Garrett says this year is no different

HOBOKEN – Between greeting commuters boarding a train headed to northern Bergen County, U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-Wantage) said that Democratic challenger Dennis Shulman hasn’t given him any more of a scare than opponents in elections past.

“No. But I take every race very seriously, and we’re doing the same here,” he said. “I know that the DCCC has become involved in this race, and that of course has not occurred in the past.”

Still, Garrett acknowledged that the Democrats appeared poised for big victories in the House and Senate. But he doesn’t fear the wrath of a Democratic wave, despite his conservatism. Even if that happens, Garrett said, voters in the district may split the ticket: vote for Obama, and yet still vote for him – the most conservative member of the New Jersey delegation.

“The New Jersey Herald endorsed him and it endorsed me,” said Garrett. “One of the things that Obama talked about is change, what have you. I tell people my record has been to push back against the Bush Administration.”

Shulman has frequently criticized Garrett for having differences with the Bush Administration, but only when his position is to Bush’s right.

Both Garrett and Shulman showed up to Hoboken Terminal tonight, along with the Bergen County Democratic county-wide candidates, where they could meet a greater number of their district’s voters than they would at any one of its many train stations. Shulman was joined by Senate President Dick Codey, who earlier today called Garrett a “marginal figure,” both in and outside of his own party.

Garrett’s signs mixed with Shulman’s at the station, as dozens of volunteers competed to outdo each other. A Garrett intern wore an inmate outfit with a sign that said “Shulman and Ferriero: perfect together” (Bergen County Sheriff Leo McGuire, a Ferriero ally who was there to campaign for the county candidates and Shulman, shook his hand and introduced himself). A Shulman volunteer carried around a puppet of Garrett with clownish rosy cheeks.

Three hours before stopping by the train station, Shulman told reporters that “We need change. People from Philipsburg to Westwood demand change, because the same old corrupt politics have failed… Career politicians like Scott Garrett have had their chance to guide the economy, and they have failed miserably.”

He also referred to a Garrett mailer that superimposes Shulman’s image over a Hamas soldier, calling it part of his “flailing efforts to smear me.”

Garrett, however, defended the mailer.

“It has been recorded that he believes in unconditional discussions with Hamas and other terrorist organizations,” he said. “So it’s just an issue of his policy position differences with mine. They’re differences, and we’re just trying to warn the public on his policy positions, because he has denied them in other venues.”