President Joe Biden, speaking Friday at an annual global summit on climate change, said new spending on clean energy initiatives has cemented his country’s commitment to fighting global warming. “The United States government is putting our money where our mouth is,” he said. Biden said the spending, part of broader economic legislation he signed into law this year, will ensure the U.S. hits its target for reducing emissions by 2030. “Thanks to the actions we’ve taken, I can stand here as President, United States of America and say with confidence, the United States of America will meet our emissions targets by 2030,” the president said. Biden said the U.S. is “racing forward to do our part to avert the climate hell that the UN Secretary General so passionately warned about earlier this week.” He argued that “g ood climate policy is good economic policy,” and called on all major emitting countries to “align their ambition” to the international goal of trying to limit future global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the White House. But even with these fresh efforts, America and the world have a long way to go to meet emissions targets that scientists hope will contain global warming. And the political will for more investment is shrinking. His attendance at the U.N. climate conference, known as COP27, in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh is the first stop on an around-the-world trip that will also take him to a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders in Cambodia and a Group of 20 summit meeting for leaders of the world’s largest economies in Bali, Indonesia.
ATLANTIC CITY — For the second time in under three years, Mayor Marty Small Sr. had to beat back a ballot question seeking to change the way the government or elections are run here.
On Nov. 8 the electorate here came through for him, rejecting a switch to local nonpartisan elections by a margin of 54% to 46%.
Now the question is, will his critics back off trying to change the rules, or is a new ballot question lurking in his future?
“No, I don’t envision that,” Councilman Bruce Weekes said Friday, of starting a new ballot initiative. Weekes was one of three Democrats on council to back the change to nonpartisan elections, even though the city is heavily Democratic and the change would benefit Republicans and others outside the party.
But Weekes isn’t giving up on this year’s effort until all provisional and vote-by-mail ballots are counted, he said.
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“It only failed by 300-some votes,” Weekes said of the ballot question that would have moved local elections to May and would have had candidates run as individuals rather than be affiliated with political parties.
The total as of Friday morning was 2,215 in favor of the change and 2,602 against it.
There are 342 Atlantic City provisional ballots from Election Day itself yet to be investigated, said Superintendent of Elections Maureen Budgon on Friday.
Paper provisional ballots are mainly used when voters who have received a mail-in ballot show up to vote on Election Day. They are only counted once election officials verify voters did not already return their mail-in ballots.
Countywide there are also 399 provisional ballots from the early voting period, but Bugdon did not have a breakout by municipality on those.
Those in favor of the ballot question said moving away from partisan elections would allow more good people to have a shot at elected office.
But those against it said it would hurt Democrats — it would strip power away from the city Democratic committee run by Small supporters — and would cost taxpayers more to run an extra election.
“The first one clearly came from outside — from North Jersey. This one was more of a grassroots approach,” Weekes said. “Unfortunately it looks like we are going to be stuck with this form of elections.”
In March of 2020 in a special election voters rejected adopting a council-manager form of government and discarding the current mayor-council form.
Small thanked the voters Tuesday night for again trusting in him, and rejecting arguments from his critics — including three Democratic members of City Council who worked for the change.
Those three Council members were Weekes, Council President George Tibbitt and Councilwoman LaToya Dunston.
The three Democrats also supported the Republican candidate for county commissioner rather than work for the re-election of Democrat Ernest Coursey.
Coursey, who won by 11 percentage points anyway, is the Chief of Staff for Small.
“Though I wasn’t on the ballot, they tried to make this referendum against me,” Small said Tuesday night. “There have been a lot of dirty things going on. Some people on City Council went out and made endorsements (of a Republican) like they had an organization to back it up.”
The main Democratic organization, however, did its job, said John Froonjian, executive director of the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University.
“I just have to think the main Democratic organization did not want that to go through, they are the majority in that city and I would have to imagine they pulled out all the stops and got their organization’s people to come out and vote,” Froonjian said.
“That’s who would have lost, and that’s who would have suffered,” Froonjian said of the city’s Democratic committee.
Weekes said he has reached out to Small and Coursey to ask that they meet before 2023 starts, to find a way to work together.
“I laid it out. The city is clearly divided right now. They were expecting to get 75% to 80% of the vote, but barely got over 50%,” Weekes said. “That was really telling. The support they thought they had, they don’t have it anymore.”
He’s not looking to be allies or friends, Weekes said, but “to be able to work together. Right now that doesn’t exist. I have not heard back.”
“Look at this administration’s track record,” Small said. “We work with those that work for the betterment of Atlantic City.”
REPORTER: Michelle Brunetti Post
609-841-2895
mpost@pressofac.com
