MORRIS TOWNSHIP - Democrats here have gotten so dominant, they're now fighting among themselves.

And what's more, they have something for which to fight.

This may seem like an odd way to measure success, but consider that two decades ago, Republicans completely controlled this township of about 24,000 that surrounds Morristown.

Democrats broke through when Jeff Grayzel, who is still on the governing body, won a special committee election in 2007. Over time, Democrats gained political control of the committee and now hold all five seats.

Control, of course, can bring intra-party strife. The nature of the political beast perhaps. If there's no party opposition to fight, you fight among yourselves.

And so, two incumbent Democrats on the committee - William "Bud" Ravitz and Siva Jonnada - were not endorsed for reelection by the local Democratic committee.

Endorsed were newcomers Jeremy Godwin and Dr. Stephanie Lyon.

Jonnada is running in the June primary, challenging Godwin and Lyon.

But Ravitz has bigger ideas.

He says he is leaving the Democratic party to form a new political organization - USA2.0.

Instead of running in the primary, he plans to run this fall as an independent.

"It will be an uphill struggle - even with my name recognition," he said  Tuesday morning when we met for coffee.

No one is going to argue with that.

Ravitz has had an interesting political career.
Soon to turn 65, Ravitz, now retired after working at AT&T, says he registered as a Democrat to vote for Bernie Sanders for president in 2016.
After losing the nomination, Ravitz remembers "Bernie" telling his supporters not to get angry, but to stay involved.
He did so, and in 2020, he was elected to the township committee. He was re-elected in 2023, and in 2024, Ravitz ran unsuccessfully for Morris County Commissioner.

In a statement about his latest plans, Ravitz said he is a "pragmatic progressive" and that he "prioritizes results over ideology and consistently places the needs of township residents above partisan considerations."

As for his new party:

"We need a grassroots party to reimagine and rebuild our government and institutions - and to be in it for the long haul. This is about creating a better version of America - one that may take generations to build, but one where the failures we see today cannot repeat themselves. The time to start is now.”
Not only are third party candidacies difficult, there is always the chance a philosophical Democrat running as an independent can split the vote and help Republicans.

Ravitz, obviously, has heard talk along those lines. But he rejects that view. He said:

"The vote was split when the township Democratic committee did not endorse me."

George Quillan is the town's Democratic chair. He has this to say in a statement:

"One of the reasons the Morris Township Democratic Committee didn't endorse Bud for re-election is that a number of our members think he devotes too much time and effort to writing opinion pieces on national issues (on Substack and elsewhere) and not enough on the details of his job as a local government official.  We had alternate candidates this year that are very promising, and we decided to go with them instead.

I'm sure Bud is very disappointed, but his decision to try to start a new political party seems strange.  His political philosophy always seemed in the past to be consistent with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party -  maybe slightly to the left of most Democrats in Morris Township.  "USA 2.0" sounds like something completely new, but it's not clear what."