Shulman Wins

Dennis Shulman has won the primary to take on Representative Scott Garrett in the fall. As of this writing, Shulman is winning 60% of the vote.

I took the opportunity to check out the Shulman headquarters. I was very impressed with not only the local support, but the national interest in this race. There is a definite sense of family among his staff, among other things they sang Happy Birthday to a volunteer who put in something like a 14 hour day at that point.

I was able to speak with Shulman for a little bit about the race. The excellent sense of humor he has a reputation for is well earned. He is very genuine, which if enough people get to meet him should help against Garrett.

It should be very interesting to see how this race plays out. I'll post any official statements from Shulman, Camille Abate or Garrett should they become available.

Let the games begin. Yippee.

Abate Getting Nasty

Well, the earlier dust up over at Blue Jersey definitely pales in comparison to what has being going on for the last 24 hours. Camille Abate sent out a rather nasty mail piece attacking Dennis Shulman regarding his comments made regarding Iraq. In response, there has to be a record breaking number of comments regarding the Abate mailer I still have yet to receive.

While I'm concerned about how easy it will be to paint Shulman with the Federal investigation into the BCDO's top people (I could write the ads in my sleep); Abate's campaign over the last two weeks or so has planted some seeds of concern about the type of Representative she'd be.

First there was the talk on health care from the New Jersey Herald debate:

Shulman said he would encourage bipartisan discussion to establish such a program, but Abate said she would not "because there has been too much talk already," inciting applause from the audience.

I'm not sure why that comment sent chills down my spine, and nobody else has focused on it. The idea of replacing one ideologue with another is rather unappealing. Barry Goldwater understood that politics demands compromise, and it's one of Representative Scott Garrett's worst traits as a Representative that he is so unbelievably partisan.

Second, this whole mailer business. Why?

In a year where a record number of new voters are being brought in or returned to the process with the promise of a rejection of the politics of the past, this type of mailer should have been left on the shelf.

Overselling and underachieving are the hallmark of Garrett's time as our Representative (ex. AMT's still there; our tax dollar return has gone down). As I noted earlier, most voters know that no single Representative has the power to bring the troops home. Therefore, no Representative can be "trusted" to do the job, because "trusting" them to do the job implies a power they do not possess.

My hope is, should Abate win, her campaign will recognize that this sort of mailer won't inspire those undecided people to come to her side.

Dems Getting Heated

Over at Blue Jersey a brawl has broken out over the Democratic nomination here in the Fifth. Two posts by Juan Melli, Editor in Chief, questioning the honesty of the Camille Abate's campaign statements regarding Dennis Shulman's stance on Iraq have led to some testy conversations.

In the first, Melli simply calls the Abate campaign liars. In the other, he questions the Abate campaign manager's attempt to paint Shulman's stance on Iraq and Representative Scott Garrett as one in the same:

I believe our troops have endured far too much bloodshed in the name of a war that never should have been started and will fail no matter how long GeorgeBush, John McCain, Scott Garrett and Dennis Shulman try to keep them there.

With two weeks left to go, it's not surprising that things have gotten heated, but this is a bit of a stretch. Shulman's comment about making sure there was time to repair the damage done in Iraq was a little too politically cautious; but it's light years ahead of Garrett saying the war was justified after we found 12 mustard gas canisters.

Last I checked there were about 15 to 20 out of 435 who vote "end it now" on funding bills and such. Often times, they vote with the Republicans against timetables and things because it doesn't end the war fast enough in their mind. Someone should find out if Abate would join this crowd or not.

The bottom line is, and most voters know it, no single Representative has the power to bring the troops home now. What's important to find out, and probably would throw cold water on this thing, is how they would have voted on several of the bills over the last year.

If it turns out they both would have supported the various time lines, then there isn't an issue. However, if Abate would have voted with Garrett against these measures because they didn't do enough fast enough, then it would be Abate and not Shulman who would be keeping the troops there.

Debate Wrap-Up

The New Jersey Herald ran an article covering the debate they sponsored last night with The League of Women Voters.

Abate at Ramapo

Camille Abate will be at Ramapo College next Friday for an interview with Rachel Maddow.

Here are the details:

Ramapo College Sharp Theater
505 Ramapo Valley Road, Mahwah, N.J. 07430
May 30th, 9:30 to 11:00 a.m.

