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Camille Andrews appears to have easily won the Democratic nomination for Congress in the first district, a seat her husband, Rob Andrews, is giving up after eighteen years to run for U.S. Senate. The deal was supposed to be that Andrews was a stand-in candidate until party leaders can agree upon a replacement. Now, with Rob Andrews running behind incumbent Sen. Frank Lautenberg, the Congressman must decide whether he’ll actually retire for Congress, or change his mind.

Republicans in New Jersey’s first congressional district haven’t run a strong campaign since the days of John Hunt, who held the seat from 1966 until Jim Florio beat him in 1974, and their chances of winning the strongly Democratic seat in 2008 – against whomever the Democrats ultimately decide to nominate – is indeed slim.  But their candidate, conservative Dale Glading, is already mounting an impressive effort.  A minister who runs the largest athletic prison ministry in the country, is aggressive and hardworking, and local Republicans actually seem enthused about his candidacy.  

As Camille Andrews embarks upon a congressional campaign that may or not be a placeholder candidacy, she might consider the recent history of wives running for office while their husbands are also running.

When Nevada Congressman Jim Gibbons ran for Governor in 2006, his wife, Dawn Gibbons, ran for his open House seat.  She finished third in the GOP primary with 25% of the vote, and Jim Gibbons narrowly won the GOP primary. And in 2002, Arkansas First Lady Janet Huckabee ran for Secretary of State and lost 62%-38% in the same election her husband, Mike Huckabee, was re-elected Governor by a 53%-47% margin.

The decision to put Camille Andrews on the ballot as a candidate for her husband’s open House seat is likely to become an issue in Rob Andrews’ campaign for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination. Some Democrats suspect that the move was designed to offer the incumbent a safety net to return to the House of Representatives if he loses his primary challenge to Frank Lautenberg, and wonder why South Jersey Democratic leaders were unable to simply agree upon a successor during the week between Andrews’ decision to run and filing day. Still, this is a vintage George Norcross move: there have been several times over the last few years that Camden County Democrats put a placeholder on the primary ballot. Norcross has little desire to be inconvenienced by filing deadines.

South Jersey Democrats will file nominating petitions today for Camille Andrews, the wife of Rep. Rob Andrews, as a candidate for Congress in the 1st district.  Sources say that she will act as a placeholder until party leaders can formally select a candidate to run in this safe Democratic district.  Rob Andrews, who is challenging Frank Lautenberg in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, is expected to announce that he will end his eighteen-year career in the House regardless of the results of the primary.

The last time someone gave up his seat to run statewide and then found a safety net to return after losing the primary was in 1989, when Assembly Speaker Chuck Hardwick sought the Republican nomination for Governor.  After finishing third in the primary, Hardwick was able to return to the Legislature when his running mate, Peter Genova, decided to drop his re-election bid.  Talk of Camden County Democrats nominating Camille Andrews to replace her husband in the first district congressional race (she was one of sixteen names on George Norcross’s short list of House candidates) has caused some Democrats – and Republicans – to question Andrews’ commitment to the Senate race, and his confidence in defeating Frank Lautenberg in the primary.

Assembly Democratic Executive Director Bill Castner is short listed for Rob Andrews' House seatSixteen Democrats are under consideration for the first district congressional seat that Rob Andrews is vacating to run for the U.S. Senate, including Camille Andrews, the Congressman’s wife, according to a list sent out today by South Jersey Democratic leader George Norcross.

On the official Norcross short list:

If Rob Andrews runs for the United States Senate, there would be some competition for his safe Democratic congressional seat in the first district.  Possible candidates would include Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney and Assemblyman Louis Greenwald; both expressed interest in the seat in 2006, when Andrews was a candidate for appointment to the Senate seat that went to Robert Menendez.