With every seat in the NJ State Legislature up for grabs in the Nov. 8 election, Tri-State Transportation Campaign assembled a brief survey to get a feel for where each candidate stands on transportation and land use issues in NJ. Candidates were asked for their views on transportation funding, repairing roads and bridges, public transit, traffic safety, and smart growth.

In recent years, NJ residents have faced a plethora of challenges relative to transportation and land use. The Transportation Trust Fund, a fund established to remove the funding of transportation from the political process, is no longer self sustaining.  Commuters faced 22% fare increases in 2010 while seeing transit service cuts as well as the cancellation of the ARC tunnel project.  Hundreds of bridges and half of state NJ roads are in need of repair, and maintenance issues left rail commuters stranded far too many times.  Key Port Authority projects that would have helped bus commuters were dropped from the agency’s capital program, and the state Transit Village program was defunded.

A recent poll conducted by Monmouth University shows that 74% of NJ residents believe that having a good system of roads and highways should be among the top five priorities for NJ leaders and 54% give the same priority rating to expanding and improving train and bus services. 69% of New Jersey residents are in support of a coordinated, statewide plan for existing population centers in order to preserve farming communities and open spaces.

Remember, some of the districts have changed effective with the November 8 election. Click here for the district map.

Senate candidates:

Senator Joseph F. Vitale (D) (District 19)

Senator Joseph Pennacchio (R) (District 26)

Senator Loretta Weinberg (D) (District 37)

Senator Gerald Cardinale (R) (District 39)

Assembly candidates:

Assemblyman John F. Amodeo (R) (District 2)

Frank Cottone (Constitution Party) (District 13)

Assemblyman Daniel R. Benson (D) (District 14)

Peter Yull (R) (District 15)

Assemblyman Craig J. Coughlin (D) (District 19)

Joan D. Van Pelt (R) (District 22)

Assemblyman Alex DeCroce (R) (District 26)

Michael Spector (Green Party) (District 26)

Senator Sean Kean (R) (District 30)

Asssemblyman Jason O’Donnell (D) (District 31)

Fernando Uribe (R) (District 33)

Assemblyman Gordon M. Johnson (D) (District 37)

Julian Heicklen (Libertarian) (District 37)

Every candidate, incumbent and challenger, was provided an opportunity to respond to the questionnaire. TSTC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and does not support or endorse political candidates.

Image: Via NJ State Legislature.