Group will continue to work toward eliminating tolls

We were certainly sad to see Bret Schundler lose the election on Nov. 6. He was our most ardent supporter with regard to removing the tolls on the Garden State Parkway. Obviously, however, that issue was outweighed in the mind of many voters by the other issues, such as abortion, gun control and charter schools, that they couldn’t bring themselves to support. As a result, although Bret lost, the voters made it clear they want tolls removed.

Citizens Against Tolls (CAT) will continue to keep toll removal in the forefront of the legislative agenda by continued pressure on the decision makers in New Jersey. Your ongoing support will be crucial to these efforts. We are very optimistic that we can achieve the goals established when we formed.

The CAT leadership team plans to meet for the purposes of planning the agenda for our continued push to eliminate tolls. We will be contacting supporters with a summary of those plans and how to help in our joint efforts. We welcome input into this process of planning, so please don’t hesitate to e-mail your suggestions to www.endtolls.com.

We will continue to work very, very hard to support those legislators, regardless of party, who support our goals, and even harder to remove from office those who do not.

So, CAT would ask all our supporters to view Bret’s defeat not as a defeat of our efforts and objectives, but as an opportunity to renew our commitment to our goal. Because, as Eric Hoffer, a United States philosopher, once wrote in Reflections on the Human Condition: "It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities."

Joseph DeGraw

vice president

Citizens Against Tolls

Manasquan