NJ Cops | Page 7

History in the making The night before the election, when I didn’t sleep, I was thinking, “What if nobody shows up?” Marc Kovar Executive Vice-President I kept hearing from members that they were going to be at The Forge in Woodbridge to work our Election Day phone bank. Or that they would be at the Bergen County “Boots On The Ground” Rally. Or that they would be at the phone bank in Atlantic County. But you actually don’t know. Then, I arrived at the State PBA office that morning, and at 9:30, I heard that 50 members were already at The Forge. And Local 600 members had already filled the conference room at the office to make calls to get out the votes. I was overwhelmed with excitement. Our members were finally believing. All the months of talking and writing and preaching finally came to fruition. We had a room full of people volunteering on their day off. We had members who came in having just worked the midnight, telling me they had not slept but that wasn’t going to stop them from being here. Our efforts made the difference. See Rob Nixon’s analysis on pages 13-14 to get all the details of how the State PBA membership’s political action changed the game for several candidates in the key legislative districts we targeted. But seeing the roomful of women and men also showed that the members truly understand what’s at stake, and that they believe they can make