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Superintendent of Elections Patricia DiCostanzo and Deputy Superintendent Theresa M. O'Connor reminisce about working together for nearly three decades. NorthJersey.com

Ronald Joseph Lin was born in Hoboken in 1981. His immigrant parents had arrived from Taiwan a year earlier and decided thatto honor America, they would name their new son after then-President Ronald Reagan.

Asian immigrantsrevere authority figures, Lin said, and his parents thought what better way to celebrate being an American than naming their first born after the nation's top office holder.As Taiwanese immigrants, his parents also appreciated Reagan's traditional values, headded.

When Lin'sson was born last June, he knew he had to name him Donald after the Republican then in the White House, Donald Trump.

Republican Ronald Lin is running for Bergen County Commissioner and says he's the first Asian American candidate for the county board. "Asian values are very conservative," he said.(Photo: Mary Chao)

A staunch conservative since his days on the debate team at Fair Lawn High School, Lin, 39, of Franklin Lakes,announcedhis candidacy in February for Bergen County commissioner as a Republican. Alawyer who works asan adjunct professor at two universities in China, Lin said he is the first countywide candidate of Asian descent in a county where 17%of thepopulationidentifies as Asian.

"The current state of county one-party rule is wrong,"said Lin, adding he is running because he believes that a two-party checks-and-balance system is the best way to govern.

Lin is entering the racein a decidedly blue county.The sevencounty commissioners are all Democratic and Democratic voters vastly outnumber Republicans in the county. Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential electionin Bergen County,58% to 41% for Trump.

Asian Americans followed suit, casting 67% of their ballots for Biden and running mate Kamala Harris, whose mother is from India.

Still, Trump made surprising headway among Latino voters and had modest gains among African Americans as well, according to a review of the 2020 vote by data analysis groupCatalist. Lin is yet anther reminder that communities of color are far from monolithic when it comes to culture and politics.

"Asian values are very conservative," he said.

The seven members of the Bergen County Board of commissioners are elected at-large to three-year, staggered terms. They take office early in January, following the November election.

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There are two seats on the ballot in November. Democratic incumbents Steven Tanelli, the board chairman, and Tracy S. Zur will face Lin and Republican running mate Tim Walsh.

If elected, Lin said he would restore fiscal responsibility to county government.

"I would provide a sense of oversight and accountability," Lin said.

A commissioner is a legislator on the county level.The commissioners act as the county's legislative body, much as the U.S. Congress or the state Legislature, giving advice and consent to the actions of the county executive.

Lin has lived in Bergen County for the past 30 years. His father Jui-Ho worked as a data analystfor Citigroup while his mother Meili was a homemaker. His younger brother George is a news analyst at NBC network.

Lin now lives in Franklin Lakes with his wife Ivy and his son Donald. He teaches part-time remotely for Shanghai University of Political Science and Law and Zhejiang University. He's passedup full-time opportunities in China to live in New Jersey, he said.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the fastest growing racial group in the country, according to the non-profit APIA Vote.In the 2020 Asian American Voter Survey of 1,569 Asian American registered voters, majorities of Asian American registered voters said they would support Democratic over Republican candidates in House and Senate races.

If you don't get involved, you're excluded.

There is a generation gap when it comes to politics in Asian families, said Daniel Park, a Democratic councilman in Tenafly. The younger generation tend tohave more progressive values while the older generation is more conservative politically, Park said.

Lin said he grew up in a family that instilled in him the power of self-reliance. His family believes in law and order, which he described as atraditional Republican value.

Lin is a supporter of Donald Trump and said America did well thanks to his trade policies. He believes that media is biased againstTrump. Linhas attended two to three Trump rallies which have been peaceful gatherings, he said.

Lin does not believe Trump incited rioters during the January storming of the Capitol.

