By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
The defection of Joe Kyrillos and other significant New Jersey Republicans to Jeb Bush’s camp may be damaging to the presidential ambitions of our Governor, Save Jerseyans, but in an interesting way, it may be a positive development as far as our legislative races are concerned.
While Kyrillos was the big name that garnered all the attention in yesterday’s WashPo piece, you may’ve missed the mention of longtime powerhouse GOP fundraiser Gail Gordon also signaling that her support is going to Jeb, not Chris Christie, based on the strength of a long-time connection to the Bush family.
If you are not familiar with Gordon, her last name should certainly ring a bell. Gail Gordon is the wife of New Jersey Senator Bob Gordon, the Democratic senator in battleground District 38. Republicans, including Christie, have often called on Gail Gordon as a supporter and high-powered fundraiser. She raised big bucks for him in 2009 and 2013.
But while Christie was criticized for not doing enough to support legislative candidates across the state, he did cut a TV ad for Gordon’s challenger, Fernando Alonso.
Moving forward, with Gordon now lining up with Team Bush, will Christie throw everything he has at trying to dislodge the lieutenants of her husband in District 38? There’s some reason to expect Christie may do more for legislative candidates in 2015 than last time around (to the extent he can help with sagging approval ratings), but will this district be the one where he feels a personal stake in seeing a victory for GOP Assembly hopefuls Mark DiPisa and Anthony Cappola?
A defeat of one or hopefully both of Bob Gordon’s running mates will put him in a greatly weakened position heading into 2017 when many strong possible challengers are waiting in the wings Gordon, most notably Fair Lawn Mayor John Cosgrove who is expected to cruise to re-election in the most populous town in the district this November.
