My state absolutely disgusts me. Lance will lose and so will MacArthur. Problem is these districts are getting bluer. NJ5 used to be a conservative district. Gottheimer has a lock on that now. We will not get NJ11 back for awhile either. That said, Christie screwed us in redistricting after the 2010 census and the demographic changes are starting to manifest.
We lost NJ-11 and other seats in the House because of the Tax Bill.
I predicted this last December, and said so here on Free Republic.
The GOP will probably lose the House in 2018. The campaign commercials about Republicans raising taxes on many families so that corporations could get massive tax cuts will write themselves. And the democrats don't even need to lie this time.
December 2, 2017
That bill raised taxes for millions of Americans, including those in high tax states like CT, NY, NJ, CA, and others.
Corporations got a MASSIVE tax break (from 35% to 21%), and to "pay for it" they raised taxes on middle income Americans by capping or eliminating altogether deductions. People are now forced to pay taxes to the Feds upon taxes they already pay. Yes, the tax cut to corporations helped the economy, but not everyone in the middle class got a tax cut because their deductions were capped or destroyed. The Feds "needed the money."
It violated the President's pledge as a candidate:
"We will massively cut taxes for the middle class, the forgotten people, the forgotten men and women of this country, who built our country....Tax relief will be concentrated on the working and middle class taxpayer. They will receive the biggest benefit and it won't even be close." Candidate Trump, Oct 2016
The television ads were devastating. Some people on FR liked telling other residents of states they don't like to p___ off, and that none of this mattered.
Well, it did matter. We lost some House seats directly because of this issue. People are not stupid.
These are photos of people lining up last December (right during the holidays) to pre-pay taxes so as to be less screwed by the Feds come April.
Virginia
Colorado
New York
Georgia
Maryland
I wish we didn't lose the House. But it happened. People here can say that raising taxes on millions of middle class families didn't play a role. Fine. They can keep believe that.
Immigration is making New Jersey the next Kalifornia.
In my area the local high school is 60% Hispanic and 10% East Asian (India-Pakistan). For me it is not that ethicity, really, but the political values that many of those folks bring with them.
Part of the problem for the GOP, with regard to the India-Pakistan immigrants, who are actually pretty Conservative in many ways, is how effectively the media has sold 24/7/365 the GOP anti-illegal immigration stance as a wholesale anti-immigrant stance. We have to work harder at demonstrating support and respect for the legal immigrant and differentiating that from opposition to illegal immigration and amnesty. There are Conservatives among many classes of immigrants and the Dims with their massive pro-bono media arm has done a massive job making many of the afraid of the GOP. I consider that a communication error of the GOP, across the board. EVERY set of statements against illegal immigration by any public GOP figure should include how and why that is not a statement against legal immigrants. In fact, it needs to go further and announce that supporting illegal immigration and amnesty is an immoral position, TOWARDS THE LEGAL IMMIGRANTS.