the levers of power across the Potomac. As Governor, I will remain focused on lowering costs for Virginia families, protecting access to affordable healthcare, and — critically — always standing up for Virginia jobs and businesses. President Trump must reverse course and work in good faith to end this shutdown as soon as possible. And we need leaders in Richmond who will demand this of the President, not use this moment as an opportunity to punish even more Virginians."

"Millner told The Advocate that Virginia Pride was “thrilled” to be invited to participate directly in the inaugural parade, an invitation he called “a huge honor” and a deliberate signal that visibility and belonging will be part of the new administration’s public posture from its first moments in power. “It sends a really powerful statement,” he said, “that Abigail Spanberger wanted representation and visibility from the queer community in her inaugural events.” But the symbolism is tethered to policy. Millner said advocates are looking to Spanberger to restore and aggressively enforce the Virginia Values Act, a comprehensive 2020 civil rights law that added sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s nondiscrimination statutes and created some of the strongest legal protections for LGBTQ+ people anywhere in the South. The law bars discrimination in housing, employment, credit, and public accommodations, requires equal access to places such as hotels, restaurants, schools, and retail businesses, and authorizes private lawsuits for discrimination — protections that advocates say were underenforced during the Youngkin administration. Millner said he is hopeful the Spanberger administration will “lean into that law as a platform for enforcing those protections and advancing those protections for LGBTQ+ people.” The parade’s architecture reads like a census of modern Virginia: immigrant-led organizations, Girl Scouts and 4-H students, Bollywood dancers and Korean dance troupes, labor groups and public school bands, firefighters and paramedics, NASA researchers and military cadets. It is, in effect, a living map of who Virginia is and who it intends to serve."

"There were a lot of votes, as I look back, that were pretty big and important."

"I’m a fairly spiritual person, and I’ve felt I’ve been led to every job I’ve had."

"I never cried about the cancer, or anything else, but I did that day."

"She’s been a competitor all her life, and she’s been a competitor against that disease"

"When you’re in government, there’s so much stuff that sometimes you don’t see as clearly — the specific needs and issues — because there’s so much fog that gets injected into each issue. And I think I’m able again to go back to the basics of where I was when I started in this business, which is: I’m here to represent my constituents and make life better for them. Pretty simple."

"I’m not looking back because there’s so much going forward that I need to get my arms around."

"They wanted a more youthful look. I was anchoring with men who had white hair."

"I thought it was so unfair that they didn’t have the kind of support that we did in Moorestown, and that we should find a way to help them."

"For women, once your age exceeds your bra size, they take you off the air."

"One never knows what the future holds."

"I’m certainly open to any opportunity that may present itself."

"The voters saw through her blatant self-serving move and now she’s cashing in her 30 pieces of silver."

"We always knew Dawn Addiego’s party switch had nothing to do with her values and everything to do with personal gain."

"My core values that originally drew me to the Republican Party have not changed, but the party which once echoed the vision of Ronald Reagan no longer exists"

"That makes abortion a felony."

"Ladies and gentlemen, in a few days we're going to go to the polls. And when you step into the polls you're going to have a very basic choice. If you want a liberal government, in favor of gay marriages and gun control and locking up state lands, then the Democrats have a candidate for you. If on the other hand you want a governor who is pro-family, opposed to gun control and in favor of opening up our state lands for recreation and hunting and mining and fishing and logging, someone who will reform CSED, someone who will impose a conservative agenda on the state, and swing the pendulum away from the liberals and back to the conservatives. Then I'd appreciate your support. Thank you very much."

"You need your medication!"

"It doesn't just say Christians. It also says persecuted Muslims get priority as well. So, this is not a Muslim ban.... And the reason we chose those seven countries was, those were the seven countries that both the Congress and the Obama administration identified as being the seven countries that were most identifiable with dangerous terrorism taking place in their country.... Now, you can point to other countries that have similar problems, like Pakistan and others. Perhaps we need to take it further. But for now, immediate steps, pulling the Band-Aid off, is to do further vetting for people traveling in and out of those countries.”"

"You don't get to tell us what to do, Reince. You don't get to tell us what to do any more than Barack Obama did. Barack Obama whined about Fox News all the time, but I've got to say, he never said we were an enemy of the people.""

"It's really not about crowd size."

"I'm not gonna rule out anything, but we're not gonna have a registry based on a religion."

"Nomination process known for a year + beyond. It's the responsibility of the campaigns to understand it. Complaints now? Give us all a break."

