GOP continue to make case for Palin but Dems say she's no Jersey girl

MINNEAPOLIS - Stunned by Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) headline-snatching announcement last Friday that he selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, N.J. Democrats this week re-set after taking a three-day hard look at Palin.

So far, they’re having a difficult time squaring an obscure Alaskan with New Jersey’s hard-edged, ethnically diverse environs, despite Republicans’ best efforts - in the words of State GOP Chairman Tom Wilson - to make a case for why "New Jersey will love Sarah Palin."

"They have Eskimos in Alaska," former Summit Councilwoman Kelly Hatfield said to the suggestion that Palin may not have experience relating to the kinds of ethnic groups whose myriad cultures saturate New Jersey.

As for the fact that Palin’s a woman - a younger, slimmer verison of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) with an attitude to tempt backlash voters over to the GOP after Clinton’s primary loss - Democrats remain unimpressed.

"They’re thinking all we want is an x chromosome and we don’t care whether or not she’s qualified," said Somerset County Democratic Chair Peg Schaffer, who supported Clinton in the primary as a key New Jersey fundraiser and member of the Group.

"I’m insulted by McCain’s choice," Schaffer added. "It drives Hillary supporters who were on the fence straight back to Barack. Her values are antithetical to ours. We’re not in favor of creationism, right to life and gun-toting. She wouldn’t last on my East Coast."

Then there's the "me too" factor.

"We put a woman on the ticket 24 years ago," state Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) said of the Democrats’ 1984 nomination of Geraldine Ferraro for vice president.

"I salute the Republicans for coming into the 21st Century by putting a woman on their ticket, but certainly they have more women who are qualified," Turner added. "This choice personifies pro-life and pro-gun."

Eager to proclaim Palin a Jersey Girl, Republicans let rip a series of shout-outs last evening, and at their delegation breakfast this morning.

Bellwether congressional district resident U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-Hamilton) announced that Palin’s presence in the race means "New Jersey is now in play."

Kathi Fiamingo, mayor of Kenilworth, told PolitickerNJ.com, "I am so jazzed right now. Sarah Palin really rounds out McCain."

Veteran Hunterdon County Republican Chairman Henry Kuhl likewise proclaimed Palin "the best strategic choice" to complement a presidential candidate whose aging, bristling military exterior might not strike responsive chords among female voters.

Though not listed by Strategic Vision's New Jersey presidential polling among those issues that even cracks the 4 percent mark in terms of priorities, the hunting angle works perfectly in rural Hunterdon, though McCain will win the Republican county big anyway, Kuhl said.

For that matter, the same Strategic Vision poll conducted earlier this year, did not rank the abortion issue on a list of chief considerations for president.

But the overall GOP effort to sell Palin as a Garden State natural amounts to a desperate snow job, according to veteran Democratic Party operative Michael Murphy.

"Maybe some people who haven’t come out of the Pine Barrens in 40 years will think ‘Sarah’s our guy,’ but other than that, I just don’t see it," Murphy said.

Turner added that the choice gave the Republicans a jolt last Friday but as the days pass, Palin will prove a bad choice, though "great for us."

"They realize they have no pizzazz and so they launched a Hail Mary pass by bringing on a woman no one’s ever heard of," said the state senator, a longtime supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).