NJ-01

U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews officially announced this morning that he will seek reelection to the House seat that he’s held for 18 years, just months after he took his name off the ballot to challenge U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg and said on multiple occasions that he would not seek to return to Congress.

In a statement issued while he held a press conference in Camden to announce his decision, Andrews said “It was not my intention to answer the call of my neighbors and friends who have indicated they would stand with me if I sought re-election.” But after exploring private sector opportunities and discussing it with his family, Andrews said that “after much deliberation, thought and prayer, I have decided that I will seek re-election to the House this fall.”

Andrews said that the decision of who will be the party’s nominee will be left up to the county committees that comprise the district. The county committees, however, are virtually certain to vote to put Andrews back on the ballot. The district’s huge Democratic advantage also makes Andrews a near shoe-in for reelection.

Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson said that U.S. Rob Andrews’s decision to seek reelection to Congress shows that a new Congressman is needed in the 1st District.

“Rob Andrews has spent nearly 20 years in Washington. It’s time for a change,” he said just before boarding a bus to watch Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin speak at the Republican National Convention. “It’s a sad statement that the Democrats have to rely on defeated retreads. If you can’t trust Rob Andrews when it comes to one of the most personal decisions of his life, I don’t know what you can trust him on.”

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson), who butted heads with U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews when he decided to challenge Frank Lautenberg in the Senate primary, kept his statement on Andrews’s return to the ballot short and not-so-sweet.

“Mr. Pascrell has no comment at this point but was not surprised by the news,” said Pascrell spokesman Caley Gray. 

Former Rob Andrews Senate Campaign Chairman Michael Murphy said that Andrews changed his mind and “put service to our country after self.”

“Rob’s a good friend and colleague, and I hold him in high regard and have great respect for him,” he said. “It was a uniquely personal decision, and one he made with the input of his friends and family.”

Murphy said he’s been urging Andrews to reconsider his promise to leave the House seat since he lost the U.S. Senate primary against Frank Lautenberg.

The good news for 1st District Republican Congressional candidate Dale Glading is that he now knows who his opponent is.

But he’s not happy about it.

"Frankly, I am outraged that Rob Andrews has once again gone back on his word to the people of New Jersey, revealing for the umpteenth time his uncontrollable political ambitions,” he said. In a statement.  “A man's word should be his bond, and Rob should be ashamed of himself for breaking his promise not to re-enter the race.  The people of the 1st District deserve a representative in Congress who they can trust, not a compulsive liar like Rob Andrews." 

Glading is running a long-shot campaign in this heavily Democratic district. 

U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews will hold a press conference tomorrow to announce his intentions with regard to his House seat, according to Burlington County Democratic Chairman Rick Perr.

Perr would not confirm that Andrews is going to run again, but said he will support him if he does.

“I understand that Rob has a press conference tomorrow, but my position has always been that Rob Andrews is the best person to hold the seat and if that’s going to be his final decision, then I support it 100%,” he said.

Update: A press release from Andrews said he's slated to make a "major announcement" at 10 am tomorrow at Camden's ACIN Camden Center for Entrepreneurship in Technology at the Waterfront Technology Cente.

First District Republican congressional nominee Dale Glading is not angry that he doesn’t know who his opponent will be in the fall. But he’s upset at what he sees as a slight to the district’s voters by the powerful local Democratic Party.
Glading, the founder and head of a non-denominational prison ministry, is officially running against attorney Camille Andrews, who took over the candidacy from her husband, Rep. Rob Andrews, when he decided to run a primary challenge against U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg. But Camille Andrews has acknowledged that she’ll step down if asked by party leadership, although there’s a possibility that she’ll stay in the race.

“The voters in the first congressional district are being shortchanged,” said Glading. “Mrs. Andrews, who is the placeholder, I don’t believe to be a serious candidate, because she’s not acknowledging - let alone accepting - our debate invitations.”

The two New Jersey House seats most clearly in play next year are the two that have been held by the Republicans for the longest period of time: Democrats have not won the seat now held by Jim Saxton for 126 years, and Mike Ferguson’s district has not elected a Democrat since 1954.

When he was a U.S. Senate candidate, Rob Andrews was a big fan of debates -- and so if Dale Glading, the Republican who wants to succeed him in the House of Representatives.  Glading has called on his Democratic opponent – who for now, at least officially is Camille Andrews, the wife of the outgoing incumbent – to join him for a series of six debates.  Glading wants the first one in June.   But there’s no sign that Camille Andrews shares her husband’s affinity for debating; her campaign manager, Benjamin Parvey, hasn’t returned calls seeking comment.

South Jersey Democrats are in no great rush to designate a candidate for the first district congressional seat Rob Andrews gave up to campaign for the United States Senate – and they don’t have to be.  Placeholder Camille Andrews, the winner of the Democratic primary for the seat her husband has held for eighteen years, is under no obligation to drop out – and she could wait until very early in October to withdraw (note Angelo’s Law, the Supreme Court ruling that allowed Democrats to nominate Frank Lautenberg when Bob Torricelli dropped out of the race five weeks before the 2002 general election).  That gives Rep. Andrews quite a while to decide if he wants to return to the House, or who George Norcross wants to send to Congress.