Congrats on the citizenship. It's initially a bit difficult to get into (local) politics but I'd first make sure you know where your polling station will be and what will be on your specific ballot. You can just use the official NJ state gov site (https://www.nj.gov/state/elections/vote.shtml) to find out more information. If you're curious about what your ballot looks like online visit this site (https://ballotpedia.org/Sample_Ballot_Lookup)

I'll also say that politics in NJ/US is highly localized and regional. It's really easy to get swayed by national politics but what really matters is your local council from the municipal to county and state. How involved you want to get is really up to you, from voting once a year and reading national headlines to attending local council meetings and staying up to date on mayor & council M&A minutes.

This seems like such a non-issue. She receives these perks because she's the governor and her Lt. gets the same perks. Once she steps away from the governorship, I assume she loses her traffic privileges. I read the article and it simply states that it's a security measure for the governor. The rest of the article is just pandering to people who like to bitch and moan about the government without having a high school civics-level understanding of how things work. It's understandable for a governor to have special privileges while also working on traffic congestion bills.