Why study history? So we aren’t doomed to repeat it.

Keith Kaplan / / Elections, Teaneck

This week, Teaneck Today published information about the Democratic Municipal Committee creating an “ad hoc committee”. In an email from the Chair of the TDMC, she said the purpose of the committee was to “explore[] the limitations and rights of the Teaneck Democratic Municipal Committee to participate in n on-partisan municipal elections”

You can read more about the issue and participate in the discussion at the link: here

Seeking to change longstanding rules isn’t something that should be taken likely.  Political powers wax and wane.  And while this may seem like a move that would help some today, it may not be so desirable, tomorrow.

It’s worth remembering that this isn’t a new idea, either.

From the minutes of Council on June 11, 2008:

C. Kates agreed with C. Feit.  C. Kates does not think it is coincidental of the challengers to be representatives of a certain group.  Hopes Teaneck remembers that it is a nonpartisan professionally managed community.  C. Kates spoke about the County politics influencing Teaneck, the shared vision of African Americans and Jewish people in the fight for civil rights and that she feels the community does not trust the Council. Recommends the Advisory Board on Community Relations needs to be more involved and Council needs to use them.

Do we want to go down this road, Teaneck?

2 Replies to “Why study history? So we aren’t doomed to repeat it.”

  1. [Ed Note: I comment on the blog in my personal capacity as a resident – KK]
    Councilman Kaplan:

    The snippet from the June 11, 2008 council meeting needs context to be meaningful to your readers. Would you mind providing it?

    Who are the “challengers” that Councilwoman (Jacqueline) Kates refers to? And who is that “certain group” for whom she feels they are not so coincidentally “representatives”? This council meeting was a month after the May council election. Who were the candidates, and do the “challengers” refer candidates or representatives of the candidates? If the latter, who were those candidates??

    The minutes of the minutes are here:
    http://www.teanecktoday.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2008-06-11.pdf
    They appear to have been uploaded to somewhere on this blog site, yet they don’t appear in this posting. Very strange. Very confusing. Please explain, councilman.

    1. The complete set of minutes is linked if you click the snippet.

      The issue of partisan actors trying to wrest control from our nonpartisan Township has taken many forms over the 90 years it’s been in existence.

      You’ve mentioned elsewhere that it’s somehow different when it’s the TDMC vs. County or State Democrats for whatever reasons.

      You may even believe it.

      But it’s beside the main point, which is that partisans serve a different agenda than the non-partisan.
      And it’s for that simple and clear reason, that when the Chair of the Teaneck Democratic Municipal Committee ran for council, he resigned as chair of the TDMC in order to do so.

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