Why Doug Forrester, R-NJ, LOST and LOST Badly

11.07.02 | Rick Shaftan

[JonH]

I thought he lost because he failed to call Howard Stern.

[the_doc]

Hey, there's an idea! Rudy Giuliani is practically from NJ.

[Coleus]

LOL, He should have. He missed out on a hugh block of voters, the younger ones. He opted to go on Imus in the Morning by telephone for about 10 minutes. Oh well, you can't win them all. Bob Dole appeared on Imus too, look what happened to him.

Giuliani, Pataki, Whitman and D'Amato all went on the show and won. Last week, Pataki received about 15 minutes of free advertising on one of the top-rated morning shows all because he went on in the past. Robyn and Howard talked about him at length during her news portion at the end of the show.

[Coleus]

Rudy's son goes to School in NJ!!

[the_doc]

See my #17.

[Torie]

The above is mostly silly season stuff. Anyone who watched Forrester debate knows why he lost. He was not likable (OK, he was more likeable than the Torch, but then so is Satan), and did not clearly articulate his position on issues in a persuasive fashion, or in many case, seem like he had a handle on them. I was amazed to see the fossil actually out debate him.

[SauronOfMordor]

From the other thread:

Opposed by Brady and not endorsed by the NRA, see what happens when you run as a moderate, nobody on either side likes you!!!!

Revelations 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

[JonH]

I heard him on Imus (the only time my TV is tuned to MSNBC) and thought he came off just fine. From the midwest, it looked like a weak and poorly defined campaign. Not as bad as Simon's but close.

[the_doc]

Down here in Texas, we don't understand the difference between New This and New That anyway. (Do you mean to tell me that York and Jersey are two different states?)

[ChadGore]

I used to live in Morristown, Parsippany,(along 80) Hawthorne and Wycoff (up around 208) and I can tell you this analysis is spot on. The good people of the GOP in NJ would do well to head it's advice.

[Lancey Howard]

BUMP for great freeping.
This is a very interesting article. Bookmarked.

[montag813]

Forrester lost becuase he had a pathetically weak team, led by CM Bill Pascoe, who refused to run hard-hitting ads against Frank Lautenberg, including ones submitted by my team and ideas submitted by others we know of.

Our ads centered on 9/11 and the war on terror, and how Lautenberg was out of touch with America and too extreme for New Jersey on the issue of opposing the death penalty for terrorists who murder Americans, and a vote to cut $1 billion from the intelligence budget and $80 billion from the defense budget. We pointed out that if it were up to Frank Lautenberg's extreme views, the killers of Daniel Pearl and even Osama bin Laden himself would be spared the death penalty. The ads were called too "divisive".

We also raised the age issue in three major ads, the softest focusing on the sheer hypocrisy of his criticism of Millicent Fenwick being "too old" for the Senate at age 72, when he will be 79 in January. The hardest ad simply ran a video medley, not unlike the Rush Limbaugh audio medley, showing a bumbling, incoherent Lautenberg from their first debate. The ad ended with a big question mark and was punctuated with voices saying "What?" "Huh?" etc.

None of our ads were factually incorrect. They were smash-mouth politics, which is desperately needed to knock off a nasty, fear-mongering SOB like Lautenberg.

The Forrester campaign REFUSED to run a single one of our ads. Meanwhile Lautenberg was beating their brains in every day on NYC and Philly networks. We told them they would lose. They did. There was never a question.

Pascoe and his team did not even run a single ad at ALL for THREE WEEKS after Torricelli pulled out, wating precious time to define their candidate to the public and losing an opportunity to crush Lautenberg with attack ads and build his negatives while he was still not funded and while the Democrats were still in disarray.

MAke no mistake, despite what was written above, this race was totally winnable using advertising. We were heavily involved in the ads for Chambliss, Talent and Jeb Bush. Those were all highly aggressive campaigns committed to destroying their opponents. They all won. Pascoe and the Forrester team thought it was out of bounds to attack Lautenberg over 9/11 and his disgraceful record on terror, defense and intelligence. However the Chambliss team saw no problem in shredding a triple-amputee Vietnam veteran over national security issues. THIS is the difference. You either win through TOTAL WAR, or the Democrats will defeat you through lies, fear and deception.

The Forrester failure shows how fear of waging total war against the Democrats can lead only to failure.

[Coleus]

They made the same mistake twice.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/784734/posts?page=2#2

Rt. 208 Garrett territory, I'm glad he won!!

So, in what state do you live now?

[Lancey Howard]

"Doug Forrester actually said he would vote against conservative judges supported by President Bush"

Wow. This I did not know....
IF this is true, then I am delighted that Forrester lost.

I have maintained on many threads over the past couple of years that New Jersey is a scumbag little pissant state, hopelessly lost down the liberal toilet forever. But I now wonder if maybe New Jersey is a decent place after all and it is the New Jersey Republican Party that is the pack of scumbag little pissants.....

[Lancey Howard]

...his clients were 12-0 on Tuesday, with one race still in doubt. Among his successful clients this year were conservative Democrat Russ Pitman, who defeated 20-year liberal Republican incumbent Len Kaiser for North Arlington Mayor, conservative freshman Virginia Republican State Senator Ken Cuccinelli, and the Coalition Against the Tax Referendum which defeated a proposed Northern Virginia Sales Tax increase by a 55-45 margin.

Wowza!
This guy Rick Shaftan sounds like somebody you hire if you are a conservative who wants to win.

[jwalsh07]

Forrester wasn't a good candidate. He had no center. He doesn't believe in anything and he couldn't or wouldn't give a straight answer to a straight question, specifically on abortion and guns. I would have had a hard time voting for him myself.

[Lancey Howard]

I just read the other article (about Schundler's campaign) from the link you provided. Excellent stuff. Shaftan really knows what he is talking about.

[Coleus]

He was endorsed by a PAC that promotes pro-abortion judges and would not reject their endorsement.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/758810/posts?page=19#19

The republican party (the politicians and NJ GOP) in this state stinks.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/703896/posts

[Antoninus]

I voted for Doug, but I had nowhere near the passion for this campaign that I had for Schundler. I never did get around to picking up that lawn sign or bumper stickers. Why? Because he was a wet noodle on abortion, plain and simple. Forrester got 882,292 running as a 'centrist'. Can anyone tell me how many votes Schundler got running for Governor last year? I can't find the results anywhere.

[Antoninus]

If the Dems have a good candidate who is pro life he has a good chance of winning.

Honestly, if the Dems ran truly pro-life candidates, even I would vote for them if they ran against a RINO pro-abortion Republican. It's my #1 issue.