Debate Tonight

The New Jersey Herald is one of the sponsors for the debate tonight between Camille Abate, Roger Bacon and Dennis Shulman. I can't make it, but if anybody takes a video I'd love to see it.

Challengers for the congressional seats representing Sussex County will face off tonight in a debate in Sussex County Community College's new Performing Arts Center.

The debate at 6:30 p.m. will showcase the Democratic candidates running for the Fifth and 11th congressional district seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

What a Couple of Weeks

Well, it's been a few good weeks for me. The major project I was working on is done and I got a little trip in there. A few interesting things went on while I wasn't watching, so let's get to it:

1. Representative Scott Garrett has continued his quest to blame Democrats for all that is wrong with the economy. During a speech largely aimed at Democrats, he also continued his practice of misrepresenting facts when it comes to numbers. Garrett stated that gas had not yet crossed $2 a gallon on Election Day in 2006, sitting around $1.90.

Had Garrett or his staff bothered to check with Energy Information Administration they'd know gas was at $2.20. While no one denies, prices have gone up, why exaggerate the truth? Either it's an honest mistake, or a continued pattern of misrepresentation that raised it's head when Garrett was misrepresenting income levels during the SCHIP debate.

2. Shockingly, Garrett and Senator Bob Menendez issued a joint statement regarding a bill to help veterans. This was written up by the folks over at Blue Jersey and Herb Jackson of the Record. It's nice to see partisanship put along. As noted by Jackson, Garrett's efforts in this area haven't gone anywhere since November. Hopefully, Menendez coming on board might help get it done.

3. Garrett led the fight against the housing package that went through the Financial Services Committee, which will be voted on by the House this week. Of particular interest was Garrett going against a proposal to give an automatic 10% equity if someone refinances their loan through FHA. I've checked with folks in both parties, and all agreed with Garrett that on face value the proposal seemed a little over the top and rather unfair to those without the opportunity.

4. Garrett went on television to argue against regulating deceptive advertising and double billing by credit card companies.

5. Camille Abate, candidate for the Democratic nomination, put up a biographical video on YouTube.

6. The Bergen County Freeholders were ripped by the Record for voting as a block the majority of the time. It's a bit ridiculous that the Freeholders claim they have an open process when they schedule their meetings at times when no one can make it.

More to come...

Garrett Shmorgishborg

So much to read, this is a round-up of Representative Scott Garrett and other news from the web:

*A lot is being made of the polls released by Camille Abate, and particularly Dennis Shulman, each shows Garrett being unknown and unpopular in the District, causing CQ Politics to remove our District from the Safe Republican category.

*Blue Jersey's Scott in NJ took the time to compile a great chart tracking the money race. It's no different surprise Garrett holds a large lead in cash on hand.

1. Garrett: $457,521.36
2. Shulman: $245,549.80
3. Abate: $103,193.05

*Garrett railed against government spending over at The Hill Blog. He and his colleagues at the RSC hope to introduce an amendment to tie spending increases to growth in the GDP. This is one way to defund the Iraq war in a hurry.

*Garrett also used a bit of revisionist history in his Op-Ed calling for the end to the AMT. He neglected to mention a patch could have been passed much sooner than it was, however Garrett was one who led the charge to protect a loophole enjoyed by less than 60,000 people at the expense of the millions impacted by the AMT.

That's it for now...

Democrats, Garrett and Taxes

Over at Blue Jersey this week there was a conversation about whether or not a Democrat could take the Fifth. A number of ideas crossed people's minds, largely centered around Representative Scott Garrett's social voting record. One thing that was missing, both from the comments on the original post and the response from Dennis Shulman's campaign, was a huge issue here in the Fifth: Taxes.

Our District is one of the most heavily taxed in the nation, and anyone running against Garrett is going to have to talk about it to get people listening.

Let's be honest, every time a Democrat talks about raising taxes on the most wealthy Americans to fund a program, they're talking about our District. Garrett's opposition to government expansion rings true with a lot of people, because they know they'd end up paying for it and haven't been happy with the return on investment at a lot of levels.

According to the Census Bureau, 46.9% of the families in our District make over $100,000 a year. This compares with 22.6% of the nation as a whole. The more popping figure are families making over $200,000. The nation has 4.4% at that level, where our District has 14.8%.

