The Lakewood VAAD’s Election Endorsements: A Slap in the Face to the Community

There is hardly a greater slap in the face to the Lakewood community than the VAAD issuing endorsements for the upcoming elections after remaining largely silent on the major issues affecting the very residents it claims to represent.

First, the busing fiasco that threw an entire town into chaos. Families were left scrambling for solutions, with no clear guidance or leadership. Where was the VAAD? Not a peep from the anonymous leadership that suddenly reappears when election season arrives.

Then, just this week, Lakewood residents were hit with a massive municipal tax increase by the very politicians the VAAD is now endorsing. Did the VAAD publicly acknowledge the burden on homeowners? Did it demand accountability from politicians who have held power for years? Instead, the focus was on state aid cuts, while years of rising taxes and spending, tax abatements went largely unchallenged.

The deafening silence is especially troubling when you consider the VAAD’s election-season messaging. Every election, residents are flooded with mailers and robocalls boasting about how the VAAD keeps taxes low and urging the community to vote for its chosen candidates. But when residents are actually hit with another major tax increase, that same organization is nowhere to be found.

This is not a new concern. In a November 2013 Hamodia article, a VAAD spokesman, Weisberg, reportedly dismissed the idea that there was genuine frustration in the kehilla over rising property taxes, stating that “there is no real frustration in the kehilla regarding rising property taxes.” More than a decade and change later, residents are still dealing with the consequences of rising costs and are entitled to ask: Who is really standing up for the taxpayers?

Even worse is the continued use of the block vote. Anonymous individuals tell a taxpaying kehilla whom to vote for, yet the very residents being told to fall in line have no meaningful say in the VAAD’s decisions, no transparent process, and no accountability from those making these endorsements.

For more than 20 years, promises of change have come and gone. Yet, when election season arrives, the VAAD wakes up like a bear emerging from hibernation, expecting a gullible tzibbur to follow its endorsements and keep the same people and their political allies in power.

Meanwhile, what has the average Lakewood resident received in return? Higher taxes, an increasingly unaffordable cost of living, worsening traffic, and serious unresolved community problems.

The question is simple: Who is the VAAD really representing?

The community deserves more than election-season mailers, robocalls, and political endorsements. It deserves transparency, accountability, and leadership that stands up to elected officials when residents are struggling  not just when votes are needed.

If the VAAD expects the community’s trust and support, it must demonstrate that it is willing to represent the community throughout the year, including when doing so means challenging the very politicians it endorses.

Leadership is not about telling people how to vote. It is about standing up for the people you claim to represent. When the community needed a voice, the VAAD was silent. When election season arrived, suddenly it had plenty to say.

And What About the Fallout in Trenton?

There is another question the community deserves to ask: could the political campaign in Lakewood to challenge the sitting governor by backing Josh Gottheimer in the Democratic primary have contributed to the strained relationship between Lakewood and Trenton? Gottheimer ultimately finished behind the leading candidates, and since then, residents have seen state aid cuts and a lack of the cooperative relationship with Trenton that the township needs. That does not prove the campaign caused those decisions, but it raises a fair question: were the potential consequences for Lakewood considered before local political leaders chose to take that position?

If these political decisions may affect state funding, municipal taxes, and the financial burden on every homeowner, shouldn't the community be consulted before a small group makes those choices on its behalf? Residents are the ones who ultimately pay the price, and they deserve transparency about the risks, the strategy, and the consequences not explanations after the damage is done.

The Vaad’s Own Legitimacy Is at Issue

There is also a fundamental question of how the Vaad itself is constituted. The Shulchan Aruch discusses the appointment of  7 Tovei Ha'ir community leaders entrusted with managing communal affairs. Rather than decisions being controlled by a small, anonymous group, the community deserves a fair and transparent process that allows its members to be represented and have a meaningful voice in choosing its leadership.

How can the Vaad expect the entire kehilla to accept its political endorsements when so many residents have no say in who makes those decisions? A system that asks the community to follow its voting instructions, without giving that same community a meaningful voice in its own leadership, raises serious questions of accountability and representation.

The Condescension Toward Lakewood Residents

Beyond the taxes, the busing crisis, and the lack of accountability, there is another fundamental problem with the VAAD’s approach: the condescending assumption that grown adults need to be told whom to vote for.

Lakewood residents are taxpayers, business owners, and working families who are perfectly capable of thinking for themselves, evaluating candidates, and deciding what is best for their community. Yet every election season, the VAAD launches its campaign of mailers and robocalls as though the public cannot make informed decisions without being instructed how to vote.

This approach is not only patronizing; it is insulting to the intelligence of Lakewood residents. A community deserves information, transparency, and an honest discussion of the issues  not directives from an anonymous group that expects its endorsements to be accepted without question.

The residents of Lakewood are not children, and the VAAD does not own their votes.** If the VAAD wants to earn the community’s respect, it should start by respecting the intelligence, independence, and right of every resident to make their own decisions.