January 1998
Election '97 Ballot Measures
NJ: Libertarian stops "luxury" sewer project
It took 12,000 flyers, 5,000 phone calls, and three billboards -- but a New Jersey Libertarian helped defeat a proposed $88 million sewer construction project that was supported by the "reigning politicians" of his town.
Libertarian William Wallace was the driving force behind the campaign in Hopatcong, N.J., to quash the tax-funded sewer project, which would have cost town residents up to $350 a month per household.
On November 4th, Hopatcong voters defeated the proposal by 63% of the vote.
"Being a lower middle-class rural community, an $88 million-dollar sanitary sewer is an unaffordable luxury akin to having your own built-in pool, with heater," said Wallace. "For most Hopatcong residents, it's actually an impossibility."
But before Wallace started his campaign, the project seemed like a sure bet.
Alarmist propaganda
"Armed with volumes of misinformation, pseudo-scientific/environmental reports, alarmist propaganda, and a township budget to pay for it all, the mayor and friends had wooed residents into supporting the plan," he said.But the mayor hadn't counted on Wallace.
"First, I created a hard-hitting, one-page flier explaining the impossibility of residents to afford the proposed sewers," he said. "12,000 were printed and distributed."
Then, Wallace created a 60-second announcement that was phoned to all residents via computer telemarketing program.
"This ran for one week," he said. "In all, about 5,000 phone calls were made."
Three large billboards
And, finally, Wallace unveiled his trump card: "A few dozen roadside signs, and three large billboards featuring the cost of the sewer project in big bold letters," he said -- a cost that was a "few million more than a six-lane suspension bridge recently erected over the Missouri River."The multi-media barrage turned the tables, he said, and the project was voted down by a solid majority of voters.
But Wallace may not get out of the sewer-fighting business yet, he said: "The mayor and friends are currently working on another angle for next year."