"While debates are meant to include tough questions and contrast candidates' visions and policies for the future of America, CNBC's moderators engaged in a series of 'gotcha' questions, petty and mean-spirited in tone, and designed to embarrass our candidates. What took place Wednesday night was not an attempt to give the American people a greater understanding of our candidates' policies and ideas"

"My scrap-book for that year contains all of my cartoon attacks on Grover Cleveland and the Democratic party. On one of these the caption reads: "The political Darius Green and his flying machine: The greatest invention under the sun. 'And now,' says Darius, 'hooray for some fun."" Cleveland, with makeshift wings attached to his shoulders, labeled: "My letter of acceptance" ... "Meaningless platitudes." "Speeches with no sense." Grover stands on the Democratic platform, labeled: "Free trade... No pensions.. Wildcat currency...Fraudulent elections." He is about to try a flight to the White House in the distance…sometimes I was moved to wonder about the consistency of a newspaper's emotions and actions during such a campaign. Was Cleveland actually the national menace that the Inter-Ocean called him? I had seen and sketched him when I was on the Daily News, and he seemed a decent, level-headed individual."

"Grover Cleveland declined to participate in character attacks on Blaine. When presented with papers which purported to be extremely damaging to Blaine, he grabbed them, tore them up, flung the shreds into the fire, and decreed, "The other side can have a monopoly of all the dirt in this campaign.""

"Democracies must have leaders who are the people's prophets and who act as their mentors. A prophet must see ahead and turn the people's minds to the future. A mentor Cleveland was — a stern and determined one. A prophet he was not."

"Charming letter writer as Mr. Cleveland was, in his public documents he was ponderous."

"Unskilled in sophistry and new to the darker ways of national politics, Grover Cleveland faced his accusers, his slanderers, and his judges, the sovereign people, conscious of the general rectitude of his life, and courageously determined to bear the burdens of his sins in so far as guilt was his."

"I want you to take good care of all the furniture and ornaments of the house, for I want to find everything just as it is now when we come back again... We are coming back just four years from today."

"Suppose it be granted that Mr. Cleveland is a just man, and desires to protect colored citizens in the exercise of their constitutional rights. What is he, and what is any man in the Presidential chair, without the support of his party? As against his party, he is only as a feather against a whirlwind. In the hands of his party, Mr. Cleveland is as clay in the hands of the potter."

"It is not likely that we shall see his like again, at least in the present age. The Presidency is now closed to the kind of character that he had so abundantly. It is going, in these days, to more politic and pliant men. They get it by yielding prudently, by changing their minds at the right instant, by keeping silent when speech is dangerous. Frankness and courage are luxuries confined to the more comic varieties of runners-up at national conventions. We suffer from a pestilence of Hardings, Coolidges and Hoovers; even the modest intrepidity of a Roosevelt Minor is rare, and the chances are all against it lasting. Thus it is pleasant to think of Cleveland, and to speak of him from time to time. He was the last of the Romans. If pedagogy were anything save the puerile racket that it is he would loom large in the schoolbooks. As it is, he is subordinated to Lincoln, Roosevelt and Wilson. This is one of the things that is the matter with the United States. Alas, it seems to be a disease that will grow worse hereafter."

"It was Grover Cleveland who put heart in me. He had lost none of his righteous indignation over the aid prohibitive tariffs were giving certain trusts, none of his alarm over the growing disparity between industry and agriculture they were fostering. He felt deeply the wrong of the prices they were inflicting on the farmer, the professional class, the poor. I got nothing but encouragement from him for the review I had planned."

"I have tried so hard to do the right."

"I am so completely convinced of the importance of this cause, as it is related to the solution of a problem no patriotic citizen should neglect, that I look upon every attempt to stimulate popular interest and activity in its behalf as a duty of citizenship."

"The ship of Democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those aboard."

"Party honesty is party expediency."

"Communism is a hateful thing and a menace to peace and organized government; but the communism of combined wealth and capital, the outgrowth of overweening cupidity and selfishness, which insidiously undermines the justice and integrity of free institutions, is not less dangerous than the communism of oppressed poverty and toil, which, exasperated by injustice and discontent, attacks with wild disorder the citadel of rule. He mocks the people who proposes that the Government shall protect the rich and that they in turn will care for the laboring poor. Any intermediary between the people and their Government or the least delegation of the care and protection the Government owes to the humblest citizen in the land makes the boast of free institutions a glittering delusion and the pretended boon of American citizenship a shameless imposition."

