Free Republic

CLARK – Tom Kean Jr. wants to make sure there’s no doubt about his philosophy. “I’m a Tom Kean Republican,” he said Tuesday night to an overflow crowd jammed into the local American Legion hall. Kean Jr., was announcing his candidacy for the 7th District congressional seat now held by Democrat Tom Malinowski. The reference was to his father, Tom Kean Sr., who served two terms as governor in the 1980’s. The term, “Tom Kean Republican,” is not merely the type of throwaway line one often hears at political gatherings. Over the years in New Jersey politics, it has come...

WASHINGTON — State Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. is expected to run for the U.S. House next year, giving national Republicans a major recruiting success following a midterm where Democrats captured four of the five GOP-held House seats. Kean, R-Union, already has set up a fundraising committee and met with officials of the House Republicans’ political arm advance of his announcement scheduled for Tuesday in Clark. A campaign consultant, Harrison Neely, declined to comment.

Forty-four years ago, Brendan Byrne was elected New Jersey governor, amassing a record plurality of 721,378 votes and, in the process, driving the Republican membership in the General Assembly to a historic low - 14 seats. The partisan divide - 66 Democrats and 14 Republicans - meant the Democratic Party held 83 percent of the seats in the Assembly. For every one Republican, there were five Democrats. It was the kind of electoral beatdown that is almost impossible to absorb and still survive. Senate Republicans were spared the devastation because the state Senate was not on the ballot that year....

TRENTON -- State Senate Republican leader Tom Kean Jr. on Thursday said he'd support an increase in the state's minimum wage in exchange for a middle class tax cut. And he said Gov.-elect Phil Murphy should dump his called-for "millionaire's tax" increase. Kean, R-Union, said he was willing to raise the state's minimum wage to a level that is "modern and fair," but stopped short of agreeing to the $15 per hour sought by Murphy.

TRENTON, N.J. - The U.S. Senate race between Republican Tom Kean Jr. and Democrat Robert Menendez is virtually deadlocked, but if voters weren't so concerned about the war in Iraq, Kean could hold a clear lead, according to a poll released Wednesday. A portion of Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind Poll designed to test the impact of national issues on the race indicated that if the war were not a factor, Kean could be leading Menendez by 47-36 percent. As it stands, however, 43 percent of voters polled said they favor Kean to 39 percent for Menendez, a difference that matches...

Tom Kean Jr. doesn't think President Bush is telling the truth about amnesty for illegal immigrants. Kean didn't say that about Bush yesterday. He said it about U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez. But it applies to Bush as well. Both Republican Bush and Democrat Me nendez support a bill now before the Senate that would let about 10 million illegal immigrants stay in the United States. Bush says that's not an amnesty. Yes it is, said Kean yesterday at a press conference in Jersey City with the Statue of Liberty in the background. "Rewarding those who have broken our laws with...

Dems, Kean jockey for Corzine's Senate seat By STEVE KORNACKI PoliticsNJ.com APRIL 21 - They've reached the quarter-pole in The Race For The Seat That Might Not Open. Federal fund-raising reports for the first three months of the year were released last week, triggering an uptick in chatter about the Democratic congressman jockeying to succeed Jon Corzine in the Senate. To no one's surprise Bob Menendez, who entered the starting gate last December as the oddsmakers' favorite, reported the heftiest warchest, with just over $2.5 million on hand. Frank Pallone and Rob Andrews, generally considered Menendez's two chief House rivals...