Posted on 04/24/2002 5:08:44 AM PDT by MAKnight
(HAMILTON, APRIL 21) - Republican U.S. Senate candidate Doug Forrester - whose campaign continued to reach out to GOP primary voters this weekend, with appearances before the New Jersey Conservative Network conference, the New Jersey College Republican conference, and Republican grass-roots activists in Passaic, Ocean, and Monmouth counties - is emerging as the favored candidate among likely Republican primary voters.
"New Jerseyans pay too much in taxes, worry too much about illegal immigration, and fear too much for their retirement security," said Forrester for Senate campaign manager Bill Pascoe. "But help is on the way.
"Doug Forrester has made clear that he wants to go to the Senate to work for New Jersey, not for his own career advancement," Pascoe continued. "Doug wants to cut taxes, hold the line on spending, toughen enforcement of immigration laws, and reform the INS. He'll do it while upholding the honor and integrity of the office. New Jersey Republicans are responding to that simple message, and they're flocking to our campaign."
Evidence of that momentum came on Saturday, at the New Jersey Conservative Network conference in Edison, where Forrester won the straw poll of registrants - taking 48 percent of the vote in a multicandidate field, and easily defeating his next-closest challenger, State Senator John Matheussen. The final tally: Forrester, 48 percent; Matheussen, 37 percent; Jim Treffinger, 6 percent; Guy Gregg, 5 percent; Diane Allen, zero percent.
On Sunday, Forrester was a key speaker at a statewide conference of College Republicans at Drew University in Madison, and then met with Republican activists in Lakewood, Spring Lake, and Tinton Falls.
"It's become more clear than ever that New Jersey needs a Senator who's focused on doing his job, not just tending to his own career. New Jersey needs a Senator who cares about New Jerseyans, not folks in other parts of the country. New Jersey needs a Senator who will protect our wallets, our families, and our retirement security.
"New Jersey needs Doug Forrester," concluded Pascoe.
Question is; is he a Conservative? If he is, and the New Jersey Conservative Network seems to think he is, shouldn't we get behind him now?
1) Yes, Bill Pascoe is managing his campaign. Hopefully, he's putting to good use the lessons he learned the hard way last year, as Bret's campaign manager.
2) Forrester has focused from the beginning on taking on Bob Torricelli. His releases go after the Torch, not the other GOP candidates. That may be evidence that Pascoe is trying to win the primary a new way -- without leaving so many bruised feelings among the Party regulars, for whatever they're worth.
3) Forrester's mail says he wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, cut middle class tax rates, eliminate the death tax, and even reduce the capital gains tax (!). And here's a stunner -- the mail says that reducing the capital gains tax rate would automatically increase the value of every home in America, and thereby enrich everyone who owns a home. When was the last time you saw a Republican actually make the cut-the-cap-gains-rate argument based on appealing to MIDDLE CLASS HOMEOWNERS? A stroke of brilliance!
4) Forrester is also focusing on immigration -- the polling must be off the charts on that issue in this state. So he wants stricter enforcement, INS reform, tougher background checks for employment at nuclear plants, etc.
Diane Allen is a liberal -- so liberal she probably couldn't even win a Democrat primary in NJ. Today's Quinnipiac University survey has an interesting surprise buried in the internal numbers -- Diane's favorable ratings are being driven by her support among DEMOCRATS (her fav/unfav among GOPers is 6% fav/3% unfav, but among Dems her fav/unfav is 15% fav/1% unfav). Hard to win a GOP primary with numbers like that.
And John Matheussen is aptly described in yesterday's Paul Mulshine column as a "pro-life Democrat." Far worse, though -- he didn't just run away from Bret last year, he actually put out a campaign mail piece that implied he had been endorsed by JIM MCGREEVEY. Matheussen is no conservative, and he stabbed Bret in the back. He deserves to be punished.
This is an easy one. Forrester's the guy.
Sounds good to me!!!
Good, I was hoping we could distill the right candidate!
Thanks. I'll be ready in June.
Let them laugh now. By September, voters will remember how the Republicans cleaned their own house by turning against Treffinger, while the Democrats continued to back their own criminal.
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