"The storming of the Capitol on January 6th was an unfortunate and tragic occurrence and it's something that I condemn sharply," he said. "I don't think any sensible person would condone such behavior and it's certainly something that the Republican Party along with President Trump strongly decried. The reality of the matter is that President Trump was telling his supporters that day to march and protest patriotically and peacefully."

Lin said while it is a hard truth to swallow, Trump lost the election.

"Biden won the presidency with over 81 million votes which is the most in history, all while campaigning from his basement," he said. "Nevertheless, we accept the outcome of the 2020 election because that's what we do as Republicans and patriotic Americans. We don't whine and moan and carry out a three-year long vindictive witch hunt against a president we didn't want. Instead, we lick our wounds, get back up and we'll right this wrong in the coming years."

Bergen County Republican chairman Jack Zisa welcomedLin to the slate of Republican candidates. With the county's large Asian population, it's important for the group to see representation, he said.

"Republicans are far more inclusive than what the media wants to portray," Zisa said.

Park said diversity and inclusivity are core values in the Democratic party. The party is always consciously seeking candidates of color, aware of the need for representation. He was recruited to run for Tenafly Council after volunteering on the 2012 Obama campaign and has since recruited other Korean Americans to run for local office.

The Asian culture instills humility, so many in the community arereticent to get involved in politics, Lin said. He's trying to change that reluctance.

"If you don't get involved, you're excluded," he said.

A 2018 survey of Asian Americans in New Jersey found the economy and healthcare were the community's top concerns, followed by education, gun control and national security. Thesurvey was conducted by Jersey Promise, a nonprofitpolicy and advocacy group serving Asian Americans.

While a commissioner would not decide on issues such as gun control, Lin has been asked where he stands on the issue onthe campaign trail. When he recently told a voter that he supports the right the bear arms, that voter disagreed, he said.

In politics, Lin said, "you have to have thick skin."

Mary Chao covers the Asian community andreal estate for NorthJersey.com.To get unlimited access to the latest news out of North Jersey,please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email:mchao@northjersey.com

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This Trump-loving Republican wants to be the first Asian American on Bergen County board - NorthJersey.com

More than 100 Republicans, including some former elected officials, are preparing to release a letter this week threatening to form a third party if the Republican Party does not make certain changes, according to an organizer of the effort.

The statement is expected to take aim at former President Donald J. Trumps stranglehold on Republicans, which signatories to the document have deemed unconscionable.

When in our democratic republic, forces of conspiracy, division, and despotism arise, it is the patriotic duty of citizens to act collectively in defense of liberty and justice, reads the preamble to the full statement, which is expected to be released on Thursday.

The effort comes as House Republican leaders are expected on Wednesday to oust Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming from their ranks because of her outspoken criticism of Mr. Trumps election lies.

This is a first step, said Miles Taylor, an organizer of the effort and a former Trump-era Department of Homeland Security official who anonymously wrote a book condemning the Trump administration. In October, Mr. Taylor acknowledged he was the author of both the book and a 2018 New York Times Op-Ed article.

This is us saying that a group of more than 100 prominent Republicans think that the situation has gotten so dire with the Republican Party that it is now time to seriously consider whether an alternative might be the only option, he said.

The list of people signing the statement includes former officials at both the state and national level who once were governors, members of Congress, ambassadors, cabinet secretaries, state legislators and Republican Party chairmen, Mr. Taylor said.

Mr. Taylor declined to name the signers. Reuters reported earlier that the former governors Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania and Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey will sign it, as will former Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters and former Representatives Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, Barbara Comstock of Virginia, Reid Ribble of Wisconsin and Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma.

Mr. Taylor declined on Tuesday to reveal the specific changes that the coalition was planning to demand of the Republican Party in its statement.

Im still a Republican, but Im hanging on by the skin of my teeth because how quickly the party has divorced itself from truth and reason, Mr. Taylor said. Im one of those in the group that feels very strongly that if we cant get the G.O.P. back to a rational party that supports free minds, free markets, and free people, Im out and a lot of people are coming with me.

