5th District again proves impossible for Dems
By Matt Friedman, PolitickerNJ.com ReporterAfter blind rabbi/psychologist Dennis Shulman’s impressing fundraising, extensive press coverage and a Democratic wave, U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-Wantage) still managed to easily hold on to his seat on Tuesday.
The margin was even one point wider than in 2006, when Democrat Paul Aronsohn didn’t have nearly as many resources at his disposal.
“I think it really honestly was his message, especially his fiscal conservatism. The smaller government, less taxes message really resonates with 5th District voters,” said Garrett Campaign Manager Amanda Gasperino. “We did a really good job getting his message out and communicating it effectively, which is why you saw an even larger win this cycle.”
Late in the campaign, Garrett did associate himself with a message that proved popular in the district: his opposition to the bailout package. But Gasperino said that it wasn’t one single position that won the race.
“It’s not just the bailout. I think his position being a budget hawk, a fiscal conservative. I don’t think it was one particular issue,” she said. “Conventional wisdom would have said it would have been closer with the amount of money they spent and the amount of resources they claimed to have, and the overall fact that everybody felt it was going to be an enormous Democratic wave. I think it just shows really how well the Congressman represents the district.”
Shulman Campaign Manager Jeff Hauser said that even though the final outcome was disappointing, Garrett probably was forced to spend more money than ever before. He estimates that, once the numbers are in, Garrett will have spent $1.5 million, not including help from outside groups.
”We’re proud of the fact that we forced Scott Garrett to raise what we expect will surpass $1.5 million. The NRCC bought radio time, the NRA put money into his district at the last minute, the club for growth,” he said. “All the special interest groups we were attacking him over, and they made that fundraising cycle strong for him.”
Bergen County Democrats, for their part, cast a wary eye at the northern part of their county, which makes up the bulk of voters in Garrett’s district. While Shulman’s campaign rolled along, the party establishment instead steered most of its resources towards its county races, leery of wasting more resources in what they considered impossible to win. And it’s clear that after this year defeating Garrett doesn’t look likely.
One Democratic source, who had earlier downplayed expectations about the BCDO’s involvement in the race because they’d already lost hope, said that he wasn’t surprised. Instead, the party will probably just wait one more election cycle, and see if this district winds up getting cut up during redistricting.
Earlier in the season, Shulman said he would run again if he didn’t knock Garrett out this time. But after an intense campaign with such lackluster results, that’s uncertain.
“I think he needs some time right now to recuperate. He’s got some patients he’s got to see and a congregation to attend to,” said Hauser.
Montclair University Professor Brigid Harrison had predicted before the election that Garrett would win, albeit by less than the 2006 margin. She wasn’t surprised, however, that it turned out to be such a lopsided victory.
“Scott Garrett was able to pull out a significant win was primarily because the district is configured to be a Republican district, and that has not changed a great deal since the 2000 census,” she said. “I also believe that incumbency is enormously powerful obstacle for a challenger to overcome. In this election year, in fact, about 90% of all incumbent members of the House in both political parties were elected.”
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- Jul 2 2009
Syndicate
HELLO? ANYONE HOME?
ARE WE FINALLY DONE WITH ROTARIANS AND BLIND RABBIS WHO THINK THEY HAVE A CHINA MAN'S CHANCE TO UNSEAT GARRETT?
IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN - EVER!
STOP WASTING TIME AND ENERGY ON WRITING ABOUT THE POLITICAL FANTASY OF THE LEFT WHO THINK BECAUSE THEY HATE GARRETT, THE REST OF DISTRICT HATES HIM TOO!
Vote Column "A" - All the way!
Garret won becuz Garrett don't listen to Yudin
Here's the lesson to be learned from this election: if you want to win in Bergen County, stay the f away from Bob Yudin & Tom Amirrato. Donovan and Garret ran their own campaigns and won. The Freeholders let Yudin and Amirrato lead them to ruin.
Yudin = Fail.
Amirrato = Hella Fail.
Welcome to bergen county.
Bergen Ruiz
What a dolt. Since you left the Republican party in Bergen things have improved in District 37. Yudin put on a show that your previous boss could not. What was that again Estabrook , Unanaue and Zimmer. Yudin picked Pennachio who won the Bergen Primary. His Freeholders got a Record amount of votes in any election in the last 4-5 years. When were you ever on TV . ooops we forgot you are still collecting $ 10 from last years campaign
Garrett and his conservative
Garrett and his conservative neo-nazi Bush-worshiping oil addicted lobbyist-backed cronies (as Mr. Hauser would say) ran a great campaign.
Congratulations to all.
Give up Dems - Garrett is your master now!
Kudos to Yudin
with no thanks to Ruiz and the so called Hispanics.
Yudin scared the Ferriero Freeholders so much that this years election went into overtime before we knew who won.
Garrett is to the 5th what Rothman is to the 9th and what our Loretta is to district 37. By the way Ruiz aka Clara the Republican Freeholders got more votes than you will ever get in your lifetime.
