Robert Torricelli: the Clear Choice For New Jersey’s Working Families

New Jersey’s Senate race combines what will likely be one of the closest elections in the country with one of the widest differences between the candidates and where they stand on issues affecting the lives of working families.

In Sen. Robert Torricelli (D), New Jersey voters have a fighter for CWA members and New Jersey’s citizens. In his opponent, Douglas Forrester (R), they have a businessman who made a $50 million fortune by inflating the cost of prescription drugs.
Torricelli’s Senate record is one of strong and consistent advocacy for working families.

He is a cosponsor of legislation to raise the minimum wage from the current $5.15 an hour to a more humane $6.65 an hour. He has been a longtime champion of outlawing the permanent replacement of striking workers. He helped enact pension reforms to ensure workers get the most out of their retirements. And his was one of the strongest voices of protest when the Labor Department repealed contractor responsibility rules, enabling companies that violate worker protection, environmental, civil rights and other laws to receive fat federal contracts.

In 2001, Torricelli sided with working families 94 percent of the time on key votes, according to the AFL-CIO. These included:

• Voting against the Republican bill that repealed the tough ergonomics standard which CWA worked more than a decade to win and put millions of workers, including many CWA members, at continued risk of painful, crippling injury.

• Cosponsoring and supporting a real Patients’ Bill of Rights to protect working families from managed care abuses and allow patients to sue their health plan if they suffer harm.

• Providing meaningful unemployment, job training and health benefits for workers laid off in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

• Extending full collective bargaining rights to firefighters, police and other public safety officers in all 50 states.

By contrast, Forrester is both a member and the recipient of strong support from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), a stout opponent of workers’ rights, health and safety protections, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and a minimum wage increase. NFIB is also one of the leading advocates of the president’s Social Security privatization plans, which would place the pillar of Americans’ retirement security at the mercy of the stock market. Torricelli fiercely opposes this callous scheme that would make the sure thing of Social Security more like an Enron 401(k) plan.

One of the greatest differences between Torricelli and Forrester is in the all-important area of prescription drug benefits for Medicare beneficiaries.

Given his history as a businessman, perhaps it is not surprising that Forrester supports a plan imposing huge out-of-pocket costs on senior citizens. This includes 50 percent co-pays, a $250 deductible, and a gaping reimbursement gap — no coverage between the time a person’s annual prescription costs hit $3,450 and $5,300.

In comparison, Torricelli helped write a Medicare prescription drug bill, supported by a majority in the Senate, that has no deductible, a simple $10 co-pay for generic drugs and no coverage gaps.

The significance of this race extends far beyond the Medicare prescription drug debate or even one vote on any other issue in the Senate. The outcome could determine which party controls the Senate for the next two years, with major consequences on every policy and budget issue that matters (see U.S. Senate: One Vote Makes All the Difference).

Time and again, Sen. Torricelli stands up for CWA members and union members throughout America. His support for our working families agenda has been constant and uncompromising. In short, he has more than earned our vote to serve another term in the U.S. Senate.

This portion of this website is paid for by the CWA Committee on Political Education - Political ontributions Committee, with voluntary contributions from union members and their families, and is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.