Years ago, House Speaker Tip O’Neill asserted “All politics is local.” The GOP listened and followed up; Democrats didn’t. As a result, in November, Republicans not only swept control of the United States Congress and Executive; it garnered control of the vast majority of Governorships and state legislatures.

In 2017, New Jersey voters will decide if the governor and state lawmakers can balance the budget by raiding environmental settlements.

In what is probably not mere coincidence, census data reveal that Sussex County has some of the worst work commutes in New Jersey, along with the highest rate of people fleeing their towns.

It began happening in the ’90s—mostly throughout the South, the Midwest and the Southwest: Right-wing opponents of public education, often with an evangelical bent, began quietly taking over local school boards. Book bannings and bizarre curricula such as “creation science” followed closely behind.  So did the push to establish charter schools—publicly funded by privately run education institutions with various degrees of oversight.

Recent events in North Carolina and New Jersey couldn’t have been arranged better to highlight the importance of electing a progressive legislature—and keeping up the pressure on it—even in the midst of a national decline in democracy.

Almost 1 million workers in New Jersey labor for the minimum wage of $8.38 an hour, well below what it costs to provide basic support to a single adult. But relief won’t be coming while Chris Christie is still in office.