Anne Estabrook

Prof. Murray Sabrin won 5% of the vote against Christie Whitman and James E. McGreevey in the 1997 gubernatorial race
Ramapo College Professor Murray Sabrin, a former Libertarian candidate for Governor and a leader in Ron Paul’s New Jersey campaign, appears to be ready to announce that he will seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.

Sabrin, who has been mulling a Senate bid for the last few weeks, would join State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio and former New Jersey Chamber of Commerce Chair Anne Evans Estabrook as possible GOP challengers to four-term Democratic Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg.

A longtime friend of Paul, who was the 1988 Libertarian presidential candidate, Sabrin could seek to harness some of the grass roots organization and fundraising network built by Paul supporters in New Jersey in a primary that has so far attracted little enthusiasm among Republicans. But one top Paul backer, Assemblyman Michael Doherty, told PolitickerNJ.com on Wednesday that he was likely to back Pennacchio, a Morris County conservative who moved up to the Senate this week after nearly seven years in the Assembly.

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Dan Gallic, who is more-or-less running his friend Joe Pennacchio’s not-yet-official U.S. Senate campaign, turns 40 next week. Compared to other campaign workers, that makes him a pretty old hand in this business.

“I’m officially old,” said Gallic, who also blogs for the Web site Conservatives With Attitude. “That’s the number one issue why I’m not going to necessarily step up to the plate for being a campaign manager, but in the same breath I can say I’m going to do everything I can to help Joe.

Gallic is older than his two likely behind-the-scenes opponents in the upcoming senate race, but not by that much. Mark Duffy, who was just tapped to manage Republican Anne Evans Estabrook’s campaign, is 34, while Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s campaign manager, Brendan Gill, is 33. While all three have considerable political experience, none has taken the lead role in a statewide campaign until now. Read More >

Republicans have not won a U.S. Senate seat in New Jersey since 1972, and of the eleven candidates nominated since then, only six had previous experience as a general election candidate.  And only two, Robert Franks and Richard Zimmer, had won general election contests that were even slightly competitive.

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You can’t get anyone on the record about it, but some prominent Republicans aren’t exactly happy about their U.S. Senate choices

“Ambivalent is probably the most charitable word you can use for what people say about the choices,” said one Republican elected official who wished to remain anonymous.

Although two factions of the Republican Party are represented in the upcoming U.S. Senate race – Anne Evans Estabrook as the moneyed moderate and Dr. Joseph Pennacchio as the risen-through-the-ranks former Reagan Democrat who will run on the right – some in the party feel that neither has the combination of deep pockets, name recognition and charisma that it will take to beat U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg in 2008.   

Multiple Republican sources also say that some county chairs are continuing the search and calling around to find new candidates. 

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Republican insiders seem a bit underwhelmed by their choice of candidates to challenge Democratic U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg next year – neither Anne Evans Estabrook, a millionaire developer making her first bid for public office, or Joseph Pennacchio, a dentist and four-term Assemblyman who won a State Senate seat last month, seem to have been successful in convincing Republicans that they can beat Lautenberg next year. 

“It's the choice between Forrester-Lite and Diet Schundler,” one Republican County Chairman told PolitickerNJ.com.

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Since Election Day ’07, politics in New Jersey has centered on the unexpected retirements of Republican Congressmen Jim Saxton and Mike Ferguson – with barely any mention of the race next year for the United States Senate.  Frank Lautenberg, who turns 84 in January, is expected to seek re-election to a fifth term.  The last time the name of Anne Evans Estabrook, one of the Republicans seeking to challenge Lautenberg, appeared in a daily newspaper was a brief mention by the Philadelphia Inquirer on November 8 – 22 days ago.  Her rival for the GOP nod, Joseph Pennacchio, was mentioned in the Asbury Park Press on November 9, but in the context of his recent election to the State Senate.

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The wife of Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce has joined the Mitt Romney for President camp, according to State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos, the state's New Jersey chairman for Romney's campaign.

BettyLou DeCroce's politically prominent husband supports former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani for president.

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New Jersey seems to be Rudy Giuliani country: the former New York City Mayor is the clear front runner in New Jersey’s winner-take-all February 5 presidential primary. He has a strong lead in independent polls, and has dominated the establishment endorsement game. So it’s interesting to point out that some of the leading candidates in competitive Republican primaries next June are backing other candidates.

In the U.S. Senate race, businesswoman Anne Evans Estabrook is backing John McCain and serves on his Finance Committee; her rival for the GOP Senate nod, State Senator-elect Joseph Pennacchio, has endorsed Giuliani. Read More >