By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Most of the Jersey-centric action will play out next year, Save Jerseyans, when Garden State voters will pass judgment on their legislature AND select a successor to Chris Christie.
This June?
Fear not. There are still a few interesting races to check up on when the results start trickling in on Tuesday evening… here are the ones I’ll be paying the closest attention to:
Hillary Clinton vs. Bernie Sanders
This one is pretty straightforward. Or at least it should be?
Hillary Clinton is heavily favored to win New Jersey on June 7th; she leads the RCP average with a 17-point lead over Bernie Sanders. Team Clinton is counting on it. A win here could clinch the nomination for the former Secretary of State, and with Clinton ahead of Bernie in delegate-rich California’s same-day Democrat contest by only 2-points in the most recent public polls, the Garden State could make the difference, again, at a raucous convention. That’s why she was back here with Bill on Wednesday. If all goes according to plan? The general election Clinton vs. Trump match-up (yes, I still can’t believe it) will begin in earnest on Wednesday morning. Try to contain your excitement.
Donald Norcross vs. Alex Law
“Having long enjoyed a placid dominion over New Jersey’s First Congressional District, the gleaming machine George E. Norcross 3d built was initially dismissive of June 7 Democratic primary challenger Alex Law and his provocations,” Philadelphia Inquirer journalist Kevin Riordan explained in his June 1st race profile. “But lately the 25-year-old political neophyte’s earnest, if at times amateurish, campaign seems to have annoyed the mighty machine. Camp Norcross has unleashed an unbecomingly venomous fusillade against the boy who would dare covet the seat George hath set aside for his brother Donald, the incumbent.”
What else can I add? Law, whom I’ve interviewed, has been abandoned by political hero Bernie Sanders (and Bernie’s state chair, John Wisniewski) out of fear of the Machine and fallen victim to the same old Jersey political games. If law somehow manages to beat Donald Norcross? Yikes. The Democrat Party in New Jersey will never be the same after the subsequent realignment of power, and the machine-backed 2017 candidate for governor, Steve Sweeney, would face a tougher road ahead. If Law does well but falls short? Which we’ll peg at a 40% or better finish? It’ll be up to Law to build a lasting movement beyond Tuesday’s results if he wants to realize his ultimate goal of restoring democracy to South Jersey.
Leonard Lance v. David Larsen
Here we go again, Save Jerseyans! This race is the Republican mirror of the Norcross v. Law bout further south, reflecting our party’s own continuing inner turmoil, but after four successive primary challenges to Leonard Lance mounted by his elbow-throwing Seventh Congressional District rival, David Larsen, perhaps the only way this latest installment could’ve ended is in a court room? Yup, this one might not end on June 7th. A defamation lawsuit is pending to challenge claims made in Lance’s campaign materials and the N.J. political world is waiting to see if this go-around ends more like 2014, when Lance won by 8.8-points in a low-turnout, low-energy midterm cycle without a ticket headliner, or 2012, the last presidential cycle when Larsen lost by better than 20-points. Or could the Trump wave generate the biggest upset of the night?
You’re the jury, NJ-07 GOP’ers. Choose wisely…
Jim Gannon v. John Sierchio
Another place where party infighting NEVER ends is Republican-dominated Morris County. Blame the lack of a “line” – or perhaps an almost complete lack of viable Democrat opposition to unite against? It’s likely a little bit of both.
Contest #1: Jim Gannon is faces John Sierchio for the right to succeed retiring Sheriff Ed Rochford. Rochford is backing Sierchio; most of the rest of the GOP, ranging from the Lt. Governor and the Bucco family (see photo) to conservative Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll are rallying behind Gannon. They’ve fought over everything from pensions to counter-terrorism.
Morris County Freeholder Battle
The freeholder fight is a royal rumble of sorts, pitting incumbent freeholders Douglas Cabana, Tom Mastrangelo and Kathy DeFillippo (Team Morris) against challengers Louis Valori, Roman Hirniak and Peter King (Morris United) and, running independently, former freeholder John Krickus. PolitickerNJ did a nice summary of the seemingly-endless hijinks here. You name it and it’s probably happened over the last few months. Stolen signs, criminal charges, “RINO” allegations and, in the final hours, evidence that Big Labor is helping Team Morris (candidate Krikus puts the numbers, including PAC expenditures, at $108,000).
I covered the campaign finance situation up there last year and still haven’t been able to shake the bad taste.
Fred LaVergne vs. Jim Keady
This last one is for fun, folks. You’ve earned it.
The strength of Republican organizations in Ocean and Burlington counties – the two jurisdictions dominating New Jersey’s Third Congressional District – have laid waste to the field of viable Democrat House candidates. They’ve never recovered from the late John Adler’s defeat in 2010. This year? Burlington put up Fred LaVergne, a frequent candidate who just filed for Chapter 13, and Ocean-supported “Seedy” Jim Keady who, when he’s not getting into shouting matches with Chris Christie, spends his days running a notorious local watering hole and embracing endorsements from cop killers’ cheerleaders. The DCCC flirted with NJ-03 but ultimately committed to no one. Shocking! So don’t expect much of Tom MacArthur‘s challengers this cycle unless Trump utterly and completely collapses in the polls. Even then, with these two men as the only options, it’s hard to imagine would could save the NJ-03 Democrats this time around.
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