NJ-4 Congressional District Election 2022: Pamela R. Daniels

NEW JERSEY ? When voters go to the polls Nov. 8, they will be asked to choose the representative for New Jersey's 4th Congressional District.

There are six people seeking the seat, which is a two-year term in the House of Representatives.

The candidates are: Republican Christopher H. Smith, Democrat Matthew Jenkins; Libertarian Jason Cullen; Pamela R. Daniels, running under the "Progress with Pam" banner; David Schmidt, running under the "We the People" banner, and independent candidate Hank Schroeder.

The 4th District's boundaries have changed due to redistricting. The district now includes the following towns: In Monmouth County: Avon, Belmar, Brielle, Colts Neck, Eatontown, Farmingdale, Howell, Lake Como, Manasquan, Ocean Twp., Sea Girt, Shrewsbury borough and township, Spring Lake, Spring Lake Heights, Tinton Falls, Wall and part of Freehold Township and Middletown; In Ocean County: Bay Head, Beachwood, Brick, Island Heights, Jackson, Lakehurst, Lakewood, Lavallette, Manchester, Mantoloking, Ocean Gate, Pine Beach, Plumsted, Point Pleasant, Point Pleasant Beach, Seaside Heights, Seaside Park, South Toms River, Toms River and part of Berkeley and Lacey.

Patch asked each candidate to answer questions to give voters information about who they are and their stances on various issues. Here are the answers for Pamela R. Daniels, 67, of Brick, from a telephone interview with her.

Party affiliation: Registered Republican but running as an independent.

Tell voters about your family: Married for 28 years, two daughters and a stepdaughter. I came out as transgender in 2009.

Tell voters about your education: Graduated from St. Joseph?s-Montvale. Attended Northeastern University in Boston, studying EE communications with a minor in journalism, but left the university for a job opportunity in Arizona after she passed the FCC test to earn her federal license as a broadcast engineer, "which back in 1976 was more important than any college degree."

What is your occupation? I have a range of experiences. I left Northeastern to move to Nogales, Arizona, after the chief engineer of WBZ AM, FM and TV offered me the opportunity to build and manage KAYN FM in Nogales. Managed the station until 1985, then came back to New Jersey and worked for WOBM FM News, NBC Radio News in New York, Channel 9 News and then was the founding news director at NJ 101.5, and worked there from 1989 to 1993 before joining the staff of Gov. Christine Todd Whitman as director of radio and television. Currently works in customer service at Home Depot.

I'm still relatively fluent in Spanish thanks to living on the Mexican border for 8 years. If granted the honor of serving as NJ's 4th District Congresswoman I will work hard to get common sense immigration reform passed in Congress.

Previous elective office, if any: None.

Do you or anyone in your family work for the state, county or local governments? No.

Why are you seeking office? The state of the Republican Party had already begun changing on abortion and LGBTQ issues before Trump won in 2016. The resistance by Republicans to getting LGBTQ civil rights passed in 2013 started my thought process. The changing district demographics now make me feel like this is the time.

I am running for Congress because I will be a leader on getting things done and mitigating the pain caused by inflation. We?ve just come through a really horrible pandemic that affected the global economy. If we all row together we can get through this faster. There?s going to be some pain but we will get through it.

What do you feel is the most pressing issue facing New Jersey's 4th District, and what do you want to do about it?

My National Disaster Preparedness Act is needed to provide protection for insurance companies, similar to the protection the FDIC provides to banks. We need to ensure they insurance companies can pay the claims that result from disasters like Superstorm Sandy, so homeowners can be paid quickly and people can stay in their homes. We need to develop new construction methods and materials that can withstand these disasters, from flooding to tornadoes to hurricanes.

You can find much more about my National Disasater Preparedness Act proposal on my website, Progress With Pam.

Do you believe there should be a federal ban on abortion or should the decision be left to each state and why? If you believe in a ban, should there be any exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother?

There should be no ban. Roe vs. Wade is still settled law; the Supreme Court and the five rogues in robes are wrong. Women have a natural constitutional right to control their bodies. We don?t make law based on religion; we make it on science. I support legislation to make it a permanent right.

There has been a proposal to eliminate Social Security and Medicare. In a district that?s home to thousands of retirees and seniors, where do you stand on this?

Social Security and Medicare are permanent institutions and need to stay that way. To remove them puts seniors at risk. It was Teddy Roosevelt, before he became president, who first proposed social insurance to protect the most vulnerable. It was about protecting individual liberty and making sure everyone gets a square deal.

Inflation is causing stress for millions of Americans, particularly those at the low end of the wage scale. What do you believe should be done to address it?

Everything that can be done is being done. We just went through our first experience as a nation with a dangerous pandemic. This was radically different from the Spanish flu; we didn?t have the size and scope of a global economy when the Spanish flu happened.

We have to stay the course. There?s going to be a certain amount of pain. We will get through this and we will get through this faster because we didn?t know then (during the Spanish flu) what we know now about the economic impacts. The president is doing the right things to get us through this.

We must focus largely on green energy and moving forward. We have oil reserves that can be and must be put into production, and we should because of what we saw the Saudis pull because of the war criminal Putin. We have to do what we can to produce our own oil, which maybe even will help Europe. I do not support offshore drilling, but there are plenty of land-based options. We can produce nuclear power safely; the "no nukes" days are hopefully gone.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you will be effective in office?

I have successfully lobbied on Capitol Hill and at the statehouse in Trenton to win substantial Republican support for LGBTQ legislation. In 2013 I worked my tail off to get 10 Republican senators to agree so we could pass the first LGBTQ bill in America, the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, which would have barred employers from discriminating against people based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. The Republicans who voted for it were John McCain, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Rob Portman of Ohio, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Dean Heller of Nevada, Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania, and Matt Kirk from Illinois. (The bill later stalled in the House of Representatives.)

In New Jersey, I worked my tail off to get Tom Kean Jr. and Joh Bramnick on board to support the birth certificate bill (it allows someone born in New Jersey to have their birth certificate updated to reflect their gender identity). Christie vetoed the birth certificate bill twice but we finally got it signed by Murphy.

I know how to quietly get private meetings and I know how to work behind the scenes to get something started, and then how to build from there. It?s not that hard. It's time-consuming but it?s not that hard.

I love what I?m doing and I love people and there?s so much we can do.

I grew up when politicians worked together, especially on Capitol Hill. I'm going there to restore collegiality and comity. I am a pleasant leader. I will conference with the Democrats and I will join the Problem Solvers Conference.