1st District
By svodiIn a district the George W. Bush carried one year ago, Democrat Jefferson Van Drew won a massive landslide in his bid for a third term: he finished almost 9,000 votes ahead of his running mate, nearly 16,000 votes ahead of the Republican incumbent, and more than 24,000 votes in front of the other GOP candidate. Helped by Van Drew's coattails, state Democratic money and numerous mistakes by the state GOP, Democrat Nelson Albano, a Vineland labor official and advocate for tough drunk driving laws, defeated six-term Republican Jack Gibson by 6,749 votes. Gibson trailed Albano in Cape May County by 107 votes (running more than 2,000 votes behind the GOP Sheriff and County Clerk candidates). Gibson, who lost to Van Drew in 2001 and returned in 2003, is possibly the only Assemblyman in modern New Jersey history to lose the same seat twice.
Republicans were in trouble back in April when their candidate for the second, seat, Upper Township Committeeman Andrew McCrosson, forgot to file his nominating petitions. That left a perennial gadfly, George Cecola, unopposed. State Republicans tried to mount a write-in campaign to nominate former Cumberland County Freeholder James Sauro, but without the support of Cape May Republicans, they failed, allowing Cecola to take the second slot.
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Wally is right on the money, as always. Although it may have be
Wally is right on the money, as always. Although it may have been a last-minute surprise to the Star Ledger, Gibson sealed his own fate the minute he neglected to put McCrosson's name on the petitions he submitted. One of the perils of four-person Assembly races is that if your running mate is so weak that he's not even pulling your party's base vote, then all your base voters are free to vote for one of your opponents. Any mainstream GOP candidate would have made it a race.
Van Drew and Albano took the ball and never looked back, and ran a flawless campaign that got Albano up to the finish line to justify the last-minute TV push, but it was Gibson and the GOP that fumbled in the first place.
Would it be inappropriate to label Jeff Van Drew "the Evan Bayh
Would it be inappropriate to label Jeff Van Drew "the Evan Bayh of Cape May County"?
This race even caught the attention of those of us above the Mason-Dixon Line (check out a map, the 1st is below it). I think most pundits predicted that this was going to be a split-party delegation (like the Baroni-Greenstein 14th) for the foreseeable future. But, this proves that a quality running mate is important. Most analysts, including Wally (albeit very slightly), suggested that Gibson had a chance of pulling this one off. However, regardless of the probable outcome, Albano was always considered an appealing and somewhat formidable running mate. Gibson's running mate (and I use the word very loosely) was damaged goods. That cost him big time.
NOTE to all assembly candidates. There is a place where candidates (Republican and Democrat alike) can run individual campaigns and win...it's called the Senate!!!
Not only did Gibson fail in placing McCrosson on the petition, t
Not only did Gibson fail in placing McCrosson on the petition, the GOP failed to put ANY money in the 1st district.
There were a handful of Gibson signs about, but they were easily flanked by Van Drew/Albano signs.
There was no television time from the GOP. The Dems pumped plenty of money to run their ad the last two weeks. There was little mention of Gibson's name during the campaign. As an incumbent, one would be hardpressed to say what he had done for his constiuency.