Murray Sabrin

Salem County Republicans endorsed Joseph Pennacchio for U.S. Senate tonight. Pennacchio, a State Senator from Morris County, also has the organization line in Bergen, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Passaic, and Union counties. Millionaire businessman Andy Unanue has party support in Atlantic, Ocean and Monmouth counties, and Ramapo College Professor Murray Sabrin has the backing of the Gloucester County GOP.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, a ten-term Congressman from Texas, has picked up his first New Jersey endorsement: Dr. Murray Sabrin, the 1997 Libertarian candidate for Governor. The 71-year-old physician was elected to Congress in a 1976 special election, lost the 1976 general election, won a 1978 rematch, and gave up his seat to run unsuccessfully (against Phil Gramm) for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination in 1984. He won .5% of the vote as the Libertarian candidate for President in 1988, and returned to Congress in 1996. Sabrin, a Ramapo College Professor, received 114,172 votes (5%) in the '97 gubernatorial race, and finished fourth in the 2000 Republican primary for U.S. Senate. Paul supported Sabrin in each of his races.

Former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler, noticeably absent from the political scene since his loss to Doug Forrester in the June Republican gubernatorial primary, will spend part of next Sunday in Bergen County helping with GOTV. An e-mail sent out by his former campaign political director, Amanda Gasperino, says: "BRET is BACK and he is helping Get Out The Vote…. Former Gubernatorial Candidate Mayor Bret Schundler will be making calls at The Bergen County Republican Headquarters and has asked me to have you join him for a Schundler Volunteer Reunion!"

Murray Sabrin, the Ramapo College professor who won over 100,000 votes as the Libertarian Party candidate for Governor in 1997, returned to the Republican Party in 1999 and finished fourth in the 2000 primary for U.S. Senate. Sabrin said today that he is leaving the GOP again and will register as an Independent, saying "we need independent thinking in American -- not the group think that infects both political parties."

Former Georgia Senator Max Cleland, who lost two legs and part of one arm in Vietnam, will campaign for Jon Corzine in New Jersey tomorrow, making stops at senior citizen and veteran events in Jackson, Lakewood, Brick, Bayville, Cape May and Mays Landing.