Field Challenging Singer for Senate Seat

• New Brunswick Restaurant Week To Feature 23 Local…
• 4-Year-Old Shoots 6-Year-Old, Diner Manager Charged in…
• NBFD Gains Nine New Firemen
• Heat Advisory in Effect for Middlesex County

He also ran for town council in 2006, but withdrew from the ballot due to "personal reasons."

Field has served as a Democratic Committeman in Howell since 2004, and spent several years heading an organization of parents with kids in Howell Middle School's music program. 

He aspires for higher office because, "we need decent people in office," Field said.

Field said that he is not a politician, but rather a student of politics with a fresh view on issues. His town of Howell and the nearby shore towns are underrepresented, he said, and claimed that the majority of Singer's focus is on Lakewood. 

The state is mired in "entrenched" politicians in both parties and bi-partisan cooperation between parties is underutilized, he said. 

"We have in my part of New Jersey a very entrenched Republican in office," he said. "They are entrenched all over the state, Republican and Democrat both," he said. 

Field said his interest in politics started young, when his parents were politically active in Bridgeton during the civil rights movement.

Field said he remembers being seven years old and marching in the streets with adults singing "We shall overcome," following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.

"I still remember that really, really well," he said.

As a teenager living in Delaware, Field again entered politics in 1972 when his mother took interest in a young politician by the name of Joe Biden. They spent the summer campaigning for Biden's first Senate run, and when he won, he gave the Fields a tour of the capital, he said.

"I do have a picture of me and him at his backyard victory party," Fields said.

On Field's website, he lists the state's main problems as the state economy, the environment and the effects of Hurricane Sandy, and education.

To solve those issues, a good politician needs to look past partisan groups, he said. 
"It's not my agenda to be nice to a certain circle of people," he said. "I (have to) look after everybody under my care."

The shore towns in his district are still recovering from Sandy, and many of the small businesses there have had to take out loans while waiting for FEMA money, Field said, something that could have been avoided had the state been more aggressive in aiding those locals. 

To avoid those kinds of hardships, politicians need to be more in tuned with regular people, he said. 

"(We have to) make sure we're listening to everybody in the district, teachers, parents, police, everybody, so the problems around here are going to get paid attention to," he said. 

Field said his grassroots campaign is working its way through public meet and greets and door to door canvassing. He said he is finding people looking for something new in the shore towns and the Lakewood area.

Lakewood itself may be his biggest challenge, with approximately 100,000 residents in an area that has underperforming schools and a very diverse population, he said.

"There's the notion of Lakewood being monolithically Republican, but it doesn't have to be," he said."

For more information on William Field, visit www.fieldforsenate.com.