Dave Garey

Correspondent

Julie Saporito-Acuña, of Parlin, owner of the Kinder Campus Learning Center preschool in Jackson and a volunteer with the Green Party of New Jersey since 2012, is now the party's chair.

Saporito-Acuña believes voters will be impressed by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein's willingness to "take random questions" and "stop to listen to anyone."

Former supporters of Bernie Sanders are among the voters the Green Party of New Jersey hopes to attract.

Julie Saporito-Acuña has heard the argument countless times in recent weeks.

Why bother voting for a third-party presidential candidate, if all they'll supposedly do is play spoiler for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump?

But the newly installed, 31-year-old chairperson of the Green Party of New Jersey (GPNJ) isn't buying it.

"Every four years, we hear that same argument, and yet we keep electing presidents and other public officials who don't get the job done," said Saporito-Acuña, of Parlin, an ardent supporter of Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein.

READ: Letter: Jill Stein the environmental choice

READ: Hillary Clinton is having another bad time in Iowa

The theme has become a battle cry for the Jill 2016 campaign, emblazoned on a T-shirt Saporito-Acuña wears that calls upon the public to vote for "The Greater Good, Not The Lesser Evil."

A tireless Green Party volunteer since 2012, Saporito-Acuña, owner of the Kinder Campus Learning Center preschool in Jackson, was busy last weekend helping scout the route for this Saturday's March for Environmental Justice in Red Bank, at which Stein will speak.

Stein will then hold a town-hall meeting and rally at the Rutgers Student Center in New Brunswick on Saturday evening.

"She's on fire!" Saporito-Acuña said of Stein, 66, a retired physician and Harvard Medical School instructor who was the Green Party's presidential nominee in 2012.

"I have had several exchanges with Jill. She is an extremely positive person for the amount of fighting she's doing, and the amount of despair she's witnessing."

Voters will be impressed by Stein's empathy and approachability, Saporito-Acuña said.

"She has a very big heart," she said. "She'll take random questions from anyone, and she'll stop to listen to anyone."

But Saporito-Acuña believes the relevance of the Green Party's platform, and Stein's embodiment of the party's message, will fuel the candidate's appeal to New Jerseyans.

Stein fronts a Green state ticket that also features two candidates for Congress: Dr. Rajit Malliah, of Piscataway (6th District), and Steven Welzer, of East Windsor (12th District), and Camden City Council candidate Gary Frazier Jr.

Stein's key platform issues (accessible at http://www.jill2016.com/plan) are establishing a welcoming path to citizenship for immigrants, a Medicare For All single-payer health insurance program, creating millions of jobs by transitioning to 100 percent clean renewable energy by 2030, cancellation of student debt, advancing the right of workers to unionize and setting a $15 federal minimum wage.

As part of her call for Racial Justice Now, Stein seeks to "end police brutality and mass incarceration," and utilize "police review boards and full-time investigators to look into all cases of death in police custody."

Connecting with voters who would benefit most from the party's policy agenda is crucial, Saporito-Acuña said.

"We are trying to reach people of color in low-income communities because they are most heavily impacted by the corrupt politics that have been going on for so long."

Another targeted group, she said, are "people who've come to the realization that we have to work outside of the Democratic party" — a voter contingent ripe with former supporters of Bernie Sanders.

Rich Harris, of Hackettstown, a former field office manager for Sanders, has emerged as New Jersey's state coordinator for Stein's presidential campaign.

"After the Democratic convention, I felt that I couldn't support Hillary Clinton," said Harris, who assisted with collecting signatures to get Stein on the ballot in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. "I felt that Jill Stein's values were very similar to Bernie's, so I went to the state Green Party's meeting in August, and that's when I officially joined."

Harris said he first met Saporito-Acuña at a training session on how to demonstrate peacefully and avoid conflict with police, and is grateful to have her as a partner in the Green cause.

"She's inspirational, caring and considerate," he said. "She's the one person I know that I can turn to any time of day, who will always get back to me and be of help."

Another recent jumper from the Sanders camp is 15 Now NJ co-founder Brian Powers, of Avenel, who expressed frustration over the inability of Democrats and Republicans to establish a $15 minimum wage.

"Our demand is $15 an hour immediately, with no loopholes or exceptions," said Powers, a public sector workers' representative with CWA Local 1033 in Mercer County.

Powers says the Green Party's refusal to accept corporate donations, inclusive of those from large employers, makes it a true "working-class party."

Having worked in the past with Saporito-Acuña on 15 Now NJ, Powers believes the GPNJ is in good hands.

"Julie is a tremendous activist who genuinely cares about the things we're advocating for. The Green Party is really lucky to have her as a leader," he said.

Saporito-Acuña, who grew up in Freehold, said her passion for social justice was reinforced during her time as a sociology major at the former Saint Peter's College in Jersey City.

"I saw a lot of homelessness," she said. "It was obvious to me that the current system is failing a lot of people."

A former chair of the GPNJ's membership committee, Saporito-Acuña was a delegate at last month's Green Party of the United States Convention at which Stein was nominated for president.

Stein is set to appear as a presidential choice on the ballots of at least 41 states, including New Jersey, with additional states pending.

But despite growing interest in her candidacy, Stein — like her counterpart from the Libertarian Party, Gary Johnson — is being excluded from the upcoming presidential debates.

The reason: a requirement by the Commission on Presidential Debates that participating candidates have at least a 15 percent voter support showing in the polls.

To Saporito-Acuña, the exclusion — over which the Stein and Johnson campaigns unsuccessfully sued the commission — creates a barrier to third-party presidential candidates being heard, ultimately shortchanging voters.

"I think the recent ruling that the government cannot interfere because the commission is a private entity is a farce," she said. "They're pretty much saying the United States public has no say in the presidential debates that are nationally televised."

Nevertheless, Saporito-Acuña says she remains inspired by the swell of grassroots involvement from "Greens" throughout the state — many of whom have just come on board.

"It's exhilarating," she said. "We're getting a lot of positive energy. A lot of people want to help wherever they can."

For more information on the Green Party of New Jersey, Green Party of the United States or the Jill Stein campaign for president, visit www.gpnj.org, www.gp.org, www.facebook.com/GreenPartyofNJ and www.jill2016.com.

If you go

Red Bank

What: March for environmental justice hosted by Green Party of New Jersey, with keynote address by presidential candidate Jill Stein

Where: Starts at Red Bank Train Station; march goes to Riverside Gardens Park, where main assembly will occur, 40 W. Front St., Red Bank

When: 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; march runs approximately from 10:30 to 11 a.m.

New Brunswick

What: Jill Stein campaign rally and town hall forum, with questions invited from the public

Where: Rutgers University Student Center, 126 College Ave., New Brunswick

When: Doors open 5:30 p.m., event runs from 6 to 7:30 p.m.