Saily Avelenda is a lawyer active with NJ 11th for Change, a group formed to pressure Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen to meet with his constituents.  Until recently, the West Caldwell resident was also was a senior vice president and assistant general counsel at Lakeland Bank.  But then ...

Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat and former federal prosecutor, wants Rodney Frelinghuysen’s seat in the House of Representatives.

Time to say so long to Rodney.

Career politician U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11) is in his 12th term representing a solidly Republican district comprising five Sussex County towns—Byram, Hopatcong, Ogdensburg, Stanhope and Sparta—and Morris County, which has the highest concentration of Republicans in the state. He has risen to the chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee, arguably one of the most powerful offices in the nation.

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11), chairman of the powerful House Appropriations committee, is caught between the proverbial rock and hard place, under pressure from the extreme right wing of his party for opposing the first version of Trump/Ryancare, and under pressure from his non-extreme-right-wing constituents for everything else he has done in the past several years, as well as refusing to meet with them face to face in Town Hall-style meetings.

For a variety of reasons, the Great Recession of 2008, which wiped out many retirement accounts, together with the high cost of healthcare, the vast majority of Americans, even those at the tail end of the baby boom who are on the verge of retirement, have little to nothing saved or invested for their “Golden Years.”

Entrenched in the House of Representatives for what is now his 12th term and holding the powerful chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen would seem to be sitting pretty.

The 2016 election demonstrated—in a yuge way!—that conventional wisdom about American politics, especially the “rush to the center” and the notion of independent thought within parties, no longer applies.  Which is probably bad news for Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (CD-11) who has so far held on to his seat for a whopping 12 terms and parlayed himself into the chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee, one of the most powerful posts in the nation.

Unsuccessful at getting their representative to meet them on home turf, three busses filled with activists organized by New Jersey 11th for Change took their quest to Rodney Frelinghuysen’s (R-11) office in Washington, D.C., and some of them got a face-to-face meeting with the formerly reclusive congressman.

The Republicans in power are insisting that their epic failure to destroy the Affordable Care Act (which they’d been promising to do the instant they got in charge) and replace it with the tax-cuts-for-the-rich bill Donald Trump apparently thought was “really terrific” on Democrats. They just wouldn’t support it (well, they got that part right.)

U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11) whose district includes the Sussex County municipalities of Byram, Hopatcong, Ogdensburg, Sparta and Stanhope, said Friday he would vote “no” on the administration’s “replacement” for the Affordable Care Act. Frelinghuysen is the new chairman of the power House Appropriations Committee.