The bitter left
A radical leftist candidate for Congress tried to lie his way into office. Fortunately, the good people of the 5th district saw through his nonsense. In spite of being made fully aware of the truth, Rabbi Shulman, a self-proclaimed professor of “ethics” refused to call off his attack dogs and continued his slander against the Garrett family and our farm in Sussex. Contrary to his despicable lies, we have a REAL farm where we raise REAL Christmas trees. As the person who does the farming on both my land and on my brother’s property, I find his repeated smears to be especially offensive.
It is likely that Shulman has never so much as set foot on a farm. Perhaps that is why he has no appreciation for open space and for those of us who work the soil in order to preserve it and pass it on to future generations. Shulman made it quite clear that he would prefer that landowners build houses rather than raise crops. Thankfully most voters feel quite differently about our land and our farms.
In a few short weeks, we will once again be opening Shale Hills Farm to our neighbors and friends, as we have been doing for decades. Children will have memories of cutting their own Christmas tree and those memories will last a lifetime. That is what makes all the work so worthwhile for the Garrett family. It is sad that Shulman and his bitter liberal allies will never understand that.
My family looks forward to a wonderful Christmas season. As we approach that happy time of year, rest assured that we do not intend to give even a passing thought to the lies of the left-wing smear machine of Mr. Shulman.
Michael Garrett
Shale Hills Farm
Sussex, NJ
www.ShaleHillsFarm.com
Trees@ShaleHillsFarm.com
Apologists out in full force
It is too soon to judge the new chairman but do you really wanna hang your hats on "almost winning" and "coming close". Not exactly a rallying cry.
And don't tell me they got more votes than any other year. There were more voters than any other year. In any election, your vote total is compared to your opponent....period.
TV is not the end all and be all. There were thousands of bullet voters who voted for obama and nothing else. If you look, the Donovan/McCain vote totals were relatively similar and there was a drop off for the freeeholder candidates. Too many voters switched over. Someone smarter than those posting here have to figure out why.
And please stop throwing bombs about the prior chair. It's over or haven't you heard? All you need to know is that both guys lost with their county ticket. Last year at least 6 or 7 towns switched control and more local seats were won. Despite promising different in June, Bob ignored local races and ignored GOTV. I think money would have been better spent there than in saturating the airwaves with the 4th generation of the "corruption tax" campaign. That campaign is like 0 for 4. Time for a new idea.
Local Races ?
Charlotte just what are you smoking ? there were no races
in Teaneck, Englewood, Hackensack, Cliffside Park etc where you guys always get creamed.
Mc Cain lost Bergen by over 35 K votes and your Freeholders only by
8-11 k. That is not bad for you guys. Especially after Mr Yudin
took over a debt ridden BCRO. No body is throwing bombs about the prior chair. We all read the Styles articles about the Debt, the neck ties, Unanue and the cigars
Oi weh
We knew it would not be a few days until some PUTZ would come out of the word work complaining about YUDIN. Unlike last year Ft Lee got money from the BCRO and we reduced the loss from 4 to 1 to 2 to 1. We are sure that the $ 5 K for the bow ties and the $ 900 for the cigars could have been spent on some local races , we may get that money next year.
It is about leadership
Yudin/Cardinale/ammirato/Gause are OUT OF IDEAS. Keep them in power, and I promise you next year they will run another amateur campaign abot "corruption taxes" and "corrupt county governemnt." and they will LOSE, again, as they have consistently with that message.
The funny thing about them is they just don;t learn.
Their message: (1) alienates the average resident who perceive an attack on their communities; (2) polarizes bergen county into "us versus them": (3) does not resonate witht he vast majority of the voters who think bergen county is a great place to live; and (4) misses the POINT - most people WANT, EXPECT, and NEED county services and for groups that vote, like SENIORS, actually want MORE services, not less.
The negative Ammirato/Yudin/Cardinale message also (1) Fails to energize a base and increase volunteerism, (2) fails to be the type of message that party regulars can fee pround of and rally around, and (3) LOSES consistently.
Yudin is slow. He just blew his best chance to gain a freeholder seat. If he couldn;t do it this year, his chances are ZERO for next year.
Even the Bergen Record blames the loss on Yudin's "foolhady" message:
From the Bergen Record, November 6, 2008, page L-1:
"FLOP: Attack ad featuring Ferriero: The Bergen County Republican Organization ran a foolhardy ad blasting Ferriero as the source of all sins in Bergen County, real or perceived. Small Problem: Ferriero wasn't on the ballot, and most voters have no idea who he is. The BCRO, which raised money through an aggressive "pay-the-piper-or-pay-the-price" appeals to GOP officials, should have used the money to introduce its trio of little-known freeholder candidates."
Ruiz etc get over it Ortiz, Estabrook, Unanue and Zimmer
They all Lost and lost big. Just where was your donation. Whe were your ideas. ? Where were your 5 cents.? Oh we forgot. You were too busy sabotaging the BCRO while Ortiz was walking out the door.
You trashed the computers and email and left Yudin with huge bills and $25 k in debt. Then you went AWOL oops no you didnt you were too busy trashing Yudin. Its amazng that prior to Yudins election
that Ortiz did nothing for his county candidates not even palm cards.
