Food & Water Action Fund Endorses the
Quesada Mahmoud 2019 Campaign

We are proud to announce that Food & Water Action Fund, the political lobbying counterpart of Food & Water Watch, has endorsed the Quesada Mahmoud 2019 campaign for General Assembly in the 32nd legislative district. This organization mobilizes regular people to build political power in order to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water and climate problems of our time. These include stopping the 13 proposed fossil fuel infrastructure projects currently underway in the state of New Jersey. One of these projects is the extremely controversial North Bergen Power Plant, which is being proposed in our district less than a mile from residential areas.

“Roger and Mahmoud are both longtime grassroots activists, and Roger has been a leader in the grassroots movement to stop the Meadowlands Power Plant that’s proposed for construction in his home community of North Bergen. Roger and Mahmoud will be exactly the representatives we need with us in the fight to stop fossil fuel expansion in New Jersey.” – Food & Water Action

In the face of municipal budget crises, many towns in New Jersey have turned over control of their drinking water infrastructure systems to private corporations, like Suez, who have proved to be an ineffective method for addressing budget shortfalls. Just recently, an over 100 year old water main exploded on Boulevard East in Guttenberg, NJ, flooding the streets and even destroying property. A 74 year old woman, Albertina Penton, suffered a total loss of her vehicle due to this flooding and now cannot afford to purchase a new vehicle to get to work. This woman also happens to be the mother of Roger Quesada, one of the candidates. Her story is the story of countless others who through negligence have been adversely affected by the privatization of water utilities that have led to negligence and degradation. This is all thanks to the privatization efforts of the previous governor, Chris Christie, who signed the Water Infrastructure Protection Act (WIPA). The Quesada Mahmoud campaign believes in increasing public ownership and management of this vital natural resource, especially at a time when climate change & other industrial contamination could create further scarcity.

Water is an essential public good and must not be a for-profit commodity nor should it be allowed to be contaminated from industrial energy processes. Air is also an essential public good, and we should not allow any corporation, foreign or domestic, to dump unlimited toxic waste into our air especially if we have the technology to avoid such mindless pollution. According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we have less than 12 years to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions or face dire consequences to our economy, public health and safety. We need to urgently support policies that facilitate a rapid transition #OffFossilFuels and onto 100% clean, renewable energy from solar, wind, geothermal and small-scale hydroelectric power by no later than 2035 – or sooner. Polar ice caps are melting faster than expected, city states are drowning under water and the effects of global warming due to hazardous greenhouse gases are in no dispute. Time is running out.

District 32 faces many environmental challenges from the Keegan Landfill in Kearny where toxic waste is being dumped to pollute the air, to the Super Toxic Fund Site in Edgewater, to the harmful polluting power plant in North Bergen and this district needs leaders who have political will. The Quesada Mahmoud campaign is aligned with all of Food & Water Action’s values including human dignity, justice for all, economic fairness and real democracy. Their vision is to create a world where everyone has food they can trust, clean drinking water and a habitable climate. This is exactly what the Quesada Mahmoud campaign is all about – a bold, progressive vision – and we certainly are ready to fight for what’s right in the face of seemingly insurmountable opposition.

###

Mahmoud Mahmoud and Roger Quesada for NJ General Assembly They are running because the people of NJ need working class champions of environmental, social and racial justice in order to thrive. They want to embolden voters to take collective action on the things we all care about through transformational change in government.

For more information, visit www.pta2019.us, www.facebook.com/quesadamahmoud, and www.instagram.com/quesadamahmoud/

Election day for the democratic primary is Tuesday, June 4, 2019.