Zeitz opens campaign HQ in Hamilton

Sorry, JerzeyGirl, but you could not be more mistaken if you had posted that W is the most popular President since FDR. All of the Bush backers in this Congress, including Mr. Smith, are wide open for defeat in this cycle. A brand new era is coming in both National and local politics in this country, the likes of which none of us baby boomers has seen since 1968. Fasten your seatbelts, folks. It's going to be a wild and crazy ride all the way from Ocean through Monmouth, Mercer and Burlington and straight down I95 to both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue!

still money in a campaign... he has done a better job of other Smith challengers in that regard... I still don't think he will win though, especially after the numbers Chris pulled in '06, the worst GOP year since Watergate.

Tigeryankee007 is badly misinformed.

1) Act Blue is not a PAC; it's a clearing house for online contributions. No PAC could legally contribute that much money to one candidate. It's just a credit card clearing house. So it's accurate to say that Zeitz has taken $37,000 in online contributions, and that they were processed by Act Blue. Almost every Dem in the country uses it for credit card processing.

2) According to OpenSecrets.org, 4% of Zeitz's contributions are from PACs; 96% are from individuals. The same nonpartisan site says that 27% of Chris Smith's contributions are from PACs. So who's taking the "out of state PAC" money? Seems like it's Smith, not Zeitz.

3) Opensecrets says that 41% of Zeitz's individual contributions are in state; 60% of Smith's individual contributions are in-state. But virtualy ALL of Smith's PAC money comes from out of state. And PAC money is 27% of his total funds. So they are probably taking the same amount of out of state money. Smith may be taking more.

4) Zeitz has taken no money from "Big Corporations." Neither has Smith. That's not even legal. Corporations can't contribute to candidates. That's a very serious charge. If you can't prove it, you should do the honest and honrable thing and edit it out of your post.

5) Finally, you're a real class act, Tigeryankee. Dragging Benson and Cimino into a story that doesn't concern them, and issuing ad hominem attacks, is just real classy. Going after someone's parent is equally classy. Maybe you should insult their household pets. Or their grandmothers. That would also be very classy, too.

Especially in Hamilton, where just his name wins him elections.

If the Smith campaign does even a little more than the very little they did in 06 while dominating, then this will be a pretty big blowout.

I wouldn't count on Obama coattails either for Zeitz, McCain will win the 4th CD and even if Hamilton voters go for Obama (which they probably won't), they are notorious for splitting their tickets.

this guy has less of a chance than Seema Singh had against Bill Baroni.

just because he has the democrats funding from OUT of state areas. Proof? the lady who wrote a beautiful little piece about him in the Trentonian is from PHILLY. not hamilton, she cant even vote. but of course, like others (and both democrats and republicans when i say this) these days, takes outside funding from PAC's and the money funneled down from Jack Morris (in his case) and others in the north jersey area and spends it. all of that by the way, tainted money.

also as proof of his imminent failure, he has John Cimino say he is going to sweep. thats just bad Karma there. guys like 0-4 in elections.

good luck, your going to need it.

I see where you're confused, Tigeryankee. The FEC collects information on the name and employer of every contributor. You'r reading the reports wrong. Citicorp can't give money to a candidate, but any of its tens of thousands of employees are free to donate. Same with Morgan Stanley, or any other company. Smith also takes money from people who work for corporations/companies. BMG ($13,800)-- Elliot Management ($13,800). Does that mean that he took corporate money? No. It means that both candidates took money from people who work for big companies. So what? In today's world, most people work for someone else. How many of us are lucky enough to be self-employed? Why shouldn't the majority of us be allowed to donate to political candidates? This isn't meant to be snide. I'm just trying to explain how the reporting system works. Nobody takes corporate money.

I was at the event for about twenty minutes, GOP Mercer. I'm not sure where you got your number from. Was it in the article? Maybe you were there early, or on the later side? I can't speak to the crowd before or after I left, but I counted wel over 50 people, including the handful of elected officials. It was definitely a crowded room. Where is Chris Smith's office, out of curiosity? Is it in Hamilton? Is he campaigning much in the district?

I would bet that we have a better than even chance of removing Chris Smith from office in November. It will depend upon our ability to get Mr. Zeitz in front of a lot of voters. I say this because I follow politics pretty closely and I didn’t find out until today that Joshua was going up against Smith. If I didn’t know I have to believe 90% of the voters don’t know!
It is also vitally important that we convince Democrats and Independents that we cannot continue to support Republican members of Congress, even though they may be “moderates”. I have always found it interesting that while Congress has a very low approval rating, the great majority of voters believe “their” congressman is OK. Unfortunately, we are living in a time when every vote counts; especially in Congress. This means that in order to overcome Republican obstructionism every Republican must be defeated.
What further proof of this do you need than the fact that moderate Mr. Smith voted against protecting military personnel from the consequences of the new bankruptcy bill. As a result National Guard and reserve members, who have been called up for duty and are suffering terrible financial difficulties as a result, can’t get protection from bankruptcy. How many of you could maintain you housing payments (mortgage or rent) and your credit card and auto loans and feed your kids if all of a sudden your income was cut by half? Put aside the fact that it was a bad bill in the first place that never would have passed if Democrats had more control of the congress. It passed because people like us accepted “our” representative as being OK.
Unfortunately, Congress is too partisan for us to continue to support even moderate Republicans (or, for that matter, very conservative Democrats).
Need more proof? For the third day now, a group of Republican Representatives are standing in the dark giving speeches to each other about the absolute need to open up additional areas for offshore drilling. No long range plan; no inclusion of any other solutions; no acknowledgement of the fact that the oil companies are already sitting on millions of acres of available acreage. Just drill. Considering that it will take ten years for the first drop of this new oil to reach market; and considering that it will only reduce gas process by approximately 6 cents when it does get here you really have to wonder just how ridicules they are being. The funny part is that they are actually claiming that they are the reason gas prices have fallen in the last few days. This kind of nonsense has to stop.
I am going to support Mr. Zeitz because Chris Smith does not represent my priorities and because I want the congress to start producing solutions to our problems, not obstructions.