The Westfield Leader Newspaper
The Times of Scotch Plains-Fanwood

CYAN YELLOW MAGENTA BLACK

Candidate Biographies

U. S. Senate

Name: Bob Franks

Candidate For: U. S. Senate

Party: Republican

Pro f e s s i o n a l Background: An attorney, Mr. Franks is currently a member of the House of Representatives.

Education: A 1969 graduate of Summit High School, Mr. Franks received his bachelor’s degree from DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. and a law degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Tex.

Family Life: Mr. Franks and his wife, Fran, reside in Berkeley Heights with their daughter, Kelly Amanda.

Gov./ Pol. Experience: Mr. Franks served in the New Jersey State General Assembly from 1979 to 1992. A member of Congress since 1993, he currently serves on the House Budget and Transportation and Infrastructure Committees. He is coChairman of the Congressional Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.

Clubs/ Organizations: Mr. Franks served as a member of the Board of Managers of Children’s Specialized Hospital in Mountainside and on the Long Term Planning Committee of Overlook Hospital in Summit.

Platform: Mr. Franks favors elimination of the marriage penalty and of the Social Security earnings cap on seniors. He supports tax breaks for stayathome parents. The candidate also advocates having 95 cents of every education tax dollar go directly into classrooms and is a proponent of character education programs.

He favors affordable prescription drug coverage for seniors and supports ensuring the life of Social Security through use of the $1.8 billion Social Security Trust Fund surplus. Mr. Franks supports allowing workers to put aside a portion of their Social Security payroll tax into individual retirement accounts.

On crime, Mr. Franks favors the death penalty and is an advocate in Congress of measures to protect kids on the Internet.

Name: Jon Corzine

Candidate For:

U. S. Senate

Party: Democrat

Profe s s i o n a l Background: The candidate is retired as Chief Executive Officer of the investment firm Goldman Sachs.

Education: The candidate graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Illinois. He holds a Master of Business Administration Degree from the University of Chicago Business School.

Family Life: Mr. Corzine and his wife of 30 years, Joanne, reside in Summit and have three adult children.

Gov./ Pol. Experience: In 1997, the candidate was appointed by President Bill Clinton as CoChairman of the Presidential Commission to study capital budgeting as a means of increasing investment in America’s technology, infrastructure and schools.

Clubs/ Organizations: The candidate is a member of Christ Church in Summit. He is a Trustee of the Progressive Policy Institute. He cochaired the Summit Area YMCA’s Second Century Campaign,

J. Corzine B. Franks

which has helped to rebuild programs that provide youth services.

Platform: Mr. Corzine favors universal health care, longterm care and quality public education, as well as gun registration and licensing and a ban on gun shows.

He supports expanding Medicare to include prescription drugs, and mandating employers to offer health insurance to workers. On education, he favors federal support of college tuition for students with a “B” average. Mr. Corzine also advocates national accreditation for preschools.

In addition, he favors indexing the minimum wage to inflation.

Name: Pat DiNizio

Candidate For: U. S. Senate

Party: Reform Party

Professional Background:

The candidate has been a recording artist with The Smithereens since 1980.

Education: The candidate graduated from Scotch PlainsFanwood High School in 1973 and attended Middlesex County College and New York University.

Family Life: A resident of Scotch Plains, Mr. DiNizio is the father of fiveyearold Elisabeth Ann (Liza) DiNizio.

Gov./ Pol. Experience: He was elected and served two terms as a Republican Party Committeeman. He declined another term and changed his party declaration to Independent.

Clubs/ Organizations: The candidate attends St. Bartholomew the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in Scotch Plains.

Platform: Mr. DiNizio’s platform includes campaign finance reform, American trade and foreign policy reform and the protection of personal liberties. He supports a Patients’ Bill of Rights and prescription benefits for all. He additionally favors campaign finance and election reform.

Mr. DiNizio wants to roll back automobile and motorcycle insurance rates and believes in mandatory, full personal injury protection and zero threshold benefits for all.

U. S. Congress Name: Michael A. Ferguson

Candidate For:

U. S. Congress, Seventh District

Party: Republican

Pro f e s s i o n a l Background: The candidate is an adjunct professor of political science at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft and founder and President of Strategic Education Initiatives Inc., an educational consulting firm.

Education: Mr. Ferguson is a graduate of the Delbarton School in Morristown and has a degree in government from Notre Dame University in Indiana.

Family Life: The candidate and his wife, Maureen, reside in Warren Township with their two children: Jack and Grace.

Gov./ Pol. Experience: Mr. Ferguson was defeated in 1998 in his Sixth Congressional District race against Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr.

