Shulman's $215K 2nd Quarter

While I haven't received any official numbers to date, it seems Rabbi Dennis Shulman had a rather impressive second quarter of fundraising. The Express-Times ran this in a story on Saturday:

Of the approximately $565,000 Democrat Dennis Shulman's campaign has raised to date, $119,000 came from online donations, campaign manager Jeff Hauser said. Shulman is challenging U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Warren.

If that total amount holds, with total donations of $349,969 listed on their last filing, that means Shulman may have raised roughly $215,000 last quarter.

For some perspective, Paul Aronsohn raised $74,421.65 over the same time period in 2006. It also would mean that by the end of July, Shulman's campaign is within roughly $12,000 of what Aronsohn raised throughout the last campaign.

Once I have official numbers I'll post them.

Aronsohn Talks Mother's Day

This is really a very moving piece written by former 5th District, and current Ridgewood Council, candidate Paul Aronsohn.

Shulman Gets Key Endorsement

After returning from a weekend away, the big story here in the Fifth was the endorsement of Rabbi Dennis Shulman by Paul Aronsohn. The story was covered by Blue Jersey, Wally Edge and Charles Stile of the Record.

Aronsohn's Return?

In an interesting Op-Ed published today, Paul Aronsohn repeated almost his entire campaign pitch in the opening paragraphs. One might be led to speculate he may be contemplating a return. If I hear anything, that's not off the record, I'll post it here.

Aronsohn is Out

Blue Jersey is reporting that Paul Aronsohn will not be seeking a rematch with Representative Scott Garrett again next year.

2nd Quarter Cash: Abate, Aronsohn, Garrett

While the Presidential candidates get all the press, here in our 5th District the dash for cash also had reports published on the web today.

Last quarter, announced candidate Camille Abate brought in $34,859 and has $18,872 cash on hand. Paul Aronsohn took in $1,823, leaving him $14,777 after spending $8,765. Aronsohn had promised an announcement of his intentions in late spring, which still hasn't happened. Whether or not Aronsohn's running at this point, when re-match seekers like Linda Stender and Tom Wyka have already announced their intentions, may make people (like me and others I've spoken with) wonder.

The numbers for Representative Scott Garrett are unclear. Herb Jackson, of The Record, reports Garrett's contributions for last quarter at $127,438 and cash on hand of $ 476,515. However, the link he gave is to Garrett's old report citing the $238,144, I wrote about earlier this year. I searched the site for the current report, and it wasn't there.

If Garrett's campaign spent nothing, the difference between the $365,582 he could have and the $476,515 is a good chunk of change. However, campaign accounts often invest their funds to gain interest, and if the return was that large over three months, everyone should ask Garrett's people where they put their money.

As soon as the link is updated I'll update the figures in this post.

Aronsohn fundraising for Richardson

Having worked for the Clinton administration, I wasn't sure if 2006 Democratic challenger Paul Aronsohn would go with Senator Clinton; or if he would go with his old boss in the administration, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. Turns out, Aronsohn hosted a fundraiser for Richardson this evening. I'll post any coverage of the event tomorrow.

Dems Firing Up the Engines

So, PoliticsNJ is reporting that Camille Abate is planning to announce her candidacy to seek the Democratic nomination to take on Representative Scott Garrett. She and Paul Aronsohn sparred last year, and she scored an impressive 34% of the Primary vote spending next to nothing compared to Paul, and campaigning for an extremely short amount of time.

While the Dems are still waiting on Paul's announced intention to announce, they'll get to take a second look at Camille. Here's what she had to say to PoliticsNJ (Anne is Anne Wolfe, who some have speculated will also jump in).

“Anne’s withdrawal left a very moderate Democrat as the only alternative,” Ms. Abate said. “I am convinced that we need a strong voice in Washington to speak out against the war in Iraq and the assault on civil liberties by the Bush Administration and to fight for working and middle class people who have been shouldering enormous burdens as a result of Bush's misguided policies and a complicit Congress. This time I intend to win the Democratic nomination and unseat Scott Garrett in the general election."

While the "very moderate" part of the quote could actually help Paul in the general election, with barely over 10,000 people voting in the Democratic primary in '06, it could help Camille. She's also been very busy explaining her views on things through her CAJA Institute.

Paul hasn't been quite either, he's kept his website going, putting out press releases and such. Paul got an Op-Ed published in the Record about the disabled community, to which Camille responded, and then Paul put up a follow-up piece on Blue Jersey. He's also been campaigning for Democratic Sussex County Sheriff candidate Wayne Yahm.

It's safe to say the fun has begun on the Democratic side.

Unless the moderate and classic conservative Republicans that Garrett loathes throw him out; and in spite of the fact he single handily has taken one of the highest tax paying Districts in the nation to the bottom of Congressional influence; Garrett could be tough to beat. Gerrymandering is a natural advantage and one distinct advantage is Garrett's cash on hand: Paul has roughly $17,000 and Camille's at $13,000, as Garrett's sitting on $238,144.

