After last nights debate among the crowded 12th district democratic candidates crew, I'm 95% certain for whom I'll vote.
The debate was held at Rider University, a school skating bankruptcy.
I feel bad, because my support in primaries is usually fatal to a candidacy, but I have to do what I can do:
The candidates are listed here: Ballopedia, 12th District, NJ Democratic candidates
Three candidates spontaneously, if I recall correctly, raised in positive terms, nuclear energy, including the one I'm likely to support.
They were assembly woman Verlina-Reynolds Jackson, Adam Hamawy, a former combat surgeon who has been endorsed by Senator Tammy Duckworth as he was the surgeon who operated on her after she was injured in combat, and Sam Wang, a neuroscientist at Princeton University who has worked tirelessly to address gerrymandering.
Dr. Hamawy also volunteered to treat wounded children in Gaza.
I'd like to give a shout out to the youngest candidate in the field, first generation American Jay Vaingankar, who is running at the age 28. (One of the candidates made a joke stating that they'd like to address affordability in housing so Mr. Vaingankar could move out of his parents house.) Mr. Vaingankar worked in the Energy Department in the Biden administration has been endorsed by Former Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm. In response to an email from me asking the question of about his support of nuclear energy, the campaign responded that he did, indeed support nuclear power. However during the debate, he spoke positively about batteries, which is a show stopper for me, since I don't think that batteries are sustainable since they destroy exergy and their material demands are odious and, frankly, morally reprehensible, a point made in the book the Elements of Power, The Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth through which I am reading along with other books, although its contents are no revelation to me..
Although I can't support him I am impressed with Vaingankar and hope he will stay involved in politics and run for office again. We need smart young people in our party and our government.
I will be supporting Professor Wang, also a first generation American, who started his undergraduate education at 15, at Cal Tech, graduating at the age of 19, receiving his Ph.D. at Stanford, and doing a post doc at Duke before joining the faculty at Princeton.
He has a remote connection with me, since one of my neighbors on Halloween in 2004, when I was taking my sons trick or treating, told me that Professor Wang had run an algorithm predicting a Kerry landslide. This has helped me to prevent making political predictions to my wife, since she gave me shit for buying into the prediction of "the Princeton Professor" my neighbors reported to me. Whenever she asks me to speculate on the political future, I can now get out of making a prediction by saying, "How would I know? I predicted a Kerry landslide!"
I will probably vote for Professor Wang in the primaries. When I sent an email to his campaign, he answered personally stating he supported nuclear power.
But that's not why I'm voting for him. I am voting for him for the thoughtful way he answered questions on all issues, his manner, his clearly powerful intellect. He reminds me of the best Congressperson I ever had, also in the 12 district of New Jersey, Rush Holt, also a scientist, a physicist as opposed to a neuroscientist and also a very thoughtful thinker. I sometimes disagreed with Dr. Holt, but I always respected him, greatly, again, the best Congressperson I ever had.
I feel sorry, because people I support in primaries almost never win. But I can't help myself from voting for Professor Wang who is supported by four Nobel Laureates and a number of other prominent scientists.
Since science is under attack by the illiterate moron in the White House, the Orange Pedophile, we can certainly use scientists in Congress.
No matter who wins the Democratic Primary, they will have my vote, even the candidates I didn't particularly like, if the Democratic Party extends the nomination to them.