Hey friends! 

Jeff, Anna, Madeline, Dave, & Han here from the Indivisible NJ-5 steering committee in Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s district. On Tuesday, the Indivisible team launched an issues ad campaign calling out Rep. Gottheimer for his votes and other work supporting ICE. 

We’ve reached out to Indivisible’s national office for help amplifying our accountability efforts. And, National answered our call. We feel really strongly that these ads are needed and we’d like to explain to you all, our fellow members of this grassroots organization, why.

We’re part of the work with Indivisible movement because we want to influence policy to make people's lives better. We believe in our collective vision of progressive policy rooted in fairness, empathy, and compassion.

Over and over again, Rep. Gottheimer has proven that he ISN’T representing that vision. 

This isn’t about one vote. If it were, then calling this an overreaction would be understandable. But, Rep. Gottheimer has:

• Voted to add anti-immigrant language to gun violence prevention legislation.
  
• Refused to sign a discharge petition to restore net neutrality, which would have protected us from cable companies deciding what we can do and see online.
  
• Rallied others to join him in urging financial regulators to gut a provision of Dodd-Frank that protects insured depository institutions from risky trading.
  
• Voted for funding for Trump’s border wall in the 2017 Defense Appropriations Bill.

Moreover, Rep. Gottheimer co-chairs the Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of Democrats and Republicans who use “bipartisanship” as a guise to promote moderate and conservative policies that undercut our core values. Under Gottheimer’s leadership, they’ve added “poison pills” into important bills, forced through Republican priorities and made it easier for conservative extremists to obstruct progressive legislation. 

These are hardly the actions of a representative who’s helping us achieve our goals in Congress. 

Holding our members of Congress accountable means thanking them when they do something good, and criticizing them when they do something bad. Forcing a vote for a bad version of a bill that will give a blank check to ICE? That counts as something bad.

In short, we are elated that Indivisible is running these ads because people should be aware of his role in the caucus, and his constituents should call and make their voices heard. 

If you have not seen the ad, click here to watch it. If you can, please share it on Facebook or Twitter to help amplify our message. We’re proud to be a part of this team, and proud of what we’ve accomplished together and will accomplish in the days to come. 

Thank you, so much. 

In solidarity,

Jeff, Anna, Madeline, Dave, & Han
Indivisible NJ 5th District Steering Committee

P.S. Rachel Maddow also talked about it Tuesday night!