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Over 100 Republicans, Including Former Officials, Threaten to Split from GOP - The New York Times

WASHINGTON Four months after supporters of President Donald J. Trump stormed the Capitol in a deadly riot, a growing number of Republicans in Congress are mounting a wholesale effort to rewrite the history of what happened on Jan. 6, downplaying or outright denying the violence and deflecting efforts to investigate it.

Their denialism which has intensified for weeks and was on vivid display this week at a pair of congressional hearings is one reason that lawmakers have been unable to agree on forming an independent commission to scrutinize the assault on the Capitol. Republicans have insisted that any inquiry include an examination of violence by antifa, a loose collective of antifascist activists, and Black Lives Matter. It also reflects an embrace of misinformation that has become a hallmark of the Republican Party in the age of Mr. Trump.

A denial of finding the truth is what we have to deal with, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday. We have to find the truth, and we are hoping to do so in the most bipartisan way possible.

She drew a direct link between Republicans ouster of Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming as their No. 3 leader a move that stemmed from Ms. Cheneys vocal repudiations of Mr. Trumps election lies, which inspired the riot and their refusal to acknowledge the reality of what happened on Jan. 6.

A House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on the riot on Wednesday underlined the Republican strategy. Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, the chairman of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, used his time to show video of mob violence purportedly by antifa that had unfolded 2,800 miles away in Portland, Ore.

His fellow Freedom Caucus member, Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina, used his turn to question whether rioters involved in the Capitol attack had actually been Trump supporters despite their Trump shirts, hats and flags, Make America Great Again paraphernalia, and pro-Trump chants and social media posts.

I dont know who did the poll to say that they were Trump supporters, Mr. Norman said.

Another Republican, Representative Andrew Clyde of Georgia, described the scene during the assault nearly 140 were injured and at least five people died in connection with the riot as appearing like a normal tourist visit to the Capitol.

Lets be honest with the American people: It was not an insurrection, Mr. Clyde said, adding that the House floor was never breached and that no firearms had been confiscated. There was an undisciplined mob. There were some rioters, and some who committed acts of vandalism.

He then asked Jeffrey A. Rosen, who was the acting attorney general at the time of the attack, whether he considered it an insurrection, or a riot with vandalism, similar to what we saw last summer, apparently referring to racial justice protests that swept across the country.

Immediately after the attack, many Republicans joined Democrats in condemning the violent takeover of the building known as the citadel of American democracy. But in the weeks that followed, Mr. Trump, abetted by right-wing news outlets and a few members of Congress, pushed the fiction that it had been carried out by antifa and Black Lives Matter, a claim that the federal authorities have repeatedly debunked. Now, a much broader group of Republican lawmakers have settled on a more subtle effort to cloud and distort what happened.

The approach has hampered the creation of an independent commission, modeled after the one that delved into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, to look into the Capitol riot, its roots and the governments response. Ms. Pelosi said discussions had stalled given Republicans insistence on including unrelated groups and events, and that Democrats might be forced to undertake their own inquiry through existing House committees if the G.O.P. would not drop the demand.

Now were getting this outrageous Orwellian revisionist history, where Donald Trump is out there saying that his most loyal followers came in literally, he said, hugging and kissing the Capitol officers, said Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland. My colleagues should stop with all of the evasions, the diversions and the distractions. Lets figure out what happened to us on that day.

Republicans involved in the effort to shift attention from the Jan. 6 attack argue they are merely pointing out hypocrisy by Democrats, who want to investigate supporters of the former president but not those aligned with movements on the left. The topic took center stage this week over Ms. Cheneys ouster.

Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the top House Republican, has insisted the commission must investigate left-wing violence, while Ms. Cheney publicly undercut him by arguing that it should be narrowly focused on the events of Jan. 6.

That kind of intense, narrow focus threatens people in my party who may have been playing a role they should not have been playing, Ms. Cheney said in an interview broadcast on Thursday on NBC.

