Chris Smith

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- U.S. Rep. Chris Smith said he votes differently than the Bush Administration’s policies and his own party more than any other New Jersey Republican.

But Smith takes a measured tone when reflecting on what the legacy of the Bush era will look like.

“I think there’s a tremendous amount of anger directed at him.  He gets blamed for all kinds of things,” said Smith.

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.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- U.S. Rep. Chris Smith tends to shun the spotlight, but he couldn’t avoid the congratulations coming from his fellow Republicans today.

Smith (R-Hamilton) made an appearance this morning at the delegation breakfast, just weeks after making headlines for extracting two of his constituents from their grandparents’ home in the Republic of Georgia.

Ocean County Republican Chairman George Gilmore came over to greet smith, who represents part of his county.

“You’re looking good,” he said.

Smith last month got an email from one of his constituents, Joseph Evans, telling him that his two daughters were stuck at their grandparents farm in the Republic of Georgia. Smith sprung into action from his district office in Hamilton, spending a week working the phones from Hamilton before heading to Tbilisi himself.

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-Hamilton): Politicker photo 

MINNEAPOLIS - U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-Hamilton) said New Jersey is now in play because of the governor of Alaska.

"We will have a competent woman as the next vice president of the United States," Smith said of presumptive Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

"She rejected the bridge to nowhere. She's a reformer. We need to work overtime....If New Jersey was held two months ago, maybe there would be a different outcome, but not now, not today," Smith said. 

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith with Joseph, Ashley and Sophia Evans: Evans Family Photo
The Associated Press reports that U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-Hamilton) has succeeded in securing the passage of two Monmouth County children from a war zone in the Republic of Georgia to the U.S. Embassy in the capital.

Ashley and Sophia Evans, ages seven and three, had been trapped at their grandparents’ farm after Russian troops invaded parts of the nation two weeks ago.

(Hamilton, NJ) Chris Smith has co-authored twenty-two bills to outlaw the common, everyday birth control pill and IUD. Smith's unconscionable legislation is the topic of a new web video produced by the Zeitz for Congress campaign.

Josh Zeitz, Democratic candidate for Congress in the 4th Josh Zeitz: Politicker file photoCongressional district, today mailed U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-Hamilton) an invitation to four public debates, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglass debates.

Zeitz asked Smith to join him at one public debate in each of the 4th district’s counties.

"The rising cost of food, gas, health care, and education is hurting many working families," wrote Zeitz. "People have a right to know how each of us proposes to address these grave problems, and they have a right to challenge us in a public forum.

Democratic congressional candidate Josh Zeitz today questioned why his opponent, Rep. Chris Smith, donated $2,000 to outgoing Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) less than a month after Renzi’s insurance business was raided by the FBI.

In February, Renzi pleaded not guilty to a 35 count indictment charging him with using his position to influence land deals. Reports of an investigation of Renzi surfaced in late 2006, and the case took on further controversy after its initiator, former Arizona U.S. Attorney Paul K. Charlton, was forced out of his position by former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Josh Zeitz in Hamilton today: Politicker Photo

HAMILTON - At a Democratic National Committee fund-raiser in New York City on Thursday, Michelle Obama asked 4th Congressional District challenger Josh Zeitz if he thinks New Jersey will be a battleground for her husband.

Zeitz told the first lady prospect that New Jersey is safely Democratic territory. Then he added something specific about his own challenge of entrenched U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-4).

"I told Michelle Obama we’re going to work hard, and yes, we’re going to win that race," he said of his longshot bid to upend the veteran Smith and help give Obama a solid majority in Congress.

As they listened to the story, a small crowd clapped in Zeitz’s Hamilton campaign headquarters, which the candidate opened today on South Olden Avenue, a few blocks from the congressman’s house.