Scott Garrett

From right: Garrett, Doherty and U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-Warren Township) (source: njtrl.org)

Assemblyman and state senate candidate Michael Doherty (R-Washington Township) continued to shore up his conservative credentials today, rolling out the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-Wantage.)

“I have worked with Mike for many years, first in the state legislature and now as a Congressman, and he has consistently fought for smaller government, less regulation and lower taxes,” said Garrett, who recently fended off a well-funded challenge to win reelection by a slightly greater margin than in 2006. “Mike is a strong supporter of the Constitution, and he has been consistently endorsed by pro-business groups as a result of his record in the state legislature.”

Doherty is running to replace state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton), who will join Garrett in New Jersey’s Republican congressional delegation in January. Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow (R-Flemington) is also running, and Hunterdon County Freeholder Matt Holt is considering a bid.

A pair of Republicans involved in the 2008 campaign in Bergen County seem to have different views on how the campaign was run, and how they should be run in the future. Alan Marcus, a public relations executive and former Bergen County GOP Executive Director who worked on Kathleen Donovan's successful re-election campaign for County Clerk, wrote an Op-Ed for The Record last week criticizing the failed Republican Freeholder candidates for running almost exclusively on the reform issue and talking about indicted Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero. Ferriero, Marcus says, "is known to a minute segment of the population." Marcus also beat up on U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett, saying he didn't appeal to votes outside his conservative base.

On Sunday, Republican political consultant David Murray, who worked for the GOP Freeholder candidates, wrote a Letter to the Editor taking issue with Marcus' comments. He says that while Donovan's win was impressive, it was largely due to name identification and not any groundbreaking targeting or strategies.

Stuart Rothenberg, the editor and publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report, wasn't impressed with Dennis Shulman's campaign for Congress

Worth noting are the comments of Stuart Rothenberg, the editor and publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report, a non-partisan political newsletter covering U.S. House, Senate and gubernatorial campaigns, Presidential politics and political developments, on the race for Congress in New Jersey's fifth district between Democrat Dennis Shulman and U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-Wantage):

John Adler won a seat in Congress eighteen years after his first House race.

Now it seems trendy to run for Congress, lose, then spend a lot of years in state government before finally making it to Washington.  In 2006, Albio Sires won an open House seat twenty years after his first attempt.  Sires had challenged U.S. Rep. Frank Guarini as a Republican in 1986; he later won local office in West New York, and after switching parties in 1999, he beat an incumbent Assemblyman in the Democratic primary.  He became Assembly Speaker after the 2001 election, and went to Congress after Bob Menendez joined the United States Senate.

Both of New Jersey's freshmen Congressman had previously lost House races.  John Adler ran against Jim Saxton in 1990 and lost 60%-40%.  A year later, despite one of the two biggest Republican landslides in state political history, he ousted four-term GOP State Sen. Lee Laskin.  Leonard Lance first ran for Congress in 1996, when Richard Zimmer gave up his seat to run for U.S. Senate; he finished third in the GOP primary, behind Michael Pappas and John Bennett. Lance moved from the Assembly to the Satate Senate in 2001, and became Minority Leader in 2004.

After blind rabbi/psychologist Dennis Shulman’s impressing fundraising, extensive press coverage and a Democratic wave, U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-Wantage) still managed to easily hold on to his seat on Tuesday.

The margin was even one point wider than in 2006, when Democrat Paul Aronsohn didn’t have nearly as many resources at his disposal.

“I think it really honestly was his message, especially his fiscal conservatism.  The smaller government, less taxes message really resonates with 5th District voters,” said Garrett Campaign Manager Amanda Gasperino.  “We did a really good job getting his message out and communicating it effectively, which is why you saw an even larger win this cycle.”

Some clever campaign tactics, a successful fundraising operation, newspaper endorsements, a political environment that was advantageous to Democrats, and a late campaign visit from Christopher Van Hollen wasn't enough to help blind Rabbi Dennis Shulman run any stronger against U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett than any of this the three previous Democratic candidates.  Garrett beat Shulman 56%-42%, a stronger showing than his 55%-44% win over Paul Stuart Aronsohn in 2006.  Anne Wolfe won 41% in 2005, and Anne Sumers won 38% in 2002.

Bergen County Clerk Kathleen Donovan is expected to receive some consideration as a candidate for Lieutenant Governor next year if Christopher Christie is the gubernatorial candidate, according to GOP leaders with ties to the U.S. Attorney.  Donovan bucked the Democratic tide in to win re-election to a fifth term, defeating Democrat Diane Testa by a 51%-49 margin.  Donovan ran six percentage points ahead of John McCain and eight percentage points ahead of GOP U.S. Senate candidate Dick Zimmer. She outpolled U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett in each of his Bergen County municipalities.

U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-Wantage) was re-elected to a fourth term, defeating Democrat Dennis Shulman by a 57%-42% margin.

With absentee ballots counted in eight of Bergen County's seventy municipalities, Barack Obama leads John McCain 54%-46% -- 1,118 to 956.  Four years ago, George W. Bush carried these same towns (Allendale, Alpine, Bergenfield, Bogota, Edgewater, South Hackensack, Woodridge and Wyckoff) by a 51%-49% margin over John Kerry.  

In the race for Congress in the 5th district, where absentee ballots in only Allendale, Alpine, Bergenfield, and Wyckoff have been counted, incumbent Scott Garrett leads Dennis Shulman by a 52%-48% margin -- 591 to 549.  In 2004, Garrett carried these four towns by a 55%-45% margin.

Bergen County Clerk Kathleen Donovan leads challenger Diane Testa by a 63%-37% margin on absentee ballots in these eight towns, while Democratic U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg leads Republican Dick Zimmer by a 53%-47% margin on absentee ballots.  That puts Donovan, a Republican, 17 points ahead of McCain and 16 points ahead of Zimmer. 

A Dennis Shulman volunteer shows off his handiwork with a Scott Garrett puppet

HOBOKEN – Between greeting commuters boarding a train headed to northern Bergen County, U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-Wantage) said that Democratic challenger Dennis Shulman hasn’t given him any more of a scare than opponents in elections past.

“No. But I take every race very seriously, and we’re doing the same here,” he said. “I know that the DCCC has become involved in this race, and that of course has not occurred in the past.”

Still, Garrett acknowledged that the Democrats appeared poised for big victories in the House and Senate. But he doesn’t fear the wrath of a Democratic wave, despite his conservatism. Even if that happens, Garrett said, voters in the district may split the ticket: vote for Obama, and yet still vote for him – the most conservative member of the New Jersey delegation.