Julie Roginsky

Former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer would like to find his way to the U.S. Senate.  But first, he wants to find incumbent Senator Frank Lautenberg.

Frustrated at the Senior Senator’s refusal to engage him in any debates just yet, Zimmer has decided to embark on a diner tour where he’ll ask patrons if they’ve seen or heard from Lautenberg, and to give out some tongue-in-cheek campaign literature. 

“A number of newspaper editorials have asked, ‘Where is Senator Lautenberg hiding?’  I intend to help find our missing Senator by handing out missing-person flyers at diners throughout New Jersey,” said Zimmer. 

With less than two months to go until the election, no debate dates have been set between Sen. Frank Lautenberg and his challenger, former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer.

“There’s a deafening silence on the other end, which seems to be the pattern of the Lautenberg campaign,” said Randy Mastro, a former New York City Deputy Mayor and Assistant U.S. Attorney under Rudy Giuliani who was brought onto the Zimmer campaign as a special counsel to facilitate debates between Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) and Zimmer. “It’s hard to understand why Frank Lautenberg doesn’t want to debate the issues of importance to New Jersey voters with Dick Zimmer.”

The day after a relatively narrow victory in the Republican U.S. Senate primary, Zimmer held a news conference in Trenton challenging Lautenberg to a series of debates, bringing up Lautenberg’s quest in his first Senate campaign in 1982 to debate Republican opponent U.S. Rep. Millicent Fenwick “morning, noon and night.”

United States Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) will have to take a loss on the $1.65 million he loaned himself for his primary against U.S. Rep. Ron Andrews (D-Haddon Heights), according to an advisory opinion from the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

A Lautenberg lawyer last month wrote to request the opinion to see if the Supreme Court’s ruling that the “millionaire’s amendment” to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) was unconstitutional could also be applied to a provision of the act that bans candidates from paying off more than $250,000 in personal loans with campaign contributions made after the election.

In a memorandum dated Monday, four lawyers from the FEC replied that the provisions regarding repayment of personal loans were not struck down by the Supreme Court’s decision in Davis v. Federal Election Commission.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dick Zimmer introduced a new campaign theme at a Passaic supermarket this afternoon: the “waste of the week.”

Zimmer today highlighted incumbent Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s support of the Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 – informally known as the Farm Bill – saying that it is full of pork-barrel spending, provides unneeded subsidies to agribusiness and raises prices for consumers.

“New Jerseyans pay twice for the Farm Bill: once in higher federal taxes to fund big handouts to wealthy farmers in other states and again in the higher prices they pay at their supermarket checkout line,” said Zimmer in a statement.  “Politicians like Senator Lautenberg have been in office so long and are so disconnected with average taxpayers that they fail to see the wastefulness of this bloated depression-era legislation.  To them, it is business as usual—catering to special interests, throwing good money after bad, all at taxpayer expense.”

Not to be outdone by Frank Lautenberg’s Web site tying him to President Bush’s Iraq policies, Rep. Rob Andrews announced the creation of his own site today.

The site outlines what Andrews says are Lautenberg’s contradictions – from his call for 21 debates with Millicent Fenwick in 1982 to his early support for the Iraq War.

"Nothing speaks louder than a man's own words and actions," said Andrews Campaign Chairman Mike Murphy. "This website lets Sen. Lautenberg's record speak for itself."