In all candor, I’ve never seriously wanted to run for public office, and I certainly never planned on planting my flag in New Jersey’s Seventh Congressional District, Save Jerseyans.
But guess what?
I guess stuff like that isn’t always up to me.
Casual observers couldn’t be blamed for believing yours truly is on the ballot up there this year. Losing candidate Peter Jacob — a millennial Democrat congressional hopeful standing without party financial support — has made the decision to spend the final critical days of his 2016 quixotic run at incumbent Republican Leonard Lance bitching and moaning about…. SaveJersey.com.
In case you missed it earlier this week, Jacob’s campaign is sending defamatory blast emails, giving interviews and holding press conferences accusing this website, and Rep. Lance, of inspiring alleged hate crimes. Sure it’s all B.S., an obvious act of desperation by his floundering (PolitickerNJ.com described it as “languishing“) campaign, but the whole ordeal doesn’t do anything to inspire my confidence in the future quality of this country’s political discourse.
None of it made a real dent (shocker!) in the race or inspired serious, well-heeled Dems to take this pipsqueak and his tiny band of trolls seriously. So then, just as the media began to collectively yawn and move on, Jacob tried to reignite the issue one last time with a sponsored story on NJ.com:
Recently, a Sept. 28 post on the Leonard Lance for Congress Facebook page taken from savejersey.com attempted to link myself to the Orlando nightclub shooter. The post’s headline read, “Newly-released 911 transcripts should embarrass this NJ Democrat House Candidate” and was accompanied by a photospread featuring Orlando shooter Omar Mateen next to a photo of myself in a comparison side-by-side position. This image highlighted no similarities between myself (I’m an Indian-American), and Mateen, whose family is from Afghanistan.”
Oh boy. Poor Peter. Sooooo off base! There’s nothing I can add today in response to this fool which I didn’t already say right here, Save Jerseyans. Argue with an idiot long enough and people will begin to have trouble telling you apart.
Suffice it to say, if you didn’t pick up on this already, the race card is the last resort for a candidate who can’t win on the issues.
It’s always easier to attack straw men — and conservative bloggers like yours truly — than address the substance of my original criticism: the fact that Peter Jacob ATTACKED his opponent for stating the threat ISIS poses to Americans.
Easier but ultimately not any more effective than Jacob telling us MORE of the crazy, whacked-out, extreme things he actually believes. Making Matt Rooney or SaveJersey.com NJ-07’s top issue ain’t gonna move the needle. I promise. For now, I’ll kick back and wait to see what I’m allegedly responsible for next week.
The Hindenburg Disaster? World War I? Hunger in Africa? Can’t wait to find out….
….?
Let’s go out on a positive, charitable note before the weekend:
Here’s hoping Peter Jacob experiences some meaningful personal growth in the coming weeks and takes his upcoming proverbial spanking at the ballot box like a man.
I mean that! It’d be truly nice to see something good come out of the gross spectacle he’s engendered on this year’s Central Jersey political scene.
____
