Zimmer reflects on a particularly nasty race
By Matt Friedman, PolitickerNJ.com ReporterThe amount of vitriol in the 1996 U.S. senate race between Democrat Robert Torricelli and Republican Dick Zimmer became the stuff of legend, even by Garden State standards.
Tonight, Zimmer showed up to Chris Christie’s party marking the conclusion to another particularly nasty race. But how did it stack up to his own?
“I am resigned to the 1996 race being the permanent gold standard,” said Zimmer, who ran a much lower profile U.S. Senate race against incumbent Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) last year.
Zimmer did see some parallels between the Torricelli race and Christie’s battle with Gov. Corzine.
“Robert Torricelli even said that I was opposed to mammography,” he said, noting that Corzine top campaign advisor Jamie Fox was also Torricelli’s chief of staff at the time. “It worked.”
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Too much reliance on Jamestown
Dick would have made a good U.S. Senator. His mistake was relying too much on the advice of Larry Weitzner and Jamestown Associates. Those croaking frog "lib-er-al" ads were disgraceful.
Instead of touting his own credentials (Common Cause; voting against Gov. Kean's bloated budgets; pro-choice; fiscal hawk; Space Station boondoggle; etc.), the best he could do was attack his opponent as a liberal.