Ex-NJ Governor Won't Seek Senatorship ( Rino Kean chickens out for the 3rd time )

AP via Yahoo ^ | 11/22/2001 | AP

[KQQL]

Ex-NJ Governor Won't Seek Senatorship

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Former Gov. Thomas H. Kean, the top pick of many New Jersey Republicans to run for Senate next year, says he will not enter the race against Democrat Robert Torricelli.

``After careful consideration, I have decided not to seek election to the United States Senate,'' Kean said in a statement Wednesday. ``I am appreciative of the kind words of support I have received from so many over the past several weeks.''

Kean, 66, is president of Drew University in Madison. He served two terms as governor before leaving office in 1990.

``He would have been an outstanding candidate, and I think he would have won,'' said GOP fund-raiser Lewis Eisenberg, chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who said he will now consider entering the race.

Torricelli ( Da Torch ) said he was pleased by Kean's decision, ``not merely because he would have been a formidable opponent, but because I genuinely like him.''

( Wow, what's new ? Rat likes a Rino )

The only announced Republican candidate so far is Jim Treffinger, the Essex County executive, who last year unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination for New Jersey's other Senate seat.

Republicans have lost 10 consecutive Senate races in New Jersey and are still recovering from losing the governor's seat and sole control of both houses of the Legislature on Nov. 6.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Kean forgot the obligatory line: "I decided I wanted to spend more time with my family"!

[KQQL]

lol. oh yea.

[karth]

Everyone likes Tom Kean. He might have won, but the cost would have been creating a segment of opposition to him. Why does he need that? At 66, he wouldn't be planning to stay in the Senate long enough to have accomplishments and he'd be the junior Senator from NJ, quite possibly still in the minority.

He has a high profile as an elder statesman political commentator; he's wealthy; his son is an up and coming politician. I think he doesn't shut down these continual speculations about him immediately out of politeness to the national Republicans who keep trying to push him in. It was President Bush who pushed poor Bob Franks into the primary against Bret Schundler because national Republicans felt Schundler was a sure loser; Franks wanted to hold off and run for Senate next year. Now, Franks can't be a 3 time loser 3 years in a row, so he's bowed out; Whitman is a sure loser; so they started pressuring Tom Kean again.

He went along with it for awhile to be gracious but its good of him to end the speculation with the first announced Republican (Treffinger).

[Theodore R.]

Isn't Kean a former "admirer" of sorts of Jack French Kemp, another who was know to "wimp out" of difficult races? (Don't say I am anti-Kemp; I voted for Kemp in the 1988 Republican presidential primary, undobtedly the silliest vote that I have ever cast.) Kean knows in "Lord" Bentsen parlance that he is "no Jack Kennedy" and would be unable to mount a serious race against Torricelli. I would expect Torricelli to win with 60 percent, regardless of whom the hapless NJ GOP puts up as the nominee. I cannot imagine ANY scenario where the GOP will recover in NJ in the forseeable future.

[Commiewatcher]

How about Steve Forbes?

[Theodore R.]

Yea, markfnkl, can you imagine Nixon saying he wanted to spend more time with Tricia and Julie, or LBJ saying that Lynda and Luci needed his closer attention? That'a sjoke when these failing politicians trot out the old "spendint time with families" line.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Not to mention Winston Churchill, Lincoln or Washington!

[genefromjersey]

Kean was an excellent Governor-"RINO" or not. He's also a well-to-do man, who did his "public service", and who can well afford to sit out the aggravation of a senatorial contest.

[hchutch]

I think hemay be trying to clear the road for Bret.

You will note that he and Bob Franks were among those moderates who were willing to back Bret Schundler, and we need to keep folks like Kean and Franks as allies.

IMHO, there is a world of difference between moderates and RINOs. The biggest difference is, "Will they support our guys? Will they vote with us in a crunch?" With a moderate like Susan Collins, the answer is yes on both counts.

With a RINO like John Warner it isn't. If a person like Susan Collins is the nominee, even though I may disagree with her on the pro-life issue, I'll support her and give her my vote. I won't back a John Warner.

[caltrop]

Excellent Governor? This clown appointed Millicent Fenwick to the US Senate thus clearing the way for Frank Lautenberg. The Republican Party in NJ is on life support, or has perhaps already expired, due to the "leadership" of the likes of Kean and Whitman.

[JoeMomma]

"The Republican Party in NJ is on life support, or has perhaps already expired, due to the "leadership" of the likes of Kean and Whitman."

Oh yeah, I remember all the good that Bret Schundler did for the NJ GOP. He lost how bad, again? Huh? Yeah, Schundler really put some fire in the bellies of Garden State Republicans.

Meanwhile, Kean and Whitman have won four statewide elections between the two of them.

Moderate Republicans win statewide elections in NJ. Ultraconservative Republicans a la Schundler do not.

[writmeister]

Kean appointed Nicholas Brady (later Treasury Secretary under Reagan and BushI) to the Senate to fill the seat of Abscam-disgracee Williams. Fenwick was the 1982 GOP nominee who lost to Lautenberg.