Although some could argue cost of living adjustments would be factored in, anybody who deals with the AMT knows that won't save our District from a higher bill. While Garrett has failed to deliver relief from the AMT, and actually voted against patching it at least once, it doesn't change the fact roughly 20% of the District are on the verge of having to pay it.

It is a primary issue for many voters in the District, and although completely ineffective in actually getting anything done to fix the AMT, people like what Garrett has to say about abolishing the AMT.

What also hurts Dems in our District is what happens with the State regarding property taxes. According to the Star Ledger, 17 of the top 50 towns in average property tax burden fall within the Fifth District. Camille Abate addresses the fact unfunded mandates and such raise people's property taxes when Federal dollars don't come through, but it's the last point on her issues page.

Garrett's philosophy of ending many Federal programs and returning "control" to the State is probably where Dems can make their greatest inroads. Not only has our return on the Federal tax dollar not improved with Garrett, but his voting record and statements are such that he wants more of the property tax burden to fall on our District's shoulders.

That's all well and good for a guy who has been accused of using a farm subsidy to lower his own property taxes. Since, supposedly, he's not paying his fair share now, it won't affect his bottom line if his neighbors have to pay more.

I guess my point in all of this is that Garrett's greatest strength, his verbal stand on taxes, needs to be turned into his greatest weakness. Things like his votes for deficit popping budgets; votes against small business tax cuts for owners in our District when they're among the highest taxed in the nation; and his votes against funding that will have to be replaced with property tax dollars are really how to make people rethink their support for him.

Garrett talks a good line on taxes, and any Dem that wants to take him down is going to have to show that Garrett is just that: Talk. Once a candidate establishes that, and people are listening, the rest of Garrett's record can be discussed.

Filing Day Fun

Well, those hoping Representative Scott Garrett might face a challenge in the Republican primary have been disappointed. Garrett will be running unopposed in June. However, there were a lot of interesting occurrences:

On the Congressional level, previously announced candidates Camille Abate and Dennis Shulman were joined by Roger Bacon of Phillipsburg. This permitted Wally Edge to make a joke.

Bergen

On a more local level, the Real Bergen Democrats are mounting a challenge to Joe Ferriero's BCDO. Here's how The Record explained the situation:

Freeholder incumbents David Ganz, Bernadette McPherson and Vernon Walton, backed by Ferriero, will face a challenge from former Hasbrouck Heights Councilwoman Carol Skiba, Tenafly Councilwoman Carol Hoernlein and newcomer Aishaah Rasul.

In the county clerk race, former Westwood Councilwoman Gail Frasco of the Real Bergen Democrats will go up against Diane Testa, Fairview's borough attorney and administrator. Republican incumbent Kathleen Donovan does not have a primary challenger.

[snip]

"This is not a reflection on the [BCDO's] county candidates, since this is being done purely for political purposes to get as many county committee seats in the 37th District," said Bill Maer, a spokesman for the BCDO.

No, I'm fairly certain it's a reflection on the BCDO and how it's run, and by extension how the county is run.

Carol Hoernlein, for one, has been fighting the fight against Papa Joe for a long time. I highlighted a blog post by her last year, and good government types on the Democratic side of the aisle should be happy to have her on the ballot.

I write about the ills of pay to play, probably not enough, and anyone who signed up for the Democratic primary to vote for either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton should think about voting in the June primary. When I was on the trail in 2006, I would often say the corruption people were furious about down in Washington was going on right here, but with Papa Joe playing the role of Tom DeLay.

Should the Real Democrats fail at knocking out Freeholders Bernadette "EnCap" McPherson or David Ganz, the Republicans will have their own slate going in November. However, it won't be decided with out a primary of their own. Once again, The Record:

Republicans are not immune to a primary contest as two freeholder candidates aligned with U.S. Senate candidate Murray Sabrin, including his wife, will face off against a slate endorsed by the Bergen County Republican Organization.

Florence Sabrin and Paul Mladjenovic will vie for the two seats against Christopher Calabrese and Jeffrey Heller.

It should be interesting to see how this all plays out. The Record has a complete list of people filing to run in the June primary in Bergen.

