Rare G.O.P. Species Runs for New Jersey Governor: A Moderate

New York Times ^ | June 25, 2017 | NICK CORASANITI

[GuavaCheesePuff]

HACKETTSTOWN, N.J. — The Republican candidate for governor of New Jersey sat on a plush beige couch in the Republican mayor’s condo, surrounded by Republican county officials and politicians, and offered up her plan to stem what is perhaps the state’s most daunting challenge — its deepening property tax crisis. She adopted it, she said, from an unexpected source. “This is a page out of the Democratic playbook, it really is,” Kim Guadagno, the lieutenant governor said, noting that the plan came from a proposal in deep-blue Illinois.

With Republicans controlling the White House, both chambers of Congress and having successfully fended off Democratic challenges in four special elections this year, the party is enjoying a dominance not seen for decades and has left the Democrats divided and demoralized. But as they’ve blazed a trail turning many parts of the country red, Republicans in traditionally blue states, like New Jersey, are facing longer odds than ever.

[fieldmarshaldj]

If you have to dig up candidates 20 years removed from the zenith of their careers, you have a problem. Schundler is a good man, but he’s fallen to second tier as a candidate now. It would be almost as silly as it was when Jeff Bell decided to have another Senate go almost 4 decades after his loss to Bill Bradley. The sabotage by the elites to Schundler was successful. Heaven forbid an outsider who could get substantial % of the Black and Hispanic votes as an urban Mayor try to become leader of the NJ GOP. Let’s face it, the GOP elites have demonstrated for decades that they don’t want to be a party that appeals to anything beyond rich left-wing Whites (a group that has fled to the Democrats en masse, why the Dems are now the party of the rich).

[GuavaCheesePuff]

True. Tom Kean Jr. is probably the best NJGOP candidate in 2018.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Another Establishment hack.

[Impy]

I’m in IL, and I agree, democrats are ISIS as far as I’m concerned, I see supporting any Republican over them as my moral duty. I’m just saying, silly article title, RINOS not rare.

As for Schundler, he won by wide margins in a city with more crackheads than Republicans. Mayor being a less partisan position granted but I certainly think he could have won statewide if the state party had actually supported him.

[GuavaCheesePuff]

True. From that 2001 election on, N.J. had changed. McGreevey was a mediocre as governor, and he won the Whitman/DeFrancesco/Franks/Kean crowd.

However, the Keans and the Whitmans of the world won.

[BillyBoy]

What planet are these mainstream media stooges living on? Trump is an hardline bible thumping anti-gay bigot in their delusional alternate reality. New Jersey, the land of Christie Todd Whitman and Tom Kean Republicans, never runs “moderates” for Governor in their delusional alternate reality. Next they’ll be claiming Israel has never had a Jewish Prime Minister or something.

[Founding Father]

You have the winning comment.

[Deplorable American1776]

Excuse me, a rare species would be a Conservative in New Jersey. RINO is like nuts at a nut store...Really fake news!!!

[novemberslady]

I do not like her, she reminds me of Christie Whitman.

Then there's her position on gun rights...

Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who used to carry a .45-caliber Smith & Wesson as a sheriff, said she would support amending the state’s law to allow for reciprocity for concealed-carry permits from other states.
Thus, someone who is licensed to carry a concealed weapon in another state would be also allowed to carry one in New Jersey — without applying for a permit.

Eyes on your own damn paper.

What does she carry now, and why are law abiding people who have already been approved to own firearms in the state of NEW JERSEY being denied the rights that she has?

Why do these people act like their lives are more important than the lives of the people of New Jersey who pay their salaries?

And why should I give a damn about honoring carry permits from other states when NEW JERSEY treats her own people like they don't have the right to live?

All this talk about self defense for thee, but not for me has gone to far.