Ex-rival of aging Senator says age should not be issue for Lautenberg
By Zach SilberAge was an issue in a 1974 U.S. Senate race in North Dakota, where a popular 55-year-old former Governor challenged a beloved 76-year-old incumbent who had won more than 60% of the vote in each of his four re-election campaigns.
On John F. Kennedy's ticket, Bill Guy was elected Governor in 1960: North Dakota State University Library PhotoBut more than thirty years later, William L. Guy says he no longer sees old age as a reason to force an incumbent into retirement.
"I could still serve," said the 87-year-old Guy, who served as Governor from 1961 to 1973. “I still have quite a bit to offer".
Guy lost his Senate bid to GOP incumbent Milton Young by just 177 votes statewide. A TV ad would grind any apprehension about Young's age to a halt. The commercial depicted Young, an avid practitioner of the martial arts, karate chop a one-inch board in half with his bare hands.
Vice President Harry Truman swears in Milton Young as a U.S. Senator, April, 1945: State Historical Society of North Dakota PhotoWhile U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg feels that at 83 he's ready for six more years, a recent Quinnipiac University poll shows that 54% of New Jersey voters disagree, believing the Senator is "too old to effectively serve".
Short of donning a white robe and belt, Guy suggests that Lautenberg not be distracted by the age debate but continue to "run on ideas".
Does Guy think aging Senators should retire and let new people in the door?
“No, I’d say let the elderly run and let the people decide,” he told PoliticsNJ.com.
“Age is subjective," said Guy, who suggested that holding public office at an advanced age isn't for everyone. "I know a lot of older candidates who are still valuable, and others who are suffering.”
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"He told me he had a long political memory and his door would be closed to me. I told him I had a long political memory and I don't ever remember his door being open." -- Assemblyman Willie Brown (D-Newark), on telling U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg that he was endorsing the Republican candidate, Assembly Speaker Chuck Haytaian.
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In New Jersey we have no guide lines.
Age smage who cares! He used it once to get elected over his Republican opponent. He got special treatment from the NJ supreme court to join the Senate race after the deadline. I again use Corzine's Question. If you haven't changed the standing of NJ as far as it's rating on return of Federal Tax dollars back to the State what have you been doing in the Senate? We are still dead last. Leave him in office he could be the first Petrified Senator. Al Gore would love us because he wouldn't emit any green house gases. Save the planet!
Frank the fossil
Is Lautenberg kidding me? HE MADE AGE the issue in 1982 when he unfairly attacked Fenwick's time on earth, now he's back tracking and coming up with these old cronies to dispel the fact he jusy might be too old to serve? The real truth is that his ego won't allow him to retire gracefully. Like the old saying goes, power is always taken and never transferred... N