Sussex

Both candidates for Freeholder, current Republican Freeholder Phillip Crabb and Democrat Donna Griff will be running unopposed in June.

When I find info regarding Passaic and Warren counties, I'll post it.

Sussex for Abate

The New Jersey Herald has the story: Camille Abate won the support of the Sussex County Democratic Committee.

Lautenberg, Andrews, Shulman, Abate

With Representative Rob Andrews announcement he was planning on taking on Senator Frank Lautenberg in the Democratic Primary, and a Democratic civil war likely to ensue, one has to wonder what impact it could have on the Dems fighting to take on Representative Scott Garrett.

Back in November, when State Senator Loretta Weinberg and "Papa" Joe Ferriero were ratcheting up their war over pay-to-play, both Camille Abate and Dennis Shulman sought to distance themselves from the conflict. From PolitickerNJ:

"I'm not coming down on either side," said Shulman during a conference call with reporters. "...As a psychologist who works with families and as a rabbi, I have a lot of experience trying to repair splits in families and people, and I'm hoping that this election will be an opportunity to repair some of the split not only between Democrats and Republicans but within the county as well as within the party."

[snip]

"I know that Joe is the head of the Bergen county organization, and I know Loretta is a respected member of the party," said Abate. "I'm sure that they all have on good faith a situation where they believe in different things, which happens between decent people sometimes.. I don't really have a stance on that. My focus has really been to beat Scott Garrett."

As someone who doesn't see a lot of grey as to whether pay to play is wrong, to be honest, I was grossly disappointed in both answers. However, the pundits all agreed it was smart politics because both were courting the BCDO nomination and so little of Weinberg's district falls within the Fifth.

Now that Shulman won the BCDO line, and the endorsement of Representative Steve Rothman, it gets a bit more complicated. Rothman has threatened to go toe to toe with Papa Joe if he backs Andrews. So who does Shulman go with? Abate, with the machine already working against her, could go either way. If I hear from the campaigns, I'll post it here.

An open endorsement of Andrews seems unlikely but, as one commenter on Politicker noted, State Senator Paul Sarlo's endorsement means the BCDO machine will quietly be hoping Andrews wins.

On a side note, if Rothman has the power to mount a good government drive for the BCDO, why he's waiting I don't understand.

Camille Abate On Blue Jersey Radio

In case you missed it, the guys over on Blue Jersey Radio had Camille Abate on this weekend.

Abate Picks Up Endorsements

Camille Abate announced a couple interesting endorsements today. From Abate's press release:

Richard Dressel, Business Manager of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 164 in Paramus and the membership of Local 164 endorsed Abate on February 5, 2008. Mr. Dressel is widely considered the top labor leader in Northern New Jersey.

[snip]

Also endorsing Abate is West Milford Mayor Bettina Bieri. Mayor Bieri is one of only two Democratic women mayors in the entire 5th Congressional District.

Who Is Up Ferriero's Sleeve?

In an interesting story about Joe Ferriero's endorsement of Sen. Hillary Clinton, Ferriero offers this little nugget when asked about Camille Abate and Dennis Shulman in their quest to unseat Representative Scott Garrett:

Right now, Ferriero said, it’s too early to tell who he will endorse, and that it may not be either Shulman or Abate.

“I can tell you that both he and Abate are not the only individuals who have expressed interest in running in the 5th congressional district, so it’s a little early to tell where our county organization will be going,” said Ferriero, who did not mention the names of any other potential candidates.

Shulman Around $200K

As estimated by PolitickerNJ, Democratic candidate Dennis Shulman added nearly $140,000 to his warchest last quarter. The number is impressive and it should be interesting to look at the reports when they're released. Camille Abate's campaign would not comment on the figure, but said they are on pace. Abate still leads Shulman over on ActBlue by about $20,000, although Shulman has more donors.

Iowa Tomorrow, Where Do Our Candidates Stand?

With the Iowa Caucuses tomorrow, the interesting question of who Representative Scott Garrett, Camille Abate and Dennis Shulman are backing for President is a fair one to ask. If anybody knows, let me know and I'll post it here.

Blog the Fifth Is Back

Well, the last week showed why I should get some other people writing on this little blog of mine. Life can get in the way of blogging at times. Here's what went on:

In Washington:

Representative Scott Garrett voted against making our nation more energy independent and was one of only 55 Representatives to vote against providing funds to clean up the water supply in the North Bay. This bill will help prevent all those little e coli breakouts we've been having, so I'm not sure what Garrett was voting against.