Why dont you admit it you and the Hermansen crowd etc are NOT Republicans and your not Democrats. You are nothing. You will never be anything because you are haters and haters will never get nominated let alone get elected to anything.
Ruiz
We hate to burst our bubble. However you were not privy to polling data that showed that Taxes and Corruption were issues. But as English is not your first language we dont expect you to be able to read polls. As far as he campaign in Bergen. It was Dave Murray who produced the TV and Radio ads, Not Ammarato ( who did a great job with facts and figures and opra requests ). Again you would not know a lot about that because you were AWOL and even missed the debates. Your little ethnic group took your ball and went home this year. Shame on you. You guys had your chance to shine last year and failed
so much for rational discourse
you folks just don't get it. You are rejoicing in yet another loss ignoring the fact that it was still a loss. Close does not count. If Obama was such a devastating force on the county race why did Donovan win? Why did people vote for her and then switch over to vote for Dem freeholder ticket? That's what you should be trying to figure out instead of sniping about cigars and neckties.
By the way - really, really pathetic to blame everything on the last guy. Since June you geniuses have been leaking and whining and whispering, and most of what you are saying has been untrue or at least mischaracterized. There was no sabotage, no unusual debt and money in the account to pay the bill from the golf outing. You guys decided against paying the bill and instead used that money running tv ads against someone who wasn't on the ballot. When that bill doesn't get paid, that will be the last guy's fault too, right?
Grow up. Take responsibility for your own actions (or inaction). Stop blaming others and for the love of God, stop celebrating defeat.
Rats are coming out of the woodwork
First off nobody ever rejoices in losing. However there are some of us that do take solace in the reduction of the margins of defeat. The last two years have demonstrated that we are in striking distance. Charlotte, Kathy's win was good, Her years of name recognition paid off. As Mc Queeny/ Murray said it takes years to get that name recognition and years to lose it. Republicans need fighters and workers and not back bench stone throwers like Ruiz and the Charlatans who surface after every election for their 10 minute rant. Hats off to all the Candidates both local and county who were out there giving all their time and energy. A special thanks to Vince Micco for stepping up again to the plate with an impossible task. Thanks to Andy Gause and Omid for their Pro Bono in kind work that helped us win a seat in Wallington
Great Scott
yes lets celebrate Scott Garretts victory and lets not throw cold water on the county team ( Charlotte Ann). Its amazing that its the very same people who want to throw Scott Garrett under the bus, that now want to analyze the Freeholder team. How could they win in a year that Mc Cain lost Bergen by 35000 votes and the county clerk with decades of name recognition only won by a narrow margin. Yes thank God that the Cigars and ties are old news. At least we now have a chairman and candidates like Chris, Jeff and Paul who know how to fight.
They lost!
Amirite or are you guys acting like Yudin/Amirato won? They lost. They lost in every race they touched. The races they didn't infect (Garrett, Donovan) those candidates won. AMIRITE?
BergenRuiz
if you are so smart . You Run and show us all what you have got ? We forgot you already did and did not come even close to getting the numbers of the Freeholders. Ruiz you and your type have run out of support in Bergen. If you were running this year the Freeholders would have lost by 40000 votes. Remember most Hispanics are with Obama for the handouts.
I Am Encouraged To See How....
....warm and friendly all you Republicans are to each other.
As for the big Garrett win....
He succeeded in smearing a Jewish/Rabbi as some kind of terrorist sympathizer in the last week of the campaign.
That was the lowest of blows.
Also, the bailout package was/is indeed a scam and a ripoff.....for once Garrett was right about something.
Shulman was closing in some of the polls....then Garrett was forced to spend 1.5 million bucks and all manner of outside help piled on.
If Shulman decides to run again, he needs to really take the gloves off.......and that means running as more of a populist.
Further, the BCDO needs to get really cleaned up to be able to support a real run in the 5th CD.
There is stupidity and corruption in both parties here.
It's not really about left v right; it's about right v wrong.
Garrett is an extremist. The fact that he won doesn't change that truth.
Fortunately, Scottie will have very little power to do much in this overwhelmingly Democratic congress and with Barack Husssein Obama as the President of the United States.
From Frederick Douglass
"Yudin/Cardinale/ammirato/Gau
"Yudin/Cardinale/ammirato/Gause are OUT OF IDEAS. Keep them in power, and I promise you next year they will run another amateur campaign abot "corruption taxes" and "corrupt county governemnt." (sic)
Where do you get your info? My name on this list as "in power" is laughable. I am an unpaid foot soldier and nothing more. I take my orders from your ELECTED officials. If this is Clara, as is asserted here, I am suprised that you would include me or Thom Ammirato on your list. Thom and I WERE your campaign in 07. Although I cant speak for him, I never took a penny from you and still managed to deliver more $10 contributions to your FAIL campaign than anyone else. All I have ever done is empower local Republicans, including yourself, to get their message out. I seek nothing for my efforts. BTW are there any other BC hispanics in your club or do they only take pictures of you. All for the party right Clara. Or is it all about you! Please if you ever need help again. Don't hesitate. Pick up the phone....and call someone else.
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