Clubs/ Organizations: The candidate is a member of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the New Jersey

P. DiNizio

Chamber of Commerce, the Knights of Columbus, the Epilepsy Foundation of New Jersey, Delbarton School Alumni Association, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, the ItalianAmerican Foundation and the Advisory Board of the Center for Jewish and Christian Values.

Platform: The candidate supports expanding Medicare to include a prescription benefit; favors protecting Social Security and looking at options such as individual retirement accounts to expand the life of the program. On health care, he is a champion of allowing patients to make decisions on choosing their doctors.

Mr. Ferguson favors reducing class size and ending tenure for bad teachers, while rewarding good teachers with merit pay hikes. He supports trigger locks for handguns, along with waiting periods for gun purchases, plus licensing and registration of guns.

The candidate also said he would put a priority on paying down the $5 trillion national debt. He supports tax cuts for families. Mr. Ferguson opposes abortion in all instances, including cases of rape and incest, and partial birth abortions.

Name: Maryanne S. Connelly

Candidate For:

U. S. Congress, Seventh District

Party: Democrat

Pro fe s s i o n a l Background: The candidate spent over 25 years working in the telecommunications industry. She retired in 1998 as Network Commerce Services Director, where she was responsible for Human Resources in the Internet division of AT& T.

Education: Mrs. Connelly, who attended high school in Elizabeth, earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Nutrition from the College of Saint Elizabeth in Convent Station. She did a oneyear internship at Cornell Medical CenterNew York Hospital, where she received her Professional Registration as a Dietitian.

Family Life: Born in Brooklyn, Mrs. Connelly was raised in Maplewood. Widowed, she has resided in Fanwood for over 20 years. She has no children.

Gov./ Pol. Experience: Mrs. Connelly served on the Fanwood Planning Board

from 1984 to 1986 and from 1996 to 1999. She was also a member of the Borough Council for nine years and police commissioner, before being elected to a fouryear term as Mayor of Fanwood in 1995.

The candidate, who first ran for Congress in 1998, opted not to seek a second term as Mayor last year in order to launch a second bid for a seat in the House of Representatives.

Clubs/ Organizations: Mrs. Connelly has served her community as Chairwoman of the Benedictine Academy Board of Trustees; Fanwood Library Board of Directors member; Raritan Valley Transportation Advisory Board member and as a New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety member. She also has Criminal Justice Police Training Certification and New Jersey Certification for Substitute Teaching.

Platform: On education, Mrs. Connelly favors reducing class size and by issuing federal tax credits to support $25 billion in bonds used by local towns for school construction. She favors the College Opportunity Tax Cut that would give $2,800 in tax relief to students and their families.

The candidate additionally endorses protecting Social Security by using the federal budget surplus. She also advocates extending the life of Medicare with nonSocial Security funds. Mrs. Connelly supports Roe versus Wade and partial birth abortion.

Union County Clerk

M. Ferguson M. Connelly

J. Rajoppi

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

Name: Joanne Rajoppi

Candidate For:

Union County Clerk

Party: Democrat

Profe s s i o n a l Background: Ms. Rajoppi is serving her first term as Clerk.

Education: Ms. Rajoppi has a master’s degree in public administration from Seton Hall University in South Orange and an undergraduate degree from Case Western University.

Gov./ Pol. Experience: The candidate is a past member of the Springfield Town ship Committee, having also served as

Mayor, and was New Jersey Assistant Secretary of State during former Governor Brendan Byrne’s administration. She served for 12 years as Union County Register of Deeds and Mortgages, an office which was merged into the County Clerk’s Office.

Clubs/ Organizations: Ms. Rajoppi is the President of Women’s Political Caucus of New Jersey. She is former Chairwoman of the New Jersey County Clerks Association and former President of the Constitutional Officers Association of New Jersey and the New Jersey Association of Counties.

Platform: If elected to a second, fiveyear term, Ms. Rajoppi has promised to continue to utilize innovative technology to enhance the office of the Clerk, including implementation of the electronicsignature bill that was recently signed into law by President Bill Clinton, which she said will “revolutionize” the method in which land recordings are stored in county records.

Name: Eric Urbano

Candidate For:

Union County Clerk

Party: Republican

Pro f e s s i o n a l Background: The candidate is an Assistant Corporate Counsel for an international technology firm located in New Jersey.

Education: Mr. Urbano is a 2000 graduate of the New York Law School and is currently awaiting results of his bar examination to be admitted to the New Jersey State Bar Association. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Montclair University.

Family: The candidate is single and resides in Scotch Plains.

Gov./ Pol. Experience: Mr. Urbano was a candidate for Congress in the Republican Primary in the Seventh District before dropping out in order to run for Clerk.

`E. Urbano More Biographies

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