On a positive note, Garrett did vote with nearly all of Congress to fight child porn and child abduction, as well as make funds available to reservists and veterans to start businesses and for small businesses who hire reservists and veterans.

Garrett has largely panned the President's sub-prime interest rate freeze, but we have to remember he feels the housing market is in good shape. On Bloomberg television he seemed almost pleased with the way the housing market is going. Garrett does say that when there is fraud, the government should step in. However, Garrett places all of the blame on the mortgage holder as opposed to the product they were told they could take.

I may have only done it for eight weeks, but I'd be happy to discuss how a largely sub-prime mortgage broker house works with Garrett, or any of his staffers. The interest was on developing a spread of loans, from good to bad, to sell investors. I ended up quiting because it didn't seem right to try and sell people loans they couldn't afford. I never did close a loan because I'd tell people they didn't need us.

On the campaign trail:

Camille Abate got some press for a breakfast she had with several union leaders. There's some confusion in the press as to whether she was or was not endorsed by the group. This is understandable, as her press release about the event is similar in verbiage to that of Aronsohn's back in February announcing Corzine's "endorsement."

Herb Jackson is reporting that Rabbi Dennis Shulman is going to be down in DC talking with various fundraisers, including the DCCC.

In the 39th:

Assemblyman John Rooney is pondering retirement. Eric Sedler of Red Jersey has "started" his campaign to succeed Rooney. PolitickerNJ.com speculates that Bob Schroeder, Lisa Randall, Old Tappan Mayor Victor Polce, Norwood Mayor James Barsa and Ramsey Mayor Chris Botta as possible Republican candidates.

Why doesn't my name ever make these lists?

Just for fun:

A big congratulations to Oradell's Jim McGovern on his return to the PGA. He's worked really hard for this, and it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Abate's Fundraiser

To those who marked their calendars for Wednesday, I'm very sorry, the fundraiser for Democratic hopeful Camille Abate was actually last night. I goofed. Abate's campaign wrote about it on her blog, complete with pictures.

News and Stuff

Having a few minutes, I thought I'd post a few things.

- Representative Scott Garrett is taking some heat for cutting funds to Naturally Occurring Retirement Community programs. Specifically, $170,000 was intended for the UJA Federation of Northern New Jersey. Garrett wrote the Jewish Standard with his reasoning:

"Unfortunately, this bill was about politics, not people," Garrett said in an e-mail to this paper on Friday. "The new majority knew it would be vetoed and that the veto would be sustained because this bill would have busted the federal budget and exceeded executive branch budget requests by over $8 billion."

This is the same SCHIP line Garrett used in backing the President's veto over SCHIP. Obviously, once again, Garrett's pledge to the President has trumped those of us living in the District.

- The Asbury Park Press points out that Garrett's self professed love for the 10th Amendment (powers not delegated to the federal government go to the states) is hollow. Garrett is the only Representative from New Jersey to vote against formalizing New Jersey's power to ensure rail waste transfer sites are not polluting our neighborhoods and water supply. This measure was attached to the Federal Railroad Safety Administration bill, which I noted Garrett was one of only 38 Representatives to vote against it.

- Fred Snowflack got an answer from Garrett as to why he was one of only 36 Representatives to vote against improving the Head Start program. Garrett said he was opposed to the bill's cost and "such minutiae as the level of required training for teachers, details of background checks for bus drivers, and hiring policies for providers." As Fred noted, "Since when is training teachers and background checks for drivers a bad thing?"

- Herb Jackson pointed out that Camille Abate is having a fundraiser hosted by Mark Denbeaux, an attorney fighting for the rights of those at Gitmo. The event is this Wednesday, and you can find details here.

- Dennis Shulman, who is challenging Abate for the Democratic nomination, got some love from Matt Stoller over at Open Left. His piece about the GOP predicting they will get thrashed next year includes this little snippet:

...Democrats are spreading the playing field thin, and are forcing the Republicans to use what resources they have defending incumbents like Scott Garrett against potentially strong candidates like Dennis Shulman in district Bush easily took in 2004.