“Jersey Joe” enters Senate race

Branding himself the everyman, state Sen. Joe Pennacchio formally entered the race for U.S. Senate today, contrasting himself with the two other candidates for the Republican nomination.

Industrial real estate developer Anne Evans Estabrook has marked her place as the Republican establishment’s choice, putting $1.6 million of her own money into the campaign, gaining the backing of many state officials, and taking away some of Pennacchio’s thunder by announcing the support of National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Ensign and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell less than an hour before Pennacchio’s press conference.

Pennacchio could also lose some more conservative voters to Ramapo College Finance Professor and two time statewide office candidate Murray Sabrin, who heads Ron Paul’s New Jersey campaign.

That leaves Pennacchio somewhere between them – more conservative than Estabrook, but more mainstream than Sabrin. So “Jersey Joe” Pennacchio, as he calls himself, is reaching out with a very simple slogan: “He’s one of us!” One of us meaning a former Reagan Democrat who worked his way through dental school at a pizza place and frequently references Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy.

Pennacchio held his announcement at a restaurant in Jersey City’s Liberty State Park with panoramic views of The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and lower Manhattan.

He chose the spot for its layers of symbolism – it’s where Ronald Reagan kicked off his 1980 campaign for president, and it’s within view of Ellis Island, where Pennacchio’s Italian immigrant parents first arrived in the United States. Moreover, Pennacchio noted, the spot was in the shadow of the World Trade Center when it was still standing, just over six years ago.

Pennacchio said that he was not particularly upset or demoralized by Estabrook’s support from the two powerful out-of-state Senators, although he said that he wished that the process had been more open.

“I’m a Jersey Joe. I’m an average Joe. Ask the average person who Ensign and McConnell are,” said Pennacchio. “If you get one person out of a thousand who knows who they are who’s not an insider, I’ll buy you a steak dinner.”

Pennacchio would not say how much money he’s raised so far, and said that he does not plan to put much of his own money into the race. He and his wife, Diane, have each contributed $2,000 to his campaign fund.

“I would not jump into this campaign unless I could raise enough funds to make it credible. It’s not an auction, it’s an election,” he said.

While Pennacchio said that it’s Estabrook’s right to self-fund her campaign, he emphasized that Republican leadership shouldn’t pick a candidate for that reason alone.

“Tell her there,” said Pennacchio just before his speech, pointing to the Statue of Liberty in the distance. “The only way you can get elected is what, to self fund? It ain’t going to happen,” he said. He also said that he’s not worried about Sabrin cutting into his conservative voter base.

“Or do I draw away from his basis of support?” he said when asked.

Pennacchio said that he’s running on a message of fewer taxes, less government spending, strong national defense, further opening up the health care industry to the free market. He also said he hopes to stem the tide of illegal immigration by building a border fence, using Israel’s border wall between itself and the Palestinian territories as an example.

When asked whether he would have voted to authorize the war in Iraq, Pennacchio said that he “most probably” would have.

“There are always mistakes in wars. We’ve won the war…. And we’re winning the second war in Iraq with the surge. The problem is we have to win the peace,” he said, adding that the U.S. needs to secure a better “buy in” from Iraqis themselves.

While Pennacchio is pro-life, he said that it’s not the driving issue of his campaign – that he wants to focus on the high taxes that he says are driving residents out of the state.

Pennacchio didn’t say much about his two likely primary opponents during the press conference, saving the bulk of his criticism for Lautenberg. But he said that he hoped the race wouldn’t focus on Lautenberg’s age.

“If he has a direction of where he wants to take the people, it’s not in the mainstream. He’s part of a party of pessimism, entitlement, hyphenated special interests and big government.”