"It has been the boast of our government that it seeks to do justice in all things without regard to the strength or weakness of those with whom it deals. I mistake the American people if they favor the odious doctrine that there is no such thing as international morality; that there is one law for a strong nation and another for a weak one, and that even by indirection a strong power may with impunity despoil a weak one of its territory. By an act of war, committed with the participation of a diplomatic representative of the United States and without authority of Congress, the government of a feeble but friendly and confiding people has been overthrown. A substantial wrong has thus been done which a due regard for our national character as well as the rights of the injured people requires we should endeavor to repair. The Provisional Government has not assumed a republican or other constitutional form, but has remained a mere executive council or oligarchy, set up without the assent of the people. It has not sought to find a permanent basis of popular support and has given no evidence of an intention to do so. Indeed, the representatives of that government assert that the people of Hawaii are unfit for popular government and frankly avow that they can be best ruled by arbitrary or despotic power. The law of nations is founded upon reason and justice, and the rules of conduct governing individual relations between citizens or subjects of a civilized state are equally applicable as between enlightened nations. The considerations that international law is without a court for its enforcement and that obedience to its commands practically depends upon good faith instead of upon the mandate of a superior tribunal only give additional sanction to the law itself and brand any deliberate infraction of it not merely as a wrong but as a disgrace. A man of true honor protects the unwritten word which binds his conscience more scrupulously, if possible, than he does the bond a breach of which subjects him to legal liabilities, and the United States, in aiming to maintain itself as one of the most enlightened nations, would do its citizens gross injustice if it applied to its international relations any other than a high standard of honor and morality. On that ground the United States cannot properly be put in the position of countenancing a wrong after its commission any more than in that of consenting to it in advance. On that ground it cannot allow itself to refuse to redress an injury inflicted through an abuse of power by officers clothed with its authority and wearing its uniform; and on the same ground, if a feeble but friendly state is in danger of being robbed of its independence and its sovereignty by a misuse of the name and power of the United States, the United States cannot fail to vindicate its honor and its sense of justice by an earnest effort to make all possible reparation."

"The trusts and combinations—the communism of pelf—whose machinations have prevented us from reaching the success we deserved, should not be forgotten nor forgiven."

"A sensitive man is not happy as President. It is fight, fight, fight all the time. I looked forward to the close of my term as a happy release from care. But I am not sure I wasn't more unhappy out of office than in. A term in the presidency accustoms a man to great duties. He gets used to handling tremendous enterprises, to organizing forces that may affect at once and directly the welfare of the world. After the long exercise of power, the ordinary affairs of life seem petty and commonplace. An ex-President practicing law or going into business is like a locomotive hauling a delivery wagon. He has lost his sense of proportion. The concerns of other people and even his own affairs seem too small to be worth bothering about."

"What is the use of being elected or re-elected unless you stand for something?"

"The lessons of paternalism ought to be unlearned and the better lesson taught that while the people should patriotically and cheerfully support their government, its functions do not include the support of the people."

"Four Good Reasons for Electing Cleveland: 1. He is honest. 2. He is honest. 3. He is honest. 4. He is honest."

"Had Grover Cleveland been a politician, with the record of a spoilsman behind, his promises would mean little. They might have deceived a few of the simple, disgusted a few of the honest, caused mirth to a few other spoilsmen, and thus fulfilled their intended mission; for Americans had long since learned that, as the devil can quote Scripture, so the most dangerous type of demagogue can sing of ideals in false notes not easily distinguishable from true. But Mr. Cleveland had already put into practice the ideals which he announced, and Republicans bent on reform rallied to his support with an enthusiasm equal to that of his Democratic followers."

"Both of the great political parties now represented in the Government have by repeated and authoritative declarations condemned the condition of our laws which permit the collection from the people of unnecessary revenue, and have in the most solemn manner promised its correction; and neither as citizens nor partisans are our countrymen in a mood to condone the deliberate violation of these pledges. Our progress toward a wise conclusion will not be improved by dwelling upon the theories of protection and free trade. This savors too much of bandying epithets. It is a condition which confronts us — not a theory. Relief from this condition may involve a slight reduction of the advantages which we award our home productions, but the entire withdrawal of such advantages should not be contemplated. The question of free trade is absolutely irrelevant, and the persistent claim made in certain quarters that all the efforts to relieve the people from unjust and unnecessary taxation are schemes of so-called free traders is mischievous and far removed from any consideration for the public good."