Here’s why we are excited to endorse Ed Rodriguez & Walter Wimbush for LD20 Assembly:

Candidate order: The bill to reform New Jersey’s primary ballots (A5116) moves New Jersey closer to fair primaries by eliminating the county line ballot and instituting an office block ballot design. However, candidate order for the primary ballot will still be determined by the County Clerk or Municipal Clerk drawing names out of a bin. This provides an advantage for the candidate drawn in first position and has resulted in some clerks drawing the party endorsed candidates for first position a statistically improbable number of times. I support the following reform that would ensure a more fair candidate order on the ballot:
Rotating the order of candidates for each office by voting precinct, so each candidate appears on the ballot first, second, and so forth, approximately the same number of times (see the recently introduced bill A5181) 

Comment: We support A5181, even despite the fact that we received ballot position 1B and 2B. We voiced support for such a practice when the bill was in debate, and still maintain that it is the best practice moving forward.

Slogans: I support prohibiting the use of slogans to express party endorsements on primary election ballots. New Jersey is the only state that allows primary candidates to use slogans to indicate endorsements.

Comment: Our slogan is “Meeting the Moment” – as this is a special time in our state’s history.

Voter access: I support adopting parts of H.R.1 in New Jersey in order to increase voter participation, ensure access to the ballot box, and strengthen elections, including specifically same day registration, early voting and a paper trail for machine voting that enables verification.

Ethics reform: I support ethics reforms that would require broader disclosure of financial information and the release of income taxes by candidates for county-level and state-level public office, as a means of transparency.

Comment: New Jersey is the highest paid part-time Legislature. Legislature should become full time, eliminating many points of conflicts of interest.

Campaign funding: I support the public funding of campaigns for all state-level elected offices (i.e., the state legislature and gubernatorial elections).

Comment: We are not taking contributions from Trenton Lobbyists, PACs and rejecting any help from IE’s or SuperPACs. We have challenged our opponents to do the same, they have yet to respond.

Redistricting: I support placing a nonpartisan commission in charge of the legislative redistricting process.

Public Advocate: I support passing legislation to reinstate the statewide Office of the Public Advocate that was eliminated in 2010.

Posting of state bills: I support requiring that bills be posted in written form at least 72 hours prior to committee discussion or vote, and that budget bills be posted at least 5 business days in advance of discussion or vote, to improve transparency in the legislative process.

Comment: Definitely. Most especially pertinent to budget bills.

State legislative meetings: I support making all committee meetings accessible to the public for attendance and testimony by online means (e.g., via zoom) and streaming of voting sessions to increase availability and transparency of government.

Full time legislature: I support making the state legislature full-time and prohibiting the simultaneous holding of other paid positions, so as to eliminate conflicts of interest and sources of influence and pressure on state legislators.

Comment: As stated above (see Ethics Reform).

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More information about Ed Rodriguez & Walter Wimbush:

Email: meetthemomentdems@gmail.com
Phone: 908-463-4542
Campaign website: MeetTheMomentDems.com
Social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X
Party affiliation: Democratic party

Current Occupation: From 2014 – 2025 Ed Rodriguez served as the Director of Planning & Community Development for the city of Elizabeth.
Walter Wimbush works as a code enforcement officer in Roselle. He also serves as the president of the Roselle Big Brother Program and the Walter Wimbush Initiative, which provides scholarships to Union County Students.
Education: Ed Rodriguez has a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers New Brunswick in Economics. He also has an MBA in accounting from NYU and graduated from Rutgers Law School with a JD in 2010. 
Walter Wimbush is a proud alumnus of Abraham Clark High School. He also graduated from the Union County Fire Academy in 2019.
Public/party service: In 2010, Ed Rodriguez ran for a seat on the Elizabeth City council, representing the 5^th Ward. In 2018, Walter Wimbush ran for a seat on the school board in Roselle. Both candidates did not win their respective elections.