Ingrid Reed has her arms folded as she stands in front of 20 or so people in the Princeton Public Library who are waiting to hear her talk about the issues facing New Jersey.
“It is really hard to be an elected official and make choices and set priorities when you are under strained fiscal conditions as we are,” Reed said at one point during a recent presentation.
Reed, formerly of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, is talking policy and politics — things she lives and breathes. This day’s presentation deals with energy and the environment.
With a gubernatorial election coming up on Nov. 7, Reed seeks to bring her policy analyst’s perspective to a state known for its political wheeling and dealing. She wants the public to press the candidates, to go beyond what she termed “bland generalities” for answers on the problems New Jersey has.
“I think the best thing that can happen in this election season is for all of the candidates to hear very specific questions from citizens who are interested in what the problems are and how they are going to deal with them,” she said. “Ask them what are they going to do to encourage solar and wind production in New Jersey and where they think the responsibility should be for that.”
In a brief interview afterward, Reed laughs when asked if her presentations are like college-level courses.
“We want people to have a chance to confirm for themselves that these are issues. And then what I try to do is simplify it, but also sort of provide a context for it,” she said. “I mean, there’s no point in discussing, for example, what you want the governor to do for the environment if you don’t have some understanding of what our fiscal condition is.”
Reed sized up the governor’s race between the two major party candidates, Republican Kim Guadagno and Democrat Phil Murphy.
“I’m sort of surprised that neither party seems to be engaged in their candidate’s election, that it seems to be the candidates are running their own campaigns and I don’t feel that energy of Democrats getting behind Murphy and Republicans getting behind Guadagno,” she said.
While Murphy and Guadagno march toward Nov. 7, Reed will keep a close eye on the race.
“If I weren’t doing this, I would be smelling the roses. It’s just so much fun,” she said. “I love being engaged with people who want to know and want to do things.”
