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JS: When I was growing up, no one seemed particularly political. Both my parents were Democrats. Republicans were just other people. My father used to get to work in a car pool when we were growing up in West Long Branch, NJ. When he got a promotion, we moved to Maryland and then he had a long-distance solo drive to work. He started listening to talk radio to pass the time.

No, they wouldn't seem "particularly political" because that's the norm. Monmouth County is one of the red NJ counties (52.2% Romney, 46.7% BO in 2012). Many of her neighbors probably worked at Fort Monmouth until it closed and operations moved to Maryland. If you removed the strip about 10 miles wide on either side of the Turnpike from New Jersey, the state would vote like Texas.

I don't think Ms. O'Connor spent much time talking to her NJ neighbors. Most of them were probably like her dad to begin with.