Ms. Cheney may have been referring to the fact that some Republicans actively pushed Mr. Trumps lie that the election had been stolen from him, urging their supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6 to make a defiant last stand to keep him in power. The lawmakers linked arms with the organizers of the so-called Stop the Steal protest that preceded the riot and used inflammatory language to describe the stakes.

There is also deep concern among Republicans that an independent investigation will focus negative attention on their party as the 2022 midterm elections near. And many Republicans say they are listening to their voters, who continue to want them to stand with Mr. Trump and oppose Mr. Bidens victory as illegitimate.

Representative Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois and a supporter of Ms. Cheney, said a sort of circular logic had taken hold of his party, in which Mr. Trump makes false statements, his supporters believe them and then Republican lawmakers who need backing from those voters to get re-elected repeat them.

The reality is, you cant blame people that think the election was stolen, because thats all they hear from their leaders, Mr. Kinzinger said. Its leaders job to tell the truth even if thats uncomfortable, and thats not what were doing.

Instead, Republicans are portraying themselves and their supporters as victims of a scheme by Democrats to silence them for their beliefs.

Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona, one of the leading proponents in Congress of the Stop the Steal movement, used his time at the hearing this week to accuse the Justice Department of harassing peaceful patriots across the country.

Outright propaganda and lies are being used to unleash the national security state against law-abiding U.S. citizens, especially Trump voters, he said.

Representative Jody B. Hice, Republican of Georgia, painted Trump loyalists as the true casualties of the Jan. 6 attack.

It was Trump supporters who lost their lives that day, he said, not Trump supporters who were taking the lives of others.

Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting.

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How Republicans Aim to Rewrite the History of the Capitol Riot - The New York Times

The group takes issue with the party's embrace of former President Donald Trump.

May 13, 2021, 3:20 PM

5 min read

More than 100 Republicans, including some former elected officials, have signed a letter threatening to break from the GOP and form a third party, taking aim at the party's embrace of former President Donald Trump and his continued false claims that the 2020 election was "stolen."

"[W]hen in our democratic republic, forces of conspiracy, division, and despotism arise, it is the patriotic duty of citizens to act collectively in defense of liberty and justice," read the preamble to their letter released Thursday. "We, therefore, declare our intent to catalyze an American renewal, and to either reimagine a party dedicated to our founding ideals or else hasten the creation of such an alternative."

Naming the effort, "A Call for American Renewal," the group is calling for the Republican Party "to rededicate itself to founding idealsor else hasten the creation of an alternative."

President Donald Trump boards Air Force One before departing Harlingen, Texas, Jan. 21, 2021.

Miles Taylor, the former Trump Department of Homeland Security official who anonymously wrote a book and New York Times op-ed criticizing the Trump administration, co-organized the effort, which includes former members of Congress, governors, ambassadors, Cabinet secretaries, state legislators and Republican Party chairs among the 152 signatories.

The initiative's website indicates it's an extension of Stand Up Republic and The Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform (REPAIR), another group organized by Taylor that calls for reforms to the Republican Party.

Though most are retired and haven't announced plans to run for office, notable names include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and former Transportation Secretary under George W. Bush, Mary Peters. Former congressional representatives include Barbara Comstock of Virginia, Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, Reid Ribble of Wisconsin and Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma. Former Trump press secretary Anthony Scaramucci and official Olivia Troye also signed the statement.

Miles Taylor in Washington, DC, Nov. 16, 2020.

The effort comes on the heels of House Republican leaders voting to remove Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney from leadership because of her continued criticism of Trump and his baseless claims that the 2020 election was "stolen."

Cheney, in an interview with NBC's "Today Show" which aired Wednesday, warned that Republicans won't be able to convince voters to trust their agenda "if we are building our party on a foundation of lies."

The coalition teased more action to come including a town hall on "renewing America," saying it "cannot stay quiet in the face of rising political extremism."

