as Democrats do damage control over the oread decision and its impact on their environmental agenda there's also concern it could hurt them at the polls next week State GOP members are pounding the pavement ahead of the November 7th legislative election in an effort to gain control of at least one of the chambers in Trenton but with local County and Schoolboard seats also up for grabs there are plenty of other issues with the potential to sway voters for some especially left leaning residents civil liberties are on the ballot as prominent National topics like reproductive and parental rights play out in clashes across the state underscoring the fact that all levels of government can determine those civil freedoms for more on that I'm joined by social justice writer Taylor Jung Taylor thank you so much uh for joining me you reported that voters particularly on the left say they're making ballot decisions based on civil liberties what in particular are these voters being galvanized by yeah I think they're they're just seeing the direction of the Supreme Court over the last couple years not just with row v Wade but with other decisions where they're more conservative leaning and now people feel like their civil liberties are at risk and that could be abortion rights that could also be lgbtqia rights a whole host of different things and I think people are realizing that you know they can't take these things for granted and that they do have to go to the polls and show up and vote for those that they feel like are going to protect their rights but if they're concerned about say the federal level or the Supreme Court what do a local election you know their mayor or a school board have to do with that I think people naturally know more about Federal elections maybe less so about um the more local or state elections and so sometimes they feel or also it does actually happen where those themes carry out through the more again Less Federal more state and local Cs on the Republican side for example a lot of themes about uh parental rights and you know Banning books and schools and things like that are things that are also echoed and talking points at the lower level as well so these are influential um not just issues but also positions when you're casting that ballot I mean these are folks who really have control over your quality of life exactly and I think that's what I think more and more people are also realizing about the state and local level is that these are people that determine your day-to-day life and your rights and in New Jersey for example um there's the New Jersey Voting Rights Act which can also protect the federal Voting Rights Act that people feel like might be at risk at this moment so New Jersey has also protected abortion rights same-sex marriages um so these are some ways that you know our leaders here in the state can also protect our civil liberties you spoke to a couple of political analysts are the parties you know jumping on this and using this to their advantage you would you would think but they're actually not so at least in the Democratic party uh from what I heard from analysts and strategists is just that they're not really speaking to voters and that could be young voters or older voters older voters are more concerned about affordability job stability and we're seeing that you know with striking and work like Place demonstrations younger voters are caring more about what's happening in Israel and Palestine climate Justice also a little bit of job stability and you're just not seeing Democratic candidates putting their neck out on the line to you know talk about more controversial topics because they don't really want to rock their voter base at this moment which tends to be more conservative older voters that they just rely on to keep them in office so very quickly is there an anticipation that this could potentially hurt them at the polls or backfire in a way not now but people are looking towards next year's election federal election with the president's race as a way that could potentially um rock the Democratic party wow all right Taylor Jung for us Taylor thank you so much yes thank you