IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
ICYMI: Garrett’s reign may finally reach an end this fall
The Star-Ledger
Editorial Board
It’s too early to endorse a candidate in the fall election, because you never know what a campaign will turn up.
So let’s just say we are overjoyed to see that U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-5th Dist.) is facing what could be his strongest challenge yet, from Josh Gottheimer, a centrist Democrat and former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton.
Because we know this much today: Garrett richly deserves to lose for any one of about 10 reasons.
He is among the most extreme conservatives in all of Congress, and often votes alone among the New Jersey delegation, breaking from his fellow Republicans.
He backs oil drilling off the Jersey coast. He opposed child safety locks on guns. He ignores the science on climate change. He wants to require schools to teach intelligent design. He supports every lame idea to boost the fortunes of the rich at the expense of the poor. He lives off donations from Wall Street and, unlike Hillary Clinton, does their bidding.
After Hurricane Sandy struck, Garrett even refused to sign a letter with the rest of the delegation pressing Congress to act, and for weeks, refused to commit before finally voting in favor. He opposed federal aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
This is a man whose pinched view of government is way out of step with Jersey conservatives. He is a fanatic. He opposed the Violence Against Women Act, and the Zadroga bill to cover the health care costs of Sept. 11 first-responders.
And this time around, he’s outdone himself with a flagrant display of bigotry against gays. In happened last July, at a closed meeting of Republicans who were pressing him to raise money for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Garrett said he would not do it because the NRCC supported gay candidates in the past, according to several sources who spoke with Politico afterward. Garrett confirmed that in a discussion with Bob Yudin, the Republican chairman in Bergen County.
“He said that’s one reason he wouldn’t donate, but there are many others,” Yudin said.
Gottheimer, 40, who announced his candidacy Monday, may finally be the right Democrat at the right time to end Garrett’s career in Congress after seven terms. The district was reconfigured before the 2012 race, adding Democratic votes. Gottheimer has raised more money than past challengers.
And while Garrett has more money on hand — $2.3 million compared with Gottheimer’s $1.3 million — some of his Wall Street benefactors have peeled off this time, alienated by his anti-gay bias. In 2015, Gottheimer raised more than Garrett.
This campaign should give Garrett his strongest challenge yet. And that improves the odds that the National Democratic Campaign Committee will target Garrett, something that hasn’t happened in past races.
Gottheimer has worked in both the private and public sectors, and his highest-profile position was working as a special assistant to Clinton. He’s a graduate of Harvard Law School.
We’ll find out more about him as the campaign unfolds. His great advantage at the start is that his opponent is so out of place as a representative from New Jersey.