“Shockingly, Speaker Ryan has caved to the begging from Scott Garrett and his House Freedom Caucus allies and is slotted to hold a fundraiser for Garrett and his flagging campaign,” said Meredith Kelly of the DCCC. “Given the news that Garrett appeared at an Oath Keepers event last week, is Speaker Ryan still comfortable appearing with a Congressman who is ‘bring[ing] some credence’ to an extremist group that New Jersey considers a ‘domestic terrorist threat’?”
ICYMI – Republican Chairman of Wall Street Committee Held Fundraiser With Official From ‘Domestic Terrorist’ Group
Bloomberg
by Joshua Green
October 6, 2016
Republican Representative Scott Garrett of New Jersey, a seven-term incumbent locked in a close re-election race, headlined an Oct. 1 breakfast organized by an official for an antigovernment group that New Jersey’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness considers a “domestic terrorist threat.”
At the breakfast, Garrett hailed the official, Edward Durfee, as an “unsung hero.” Durfee is regional coordinator for New Jersey Oath Keepers, a group state officials list as “militia extremists [who] pose a moderate threat to New Jersey.” Durfee also co-founded the American Bedrock Foundation, which co-sponsored and collected payments for the Garrett breakfast. “The American Bedrock Foundation is basically the fundraising arm for the Oath Keepers and other pro-Constitution groups,” Durfee said in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek. “That’s what our purpose is.”
Garrett didn’t respond to interview requests.
[…] But while Garrett has easily won re-election since winning New Jersey’s 5th District seat in 2002, he ran into trouble last year, when Politico reported that he made disparaging remarks about gays in a meeting with Republican colleagues and refused to pay his party dues to protest Republicans’ recruitment and support of gay candidates. Afterward, many banks and hedge funds who had supported Garrett—including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Elliott Management—stopped giving him money.
[…] Even so, Garrett has struggled to raise money, and polls show his Democratic challenger, Josh Gottheimer, within striking distance. On Oct. 4, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report warned that Garrett was “in danger” and moved its rating of the race from “lean Republican” to “toss up.” According to Politico, House Speaker Paul Ryan has agreed to hold a fundraiser for Garrett “in the coming weeks,” at the urging of some of Garrett’s Republican colleagues, who are worried he might lose.