By Matt Rooney
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Jeff Van Drew earned high marks for his big Thursday night covnention address, Save Jerseyans, and the former Democrat-turned-key Trump ally predictably used his platform to take a verbal swipe at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“In 2018 after being elected to Congress as a Democrat, I was already uncomfortable with a San Francisco liberal running the House, which is why my first vote in Congress was cast against Nancy Pelosi for Speaker,” Van Drew explained.
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San Fran Nancy noticed:
Jeff Van Drew has failed the American people, including the hard-working people of #NJ02 suffering from Trump’s #coronavirus crisis. His only interest is himself.@AmyKennedy715, on the other hand, will fight for South Jersey. Join her in the fight: https://t.co/Cfl7eqQgwe
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) August 28, 2020
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I get it; it’s politics.
But it’s also a particularly sloppy attack from the top Democrat.
Many South Jersey politicians have been advocating for a regional opening strategy for weeks (and in some cases months). COVID-19 cases in South Jersey never reached crisis levels (defined as our hospitals being close to the point of being overwhelmed). But at one point in the spring? One in three Atlantic County residents weren’t employed.
“While the health of South Jerseyans have fared well throughout the shutdown, our livelihoods and finances have not,” observed our friend state Senator Mike Testa (R-1) back in June. “Due to Murphy’s ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach across our state, more residents are unemployed in Cape May and Cumberland Counties now than throughout the Great Depression.”
Phil Murphy’s restrictions on small businesses – including the continued prohibition on indoor dining – remain wildly unpopular throughouth South Jersey and the Jersey Shore.
The bottom line: it’s undisputable that the response of Amy Kennedy’s buddy Phil Murphy to COVID-19 inflicted more damage on South Jersey than the virus itself.
So while the COVID-19 talking point embedded in Pelosi’s tweet might play well somewhere else?
It’s not going to work in NJ-02. Sorry, Nance! Swing and a miss.
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