By Jason Suh ’17, Staff Writer

Even though the next presidential election is still two years away, politicians and voters across the United States will find themselves quite busy in the upcoming weeks. With the 2014 midterm elections approaching, candidates for Senate, House, gubernatorial, and county seats are campaigning to win the votes of eligible citizens throughout the nation. Culminating in Election Day on November 4, this process will ultimately determine the incumbents for each of the open 36 Senate seats and 435 House seats of the 114th United States Congress.

While New Jersey will not be electing a governor during this process, it will be electing one new Senator to sit alongside current senior incumbent Bob Menendez, and 12 new House members to represent each congressional district. Undoubtedly, however, the Senate race has been receiving the majority of the state’s news coverage, with the media centering on Democratic candidate Cory Booker and Republican candidate Jeff Bell. Booker is the current incumbent for New Jersey’s junior Senate seat after being elected following the death of Frank Lautenberg. Prior to this position, Senator Booker acted as the Mayor of Newark, a tenure which has been frequently discussed and brought up during the race. Zach Persing ‘15, the co-president of the Young Republicans club, believes that “Cory Booker was an ineffective Mayor of Newark as Newark’s employment rate went from 8% to 14% and violent crime increased during his time on office.” Zach prefaced this statement by asserting his support for Jeff Bell and his policies, due to “Mr. Bell’s positions on oil fracking, the national debt, term limits, and the Federal Reserve among many others.” Lila Rimalovski ’15, a supporter of Booker, discussed that in a recent debate, “He spoke about collaboration with the Republicans rather than party polarization. Booker is an adamant supporter of raising the minimum wage and a strong pro-choice advocate, two causes I am passionate about as well.” Supporters and opposers alike agree that the incumbent Senator will likely retain his position.  “[Bell] will ultimately fall because of the fact that New Jersey has 1 million more registered Democrats than Republicans,” said Zach. “The Registration disparity will be too much to overcome.” The school community largely supports Booker as 45 of 58 students polled said they would vote for Booker if they could. Of those 58 students, 28 of them identified themselves as Democrats, 9 as Republicans and 21 as Independents. While the Democrats are likely to win New Jersey, they are largely projected to lose control of Congress. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Annenberg survey found that 52% of voters said “they wanted the election to produce a Republican-led Congress, while 41% favored Democratic control.”

Although overshadowed by the Senate elections, the races for House seats are significant as well. Of particular note is the competition to represent New Jersey’s 11th congressional district, which contains Essex County, Morris County, Passaic County, and Sussex County. There are only two candidates running for this specific election: Republican Rodney Frelinghuysen, who has served 10 consecutive terms, and Democrat Mark Dunec. In the aforementioned poll of Newark Academy students, 27 said they would vote for Dunec while 25 said they would vote for Frelinghuysen. Despite that, he is unlikely to win the conservative district.

Newark Academy’s popular teacher of 52 years, Mr. Parlin, reflected on the current state of politics in the nation,“It is a depressing time for our country, with the failure of politicians to face bigger issues. Trust in politicians is at an all time low.” This is especially true after the government shutdown of October 2013 epitomized the government’s apparent inability to pass laws. The stalemate will only get worse if Republicans do take control of Congress because President Obama will surely make liberal use of his veto power.