Tom Gordon- Legislative News - June 2007

Thank you to all our hard working members of ABATE. The letters to your elected officials are paying off. On my recent trip to Trenton I met with several members of our Assembly. They all noted they know about ABATE and are aware of bills A-3701, AJR 110 and our Ten Points.

Please read the legislative press release for 5-14-2007 concerning our progress on AJR - 110 Designating May as Motorcycle Awareness Month.

We have biker friendly candidate running for President! Former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson has launched his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. He has always been motorcycle friendly and is supported by biker’s rights organizations. Please go www.teamtommy.org and www.tommy2008.com for more information.

On the federal level legislation has been introduced to close the loophole allowing union’s and health insurance providers to deny insurance coverage for accidents that stem from horseback riding, snowmobiling, snow skiing, motorcycle riding etc. Please contact Senator Lautenberg and Senator Menendez to support US Senate bill S 616. Also contact your representative in the House of Representatives to support the same bill HR 2006.

On the state level we need to have every one keep on contacting their representatives to keep our pending bills moving along. The latest bill that needs our support is Senate Bill 1004 introduced by Senator Sweeney (D-3). This bill is consistent with the AMA (American Motorcyclist Association) Justice for All Campaign. Those convicted of right of way offences that result in harm to others will face increased fines and jail time. In my last report I mention that was a similar bill A-3613. This was false information that I passed on from another MRO source.

Please keep up the correspondence with your legislators on these bills.

Establishes a splitting task force A- 3701.

Your legislative committee will be contacting Senator Madden and Sweeney to have a senate version of A3701.

Please when you contact your elected officials ask them for a written reply. Let them know you are a member of ABATE of the Garden State- a state motorcycle rights organization. Remind them this is an election year and we will be looking at getting motorcycle friendly people elected in office. Tell them it is not acceptable to let bills introduced die in committees because they refuse to act upon them

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We are not inventing anything new. As concerned citizens and motorcyclist in New Jersey we want the same rights as other states. We all want New Jersey to be a safer and better place to ride our motorcycle.

Is anyone interested going to Washington DC to meet with the MRF and then going to Capital Hill to meet with your member of the House of Representatives?

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Ride Safe!

American by Birth/ Biker by Choice

Tom Gordon