Bill Cahir

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) is praising the life of Bill Cahir, a U.S. Marine Corps sergeant and former New Jersey political reporter who was killed in action in Afghanistan.

"Sgt. Bill Cahir was a shining example of what makes ours the greatest and proudest nation in the world. He had a deep desire to serve his country, and he did so as a Congressional aide, with a reporter's notebook, with aspirations to represent his community in government and on the front lines of the battle against extremists who would do us harm," Menendez said.

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Some sad news: Bill Cahir, who covered New Jersey politics as a reporter for the Times Express, was killed was in Afghanistan, according to a report in Politico. He was 40.  A former Newhouse News Service Washington correspondent, Cahir joined the Marine Corps after the 9/11 terrorist attack.

Politico sources a Facebook group post for his Marine unit: "The 4th CAG lost Sgt. Bill Cahir to enemy fire in Afghanistan today."

Cahir had already completed two tours of duty in Iraq.  He has also worked for two U.S. Senators, and in 2008 sought the Democratic nomination for Congress in Pennsylvania.

He is survived by his wife, Rene Browne, who is pregnant with twin girls, Politico reported.

Bill Cahir a former political reporter with Newhouse, which owns seven papers in New Jersey, has come up short in his bid for the Democratic nomination in the race for Pennsylvania’s Congressional District 5 seat.

Mark McCracken, a Clearfield County Commissioner, won the nomination, winning 41 percent of the votes cast. Cahir received 35 percent. Also competing in the primary was Lock Haven Mayor Rick Vilello, who received 24 percent.

"My journalism career is over," said Cahir following Tuesday’s loss, according to the Express-Times. "I'll talk to the Marine Corps and see what they want me to do and talk to my wife and see what she wants me to do."

McCracken will go on to face Republican Glenn Thompson, the Centre County GOP chair, in November’s general election.

Bill Cahir, a former political reporter with Newhouse, which owns seven papers in New Jersey, is announcing that he has raised $120,000 in his six-week-old campaign for Pennsylvania’s District 5 U.S. House seat.

Check out PolitickerPA.com for more.

The latest New Jersey reporter to go through the revolving door to the partisan side of politics is Bill Cahir, who covered Washington, D.C. for the Newhouse News Service, which owns seven daily newspapers in New Jersey.  Cahir is seeking the Democratic nomination for Congress in Pennsylvania’s fifth district – a Republican seat where incumbent John Peterson, the winner with 60% of the vote in 2006 – is not seeking re-election.