nj-09 – Moe Lane

It’s getting a little ugly in the NJ-09 primary. To refresh people’s memory: the recent redistricting in New Jersey (which lost one seat) ended up with producing a situation where eight term Democratic Congressman Bill Pascrell is challenging eight term Democratic Congressman Steve Rothman for the NJ-09 seat. Or perhaps it’s the other way around: the new district draws on both old districts pretty heavily. Anyway, the race is becoming… ugly.

How ugly? Ugly enough that people like local activist Dr. Aref Assaf are writing op-eds with titles like “Rothman is Israel’s man in District 9” (H/T: Powerline). This is causing some consternation in New Jersey Democratic circles; while people reading this post may be by now more or less used – or resigned – to the idea that the activist Left feels increasingly comfortable with at least implying that pro-Israel politicians have divided loyalties*, it’s not necessarily as obvious to rank-and-file Democrats that things have gotten worse along these particular lines. And it’s all being complicated by Pascrell’s disinclination to actually condemn the original article – something that has people wondering why.

Continue reading Anti-Semitic stalking horses in NJ-09 Democratic primary?

Today’s “Whoops. Somebody was recording that?” moment will be brought to you today by Rep. Steve Rothman (D, NJ-09):

‘Portability’ in this context refers to the ability of people to take their health care plan with them if they lose their jobs – a feature not found in Obamacare, and one of four supposed deal-killers for Rep. Rothman. As you can see from the video, he was unhappy to be called an oathbreaker, and very unhappy to be asked why NJ-09 voters should be expected to still vote for an oathbreaker*. The awkward body language there is astounding, in fact: even if you’re aware of how safe a seat NJ-09 is normally considered for the Democrats it’s slightly startling that somebody so self-evidently constitutionally incapable of being criticized has managed to survive in it for a decade. The answer, of course, is that up until now nobody was getting things on permanent record…

Hey, we have a candidate opposing him! Michael Agosta. Apparently, it was a somewhat vigorous primary, too. That’s always good; shows that people are taking an interest.

Continue reading Steve Rothman (D, NJ-09) hates video cameras.