By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
I love this news GOP TV spot out of the First Legislative District, Save Jerseyans, because its message is as important as it should be obvious: you can’t change New Jersey without changing the legislature:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckJ2rvPYDLE
Governor Chris Christie ran on a similar theme in 2009. Now it’s more true than ever before. Incumbent state Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May) is a prime example of the problem.
He votes like a moderate on some issues (i.e. gun control), true enough, and it earned him reelection in 2009 and 2011 from an otherwise lean-Republican electorate… along with plenty of $$$ from the South Jersey Machine, too. Yet it’s not the whole story; when you pull the lever on Election Day, you’re not just voting for an individual. At the end of the day (remember that phrase for a moment), when it’s time to elect a Senate President who decides which bills see the light of day, he caucuses with a party leadership whose control of the legislature has given our state a toxic business climate and insufferable tax structure.
Sure, Van Drew didn’t support all of the gun control measures put forth by Steve Sweeney’s chamber, but he doesn’t have to support’em all. That’s the game. Without Van Drew and a few other “moderate” Democrat state senators, Tom Kean, Jr. would likely be the man setting the Senate’s agenda. Correlation is causation here. Consequently, Van Drew and other senators in similar situations are given “hall passes” to buck the caucus when their votes aren’t needed. When the rubber hits the road, he told an audience back in 2011 how “at the end of the day, [he] sticks with [his] party” in Trenton.
The moral of our story? Take him at his word, LD1 voters.
Party still matters this November! Not always enough to make my fellow conservatives happy but those indisputable differences do matter quite a bit in 2013; a Democrat Senate will never approve the justices required to end years of judicial interference in public school funding, the single largest driver of property taxes. Senate Present Steve Sweeney’s proved that, Save Jerseyans, so a vote for JVD is tantamount to a vote for Steve. There’s not way to morally rationalize it if you’re really dedicated to saving New Jersey.
How is his opponent on the 2nd amendment? I am nervous if we lose Van Drew to a "moderate" like Christie who will willingly sign away some of our right to keep and bear arms to look like he's being bipartisan. He didn't even throw us a bone with concealed carry, whereas Van Drew has been a supporter of it. In fact Christie has spoken against CCW several times. Besides, it was his AG Chiesa and Paula Dow who royally screwed us. Sorry but I am not blindly supporting the GOP if they don't respect RKBA.