Getting a candidate out there in 2002 plants seeds for votes 2004.
Posted on 06/22/2002 6:16:12 AM PDT by GeneD
In other situations, Democrat Rob Andrews might feel a bit lonely.
But the six-term U.S. representative likely prizes this sort of solitude: No Republican will run against him in November.
No Republicans in Camden and Gloucester Counties could muster 100 write-in votes in the June 4 primary, the last chance in New Jersey to earn a slot on the ballot.
While some GOP supporters say the lack of a candidate will display the weakness of the party to voters, others say the party should not waste its limited resources running an underdog against the popular Andrews.
Mark Otto, a political newcomer from Collingswood, said he was so upset at the prospect of a GOP-free election that he might launch a November write-in campaign. Otto received 23 votes in the primary.
"It's embarrassing that the Republican Party doesn't have anyone on the ballot for a federal position," said Otto, a financial analyst in Philadelphia for Sysco Food Services, a unit of Sysco Corp. "That job is just too important to let it go so easily. There needs to be an open, honest debate of the issues."
Andrews, a former Camden County freeholder who has fought prominently against dredging the Delaware River and protested the government's handling of the anthrax outbreak, said his first unopposed election would allow him to focus more on issues and federal policy and less on campaign dinners and fund-raisers.
"I take this as a signal to work even harder," Andrews said. "Anyone who would take this as an invitation to slack off would be making a mistake."
Andrews faced a tight race against Gloucester County Freeholder Daniel Mangini in 1990, the first year he ran for office, but has won comfortable victories in subsequent elections.
If Andrews does lose an election, it will be in a primary, rather than in a general election, said Harry Kennedy, the former Gloucester County Republican chairman who works in governmental relations at the Delaware River Port Authority. Andrews has feuded with South Jersey Democratic power broker George E. Norcross 3d for years, and an expensive Democratic primary is always a possibility, Kennedy said.
Finding a Republican challenger for Andrews was not a top priority this year, Kennedy said, because the First District, which includes Camden, the towns along the Black Horse Pike, and almost all of Gloucester County, is solidly Democratic.
"Some people said it's a terrible tragedy for our party, but the reality is Andrews is going to win anyway," said Kennedy, who passed the reins of the Gloucester County GOP to East Greenwich lawyer Robert Becker Jr. last week. "In this district, he's untouchable, and so we were hesitant to find someone to be a sacrificial lamb with limited resources."
George Gallenthin, a lawyer from Paulsboro who received 98 write-in votes in the primary, disagreed.
"The lack of a Republican name on the ballot really points out the weakness of the party, which isn't good to show the voters," Gallenthin said. "I may be a Republican, but I know this party is very weak."
But even in a solidly Democratic district, it is in the GOP's best interests to put a candidate on the ballot, said Jeanette Hoffman, communications director for the New Jersey Republican Party.
"A lot of good comes out of unsuccessful races," she said.
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Contact Kaitlin Gurney at 856-779-3910 or kgurney@phillynews.com.
So the pool to recruit from is quite small.
Getting a candidate out there in 2002 plants seeds for votes 2004.
You'd need to put him in a shipping container.
With holes, so he can breathe.
And one of those gerbil-watering tubes.
And some shredded newspaper.
And Republican food pellets.
Andrews won the seat then and has held it ever since. Andrews holds himself out as a "fiscal conservative", but there is no such thing as a fiscal conservative who is also a social(ist) liberal, which Andrews is.
DWG
Gosh, imagine that. A Democrat who has mysterious sources of unidentified cash.
Next thing, you'll tell me they sometimes lie.
??
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