Senate Race Still Taking Shape with Only Five Days Left Before Petition Deadline
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
We’ve only just buried the late Senator Lautenberg but events continue to accelerate in the fight to succeed him, Save Jerseyans. That’s the ‘game of thrones’ -Jersey style.
The latest: 2012 GOP nominee Joe Kyrillos is NOT seeking the Republican nomination to replace Frank Lautenberg in the U.S. Senate. That’s according to NRO and MMM. Somewhere, Irwin Fletcher is smiling.
Meanwhile, everyone’s favorite conservative grump Steve Lonegan is already on the attack. At his official campaign Facebook page launched on Wednesday, Lonegan’s campaign wasted no time seeking to contrast itself with the one other Republican openly weighing entry Asm. Jon Bramnick who, according to PolitickerNJ, is no longer in the race as of this morning:
Jon Bramnick is a pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-amnesty “moderate” who will fund ObamaCare and vote for Obama’s judges and against conservative judges. If he runs, Republicans will have a clear choice for U.S. Senate.”
See how quickly things can change?
It’s now moot, but for the record, Bramnick hasn’t had an opportunity to intimately deal with all of the topics/issues cited by Steve such as judicial appointments (where the Assembly side plays little role). What do we know? Bramnick is definitely not pro life and, to make matters worse, he has made unflattering remarks about social conservatives’ role in the party which give this blogger pause. I’d need to hear more from Bramnick on the topic before feeling sufficiently comfortable to support him in 2014 or beyond. But that’s just me… as always, I encourage you to draw independent conclusions.
Complicating matters for the current contest is the real possibility that Governor Christie may appoint a “placeholder” who won’t actually run in the primary. This seems distinctly possible for a number of reasons including the fact that all of my sources (and the sources of other bloggers/news folks to whom I’ve spoken in the last 48 hours) haven’t heard peep about any GOP petition operations. It may also be the reason why otherwise interested individuals (like Asm. Bramnick) are taking a pass. They know something us peons on the outside do not…
…but at the same time… we know the Christie people don’t like Lonegan or the role he’s played in party politics. Will they really let him have a primary victory? Even if the “general” against Booker/Pallone/Holt is an uphill slog?
Welcome to the endless primary summer, Save Jerseyans! Keep it here for updates…