A Hat Tip to Rep. Garrett

After watching his CPAC presentation(Afternoon session, 22 minutes in), I was ready to rail against Representative Scott Garrett again. In five minutes he managed to show his loathing for New Jersey's Congressional Delegation, show his ignorance of the importance of the Interstate highway system on commerce, and announced his dead before drafted legislation to gut funding for the Department of Education's Title I (poor children) and No Child Left Behind programs. Gathering facts and figures, I listened to the speech again, wanting to add something about how he's relegated one of the Districts that contributes the most in taxes (ours) to the minority of the minority and his actions are costing us influence in any real discussion of the issues. Armed with a full bottle of Diet Coke and my usual over-sized jar of peanuts, I listened to the speech one more time to see if I had missed anything, and thought to myself: Damn this guy is good.

It's not a defense of his positions, it's a political observation showing appreciation for his skill at rallying the base. I had the same thought after he beat Aronsohn in their radio debate. Here Garrett is, standing in front of an audience of the only people who didn't trip over each other to go see Rudy speak (the moderator asked those leaving to keep the noise down), and he had them cheering at points. Anchoring a group railing against earmarks, in a matter of fact manner he attacked the President and the big government conservatives who cost the Republicans the Congress. In front of his audience, it didn't matter how unproductive his legislation would be or how high our District's property taxes would go if they were passed. In front of that crowd, he was the valiant hero.

This isn't an endorsement of what he does or how he thinks, I'd prefer someone who takes pragmatic steps toward lowering taxes by making government more efficient, as opposed to floating "going nowhere" resolutions. The Bergen County Republicans' shellacking last November proves that voters would rather pay more for services due to corruption and inefficiency than have no services at all. I'd hedge a bet that if you showed his speech to the majority of voters in our District, and they have a true conservative alternative, Garrett might actually lose an election. However, I'm a firm believer in giving credit where credit is due. Garrett's a rising star to his base and when given the opportunity to talk just to them, he shines.

So, rematch in '08?

With Paul Aronsohn's announcement of his intention to announce his intention in late spring, I received a handful of e-mails and a text message asking if the rematch was in store. The answer to that at this point is I don't know. I'm still thinking about what my involvement would look like in '08 (candidate, staffer, party, etc.) to best serve the District. As those who read this blog realize, I'm rather unlikely to work for or vote for Rep. Scott Garrett. I'm equally unlikely to work for or vote for Paul.

Don't get me wrong, Paul's a nice guy. He was always polite to my volunteers that he met, and up until the whole sign stealing thing our campaigns were rather cordial, as I was with Garrett's as well. My reaction to the sign incident was boneheaded; as hard as we worked to raise the money and get the signs out, to have a significant portion of my "war chest" vanish didn't sit well. The boneheadedness was reinforced by the press coverage and subsequent police incident report on a different night that pointed to the BCDO and not Paul's staff directly. While I didn't win the award for dumbest press release, had Stuart Rothenberg known I was alive I might have been in contention.

My objection to Paul comes down to a principle, and for me it's a really big one. It's called Democracy. On both Blue Jersey and Retire Garrett there is a common refrain about the '08 primary.

There should be a vigorous Democratic primary that will encourage the candidates to hone their policy positions and become better candidates to face Garrett in 2008.

Regardless of which party you fall into, the ability to choose your representation is a basic cornerstone of Democracy. If you're running for office, you should be a big fan of the idea. The problem I have with Paul is just that, and it was from a 2005 article from PoliticsNJ.

Even if they are both hell-bent on running, there could be a way for Wolfe and Aronsohn to settle their contest without incurring the costs of a full-scale primary. Aronsohn said he'd be willing to abide by the verdict of the Bergen County Democratic convention, which will take place next February or March. But Wolfe indicated she probably wouldn't, saying she didn't want to leave the district's other three counties out of the process.

This shouldn't even be in a candidate's mind. Even if the reporter planted the idea, or offered it as a possible solution to the primary quandary, there should be a soul shaking voice that screams no at the thought of excluding people from voting. I had a chance to ask Paul about this at one point. Due to the fact I don't have the conversation recorded I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I can say his response didn't change my mind. While his direct involvement in the BCDO is a question mark, being willing to leave the decision for an entire Congressional District in the hands of a man who actively tries to boot those who don't work with him is highly suspect.

I won't ever work or vote for someone who would vote or act against the principle right so many have fought and died to achieve and protect. When Garrett voted against re-authorizing the Voting Rights Act I called it deplorable, and I feel the same way about Paul being willing to skip the Primary. For me, or anyone else for that matter, having to choose between the two is a terrible choice to have to make.