GOP follies: Screwing up the NJ Senate race
I’ve been hearing rumblings of discontent with Nevada GOP Sen. John Ensign’s tenure as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. This new report from James Pindell at Politicker confirms what I’m hearing. Dear Lord, they are screwing things up:
Add New Jersey to the list of states where John Ensign has meddled and lost. The National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman made a brief foray into Garden State politics last week when he sought to clear the field for John Crowley, a biotech millionaire with an incredibly compelling life story, to enter the race for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination.
After Crowley’s first announcement last Monday that he wasn’t running, Ensign engineered a full-court press to get him in the race. He had John McCain and five other Republican U.S. Senators call him. He promised him money and pledged to make 84-year-old incumbent Frank Lautenberg an NRSC target. And for a while, it looked like Crowley would run.
But by the weekend, Crowley decided — for business, family and military (he’s a Navy reservist) reasons – that he could not transition his life into politics by today’s New Jersey filing deadline. On Sunday, a spokesman announced Crowley’s second withdrawal in seven days.
This leaves Ensign with his third choice: the seemingly flawed Andy Unanue, a 40-year-old heir to the Goya Foods fortune. That’s if Unanue stays in the race at all – Ensign asked him to drop out last week.
Unanue entered the race on Easter Sunday with an announcement e-mailed from his ski home in Vail, where he has remained on vacation for the last two weeks. His campaign got off to a bad start with news – broken by PolitickerNJ.com’s Matt Friedman – that he was actually a resident of New York City, where he owned a trendy Manhattan night club. He was further damaged by details of his employment with Goya, where he was fired amidst a feud within the family-owned business.
Ensign had donated to another millionaire–Anne Evans Estabrook–who jumped in to challenge Lautenberg last year. She dropped out last March after health problems and early setbacks.
This comes on top of Ensign’s lousy record in South Dakota and Arkansas, where the NRSC couldn’t find a single person to oppose Mark Pryor. And on top of the ongoing mess at the NRCC.
GOP leadership? What GOP leadership?
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I’m not sure it’s really a matter of consequence in NJ, Michelle, no matter who the GOP nominates.
One of our senators was hand-picked by Corzine and the other, an octogenarian, was allowed to run again by the NJ Supreme Court when the “Torch” dropped out after the deadline for a replacement.
Neither of them will lose office until they choose not to run, or meet their maker by natural causes. When that time comes it will be another Dem that replaces them.
I think, not too far in the future, that I won’t be able to vote against them anymore because of my status as a former resident
The Dems can have NJ, it’s perfect for them. I just moved out of there after 9 years of mind-boggling societal and civic experiences; including being held up at gunpoint by 16 year-olds in Jersey City, having my car impounded for 3 days (and then towed to the farthest corner of Hudson County) after making an “illegal” left-hand turn at the Holland Tunnel, all while watching democrats make up rules out of whole cloth, as a non-existent Republican party stands by and watches.
In case you can’t tell, I really hate that State.
I was also witness to a gunfight that broke out in front of a Jersey City Police Station on a summers day in 2005, because my car was next in line at a stop light as the shots started ripping. All I could do was roll over into my passenger seat and pray that glass didn’t start shattering.
No kidding, I would rather walk ANYWHERE in Manhattan, south of 125th St. at night, than most ANYWHERE in Jersey City during the daytime.
I can only imagine what Trenton and Newark are like to reside in, those poor, poor people.
And exactly when are the dems going to cry out about the lack of a government response to the terrorism in the streets here as they have done with Iraq and Petraeus?
On second thought, the more we can keep the politicians out of our lives, the better.
Nevermind. Going for coffee now to wake up.
Pathetic! Lautenberg was a senile fool before he was surreptitiously anointed as senator in light of the Torricelli scandal. And NJ must now continue to suffer this geezer.
Next up, The Republican Party Classic.
When all else fails, get back to basics.
Conservatism, its whats for Liberty.
˙ǝpıɔıns ƃuıʇʇıɯɯoɔ sı doƃ ǝɥʇ
Who really cares about Jersey anyway? Winning means they you’re responsible.
the only news there is that NJ has a republican party.
John Ensign, hapless member, 21st Century Republican.
The Republican party is dead. Time to bury it and build a new party. If I recall correctly, it took 6 years from foundation to Lincoln. Let’s see if we can do it in 4.
Jindal in 2012!
The more and more I see of the bumbling idiots in the Senate and House I do believe it is time to instill term limits and repeal the 17th Amendment. The “Stupid Party” is slowly committing suicide leaving no place for the conservative’s ideals that founded it prior to the American Civil War. Party affiliation is not required when registering to vote in my little piece of Idaho, but the wife and I consider ourselves to be conservative independents when it comes to party affiliation. I found this link yesterday from a local Idaho Blogger on the 17th Amendment with a well reasoned essay by an attractive intelligent conservative woman from Indianapolis explaining the damage it has done to this country since 1913:
http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2008/04/decline-of-republic-day.html
Hat Tip to BillH at Free in Idaho, which I found thanks to our lovely hostess:
http://freeinidaho.com/
A nice place to get visit from a man of God, Guns, Gardening, with a Conservative Viewpoint, and an appreciation for Classic Show Cars.
Though it goes against my grain, it may just be that the only way to beat them here is from within. The Dems have the cities locked up with people who will only push a button in the D row. The districts have been written to ensure a Dem majority. The Reps rarely even run candidates to challenge in certain districts. Pathetic! It may just be that some Reps need to start running as Dems in order to get elected and get things done before the State gets beyond repair.
Ah New Jersey. Can’t wait to leave. Nuff said.
Hear, Hear. Term Limits for Congress is something we should run on at the state level now, repeal of the 17th Amendment is something that needs to be put on the table for discussion.
In my more radical moments, I think we should select Representatives by lot, from the voter rolls. We’d need to pick more than one name at a time, because the rolls aren’t clean (voters who’ve moved, died, etc). The British House of Lords did pretty well as long as it was basically a random selection (i.e., before they packed it with political appointees).
I wonder if they will move Alan Keyes to the state and have him run instead.
NJ has become a “liberal/Dem machine” state. Liberal Democrats are entrenched at all levels of the state from the local to the state, to the federal level. It is also one of the more corrupt states that one has to tolerate if you want to live there. Is it really any wonder that the NRSC can find a decent Republican candidate to break the Dem’s stranglehold on that state.
It would take a very long time for any untainted politician (from either political party) to clean up the stench that multiple corrupt governors have left behind. That’s why people flee that state in droves every year because the liberal ideals of high taxes and corrupt government does not equal happiness for anyone not a liberal.
Don’t get me started on NY…..
In a related story…
Did anyone else get a Survey from Mitch McConnell??? Strange that it required a donation (Or fill that in part) to have your survey done and/or a $13 request in addition to process to tabulate the survey.
Hell, I put in the “Other” donation amount a big whopping Zero…and spelled Zero out beside it.
Also, it allowed comments too… and I let the RNC have it (Vented and it Felt GOOOOOODDDDD!!!)….I called the RNC leadership a big bunch of Open borders, big spend failures, and are trying to Out Liberal professional Liberals. Additionally, I said, until they Prove their loyalty to AMERICAN Workers (Instead of Illegals), they can expect Zero Donations from me.
All the Repub money boys keep calling me because I used to be a modest sized donor for years. As the Gipper said, they left me a good 10 years ago. I keep telling them to shove off because I’m a Democrat now (not really). I do have a good Repub here in The Peoples Republic of Minnesota – Michelle Bachman. One of the rare non-socialists in the state.
They are Democrat Lite and watching them is like “Keystone Kops Do Politics”.