ABC News' Katherine Faulders contributed to this report.

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Over 100 Republicans sign letter threatening to form third party - ABC News

A hospital in Uttar Pradesh, Indias most populous state, is being charged under the countrys National Security Act for sounding the alarm over a lack of oxygen that resulted in Covid deaths. The hospitals owner and manager says police have accused him of false scaremongering, after he stated publicly that four patients died on a single day when oxygen ran out.

Since Covid-19 exploded in India, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, seems to be trying to the control the news more than the outbreak. On Wednesday, India recorded nearly 363,000 cases and 4,120 deaths, about 30% of worldwide deaths that day. But experts say India is vastly understating the true number. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown Universitys School of Public Health, estimates at least 25,000 Indians are dying from Covid each day.

The horror has been worsened by shortages of oxygen and hospital beds. Yet Modi and his government dont want the public to get the true story.

One big lesson from the Covid crisis: lying makes it worse.

Vladimir Putin is busily denying the truth about Covid in Russia. Demographer Alexei Raksha, who worked at Russias official statistical agency, Rosstat, but says he was forced to leave last summer for telling the truth about Covid, claims daily data has been smoothed, rounded, lowered to look better. Like many experts, he uses excess mortality the number of deaths during the pandemic over the typical number of deaths as the best indicator.

If Russia stops at 500,000 excess deaths, that will be a good scenario, he calculates.

Russia was first out of the gate with a vaccine but has fallen woefully behind on vaccinations. Recent polling puts the share of Russians who dont want to be vaccinated at 60% to 70%. Thats because Putin and other officials have focused less on vaccinating the public than on claiming success in containing Covid.

The US is suffering a similar problem the legacy of another strongman, Donald Trump. Although more than half of US adults have received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine, more than 40% of Republicans have consistently told pollsters they wont get vaccinated. Their recalcitrance is threatening efforts to achieve herd immunity and prevent the viruss spread.

Like Modi and Putin, Trump minimized the seriousness of the pandemic and spread misinformation about it. Trump officials ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to downplay its severity. He declined to get vaccinated publicly and was noticeably absent from a public service announcement on vaccination that featured all other living former presidents.

Trump allies in the media have conducted a scare campaign about the vaccines. In December, Fox News host Laura Ingraham posted a story on Facebook from the Daily Mail purporting to show evidence that Chinese communist party loyalists worked at pharmaceutical companies that developed the coronavirus vaccine.

As recently as mid-April, Fox News host Tucker Carlson opined that if the vaccine were truly effective, thered be no reason for people who received it to wear masks or avoid physical contact.

So maybe it doesnt work, he said, and theyre simply not telling you that.

Why then should anyone be surprised at the reluctance of Trump Republicans to get vaccinated? A recent New York Times analysis showed vaccination rates to be lower in counties where a majority voted for Trump in 2020. States that voted more heavily for Trump are also states where lower percentages of the population have been vaccinated.

The Republican pollster Frank Luntz says Trump bears responsibility for the hesitancy of GOP voters to be vaccinated.

He wants to get the credit for developing the vaccine, Luntz said. Then he also gets the blame for so few of his voters taking it.

Trumps Republican party is coming to resemble other authoritarian regimes around the world in other respects as well purging truth tellers and trucking in lies, misinformation and propaganda harmful to the public.

This week the GOP stripped Liz Cheney of her leadership position for telling the truth about the 2020 election. At last weeks congressional hearing about the 6 January attack on the Capitol, one Republican, Andrew Clyde, even denied it happened.

There was no insurrection, he said. To call it an insurrection is a bold-faced lie you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.

Biden says he plans to call a summit of democratic governments to contain the rise of authoritarianism around the world. I hope he talks about its rise in the US too and the huge toll its already taken on Americans.

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Republican Covid lies follow foreign strongmens lead and are deadly for it - The Guardian