Halfacre slams Holt on cap and trade in campaign kickoff

TRENTON - Fair Haven Mayor and private practice attorney Mike Halfacre figures he will probably need between $500,000 and $1 million to run an effective campaign against U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-Hopewell Twp.) in this major media market called the 12th Congressional District, and hhe sees postive signs early in his effort to muster support.

"As I stand here today I've raised $35,000," said Halfacre, 42, standing on the State House steps at the second of two press conferences he held today to formally launch his bid for U.S. Congress, where he savaged the sitting congressman.

In an unsuccessful 2008 bid against Holt, Halfacre's Republican predecessor, Alan Bateman, raised as much over the entire course of his campaign, which landed him an ovr 20% loss.

Bateman told PolitickerNJ.com yesterday that he intends to again seek the Republican nomination in the 12th District but as he nurses $6,000 in debt from last year, Halfacre and his allies say at a certain point the former deputy mayor of Holmdel "has to stop tilting at windmills."

"This is a fulltime job," said Halfacre of a campaign in which he's given himself plenty of runway - nearly a year and a half.

Mayor since 2007 of the Monmouth County town in which he grew up, Halfacre enjoyed the presence at a Fair Haven Town Hall presser earlier in the day of allies, state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Red Bank), Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini (R-Ocean), Assemblyman Caroline Casagrande (R-Colts Neck), and Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (R-Little Silver).

His family - wife Trish and two of his three children - accompanied him to the Trenton appearance, where campaign manager Tom Fitzsimmons read an endorsement note from state Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Hamilton).

Especially worried about federal government spending since President Barack Obama assumed office at the beginning of the year, Halfacre panned Holt as an ineffectual Obama helpmate.

"He has voted for every bailout, stimulus package and budget put in front of him," Halfacre said. "He voted for the AIG bonuses - a bill he didn't read - before he voted against them. Not only did he vote for a cap and trade bill on emissions which will massively increase energy costs to consumers, he actually complained that the bill didn't spend enough money! Even in New Jersey, where Rush keeps a pretty low profile, he found his voice just long enough to advocate for Gov. Corzine's scheme to increase tolls 800%."

While simultaneously throwing an elbow at statewide Democratic leadership, Halfacre then took apart the bumper sticker slogan familiar to 12th District motorists, beloved by Rush followers, which sells the former Princeton University professor as an unabashed egghead - "My Congressman is a rocket scientist."

"We have seen what eight years of that kind of tax and spend governance has done to the State of New Jersey; it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that it will be bad for the United States as well," said the Republican candidate, a self-described fiscal conservative whose emphasis on less intrusive government places him mostly in the Jeffersonian tradition of American politics, by his own reckoning.

Halfacre essentially consigned Holt, in office a decade now, to dereliction of duty status.

"He has failed to prevent the closing of Ft. Monmouth, has been AWOL on the issue of keeping civilians out of Earle housing, and has been a day late and a dollar short in helping to clean up Branchport Creek," the mayor said. "In all of these instances, other federal, state and local officials have had to pick up the slack for Congressman Holt.

"But nowhere has his ineffectiveness been more glaring than his inability to assist in bringing home Sean Goldman," Halfacre added. "I'm not sure why it took a congressman from another district to help David Goldman try to get his kidnapped son back from Brazil. All I can say is thank God we have a Congressman like Chris Smith, who is willing to step up and help a citizen when another congressman drops the ball."

In a Q and A with the press following his statement, Halfacre described himself as "pro choice" on the abortion question "with restrictions." He thinks parental notification is important and wants "restricted" embryonic research.

"It's the Libertarian in me," he explained of his boiled down pro-choice views.

He supports drilling off the coast of New Jersey with the right technology. He opposes cap and trade. He supports the concept of private health savings accounts.

Regarding Holt's vote against authorizing then-President George W. Bush to go to war in Iraq, Halfacre said, "Let's not worry about one vote he may have gotten right. It's all the votes in a ten-year career that he has gotten wrong."

Holt issued a late-afternoon statement.

"As a scientist and teacher I take a distinctive approach to representing people - first I listen to people to understand their concerns, next I look at the facts and then I get to work to get results," said Holt. "I don't let partisanship crowd out evidence and thought.

"I'm proud of my record of accomplishment for Central Jersey families in these tough times: creating tax relief by allowing homeowners to take additional federal tax deductions and protecting middle-class families from the Alternative Minimum Tax. To make college more affordable I've helped reduce student loan rates and provided year-round tuition assistance. I'm leading efforts in Congress to clean up our air, land and water; preserve our open spaces; and promote environmentally sound alternative energy sources and green jobs."

He also noted his pride in opposing the Iraq War.