Posted on 09/22/2002 6:04:03 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
Democratic Party leaders fear that New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli may be down for the count in his reelection bid against GOP challenger Doug Forrester, with control of the Senate now hinging on the man political experts are calling the Senate's most endangered incumbent Democrat.
Dogged by unanswered questions about his ethics and honesty after the Senate slapped his wrist in July for allegedly taking bribes, Torricelli's poll numbers have been slipping for months. According to the New York Times, party strategists are stunned he hasn't been able to overcome what they hoped would be viewed as a routine ethics flap.
"The Ethics Committee report turned a noncompetitive race into a competitive race," Clinton political pit bull James Carville complained to the Times.
His race with Forrester is "dead even at best," usually optimistic Democratic Party chief Terry McAuliffe told the paper.
McAullife has sent for the financial fire brigade to make a last ditch rescue effort.
In the last three weeks alone, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spent $2.1 million on three television ads promoting Torricelli's reelection bid. Before the dust settles in November party money-men expect to shovel another $3 million into the effort.
The Torricelli ads are pushing all the right buttons for a liberal Democratic state like New Jersey: abortion rights, environmental protection and gun safety.
Still, the endangered Democrat seems to be spinning his wheels. One recent survey showed just 24 percent of New Jersey voters firmly committed to the Torch's reelection, according to Staten Island, NY political analyst Kevin Collins.
The same poll asked, "What opinion do you have of Senator Torricelli?" The six most popular unsolicited responses were: 1) "Don't know" 2) "Dishonest" 3) "Crook" 4) " Accepted gifts" 5) "Just don't like" 6) "Involved in scandal."
Further dampening the Torch's flickering prospects, the Republican National Senatorial Campaign Committee plans to pour $15 million into Forrester's campaign, which would be the largest Republican investment in U.S. Senate race since the mid 1970s.
Fr. Mike Reilly contributed to this report.
Darn those ethics...
The truth is, as usual, the complete opposite of what Carville said. By its slap on the wrist to Robert ("the Un-Bribed") Torricelli, the Senate "Ethics" Committee did all they could to protect the scumbag, to borrow a phrase.
Torricelli got his problems the old-fashioned way. He EARNED them.
Congressman Billybob
Click for "Til Death Do Us Part."
Because the Ethics Committee |
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GOP_Lady |
We hope!!!
He is toast and they know it
True. If the Ethics Committee had done what they should have, it would have been a very different race. Now the voters in NJ can decide whether ethics matters or whether they think, just like Carville, that there is no place for ethics in politics.
Never fear democRATs. The latest polls fail to take into account the massive dead people vote, which I predict will go overwhelmingly in favor of the Torch.
WFTR
Bill
The protection was a fallacy. Jeffords switch was necessary for control yet none of the promises were ever kept, Torricelli's win is a must as well although he too would be sacrificed in the end.
In a recent debate with Forrester Torricelli accused him of campaigning with dirty money. "Where'd all that money come from?" You think he's asked Hillary, Cantwell, or Corzine the same question? The guy should have been impeached from the senate for accepting bribes and here he is accusing his opponent, someone with a clean record. Sound like the Leftist way?
This from strategists of the party of the people.
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