Joe Pennacchio

State Sen. Joe Pennacchio received the endorsement of New Jersey Right to Life today for his U.S. Senate campaign.

The organization is the state's most prominent pro-life advocacy group.

Pennacchio is running for the Republican nomination against Dick Zimmer, who’s pro-choice (with some exceptions), and Murray Sabrin, who is also pro-life. At a recent debate, Pennacchio laid out the strictest case against abortion, saying he thinks it should be banned at a federal level.

The NARAL Pro-Choice America Political Action Committee endorsed incumbent Sen. Frank Lautenberg for Senate today.

A press release from the organization cited Lautenberg’s support for the Freedom of Choice Act and the Prevention First Ac -- which it said were the “pro-choice community's two flagship pieces of legislation” – along with his opposition to President Bush’s policies on abstinence-only education and his authoring of legislation to prevent pharmacists from refusing to fill birth control prescriptions.

United States Senate candidate Joe Pennacchio hit rival Republican Murray Sabrin for “religious bigotry” today.

At issue is a press release Sabrin put out yesterday, the Catholic holy day of Ascension Sunday. In the release, Sabrin bolstered his pro-life credentials by reflecting “on the millions of unborn children whose lives are destroyed each year through abortions.”

Sabrin went on to criticize his two Republican rivals: Dick Zimmer for being pro-choice, and Joe Pennacchio for having written in favor of distributing the abortion drug RU-486 in his 1991 work A Nationalist Agenda -- which Sabrin referred to as a “fascist manifesto.”

“I, as a Catholic, take offense to Murray Sabrin using my religion to make a political point. He used the Ascension to make a point which was shameful and subtly bigoted. It shows his total lack of respect and tolerance for my Catholic faith,” Pennacchio said. “Even for Murray this crosses the line.”

Republican Senate candidate Murray Sabrin wants to wish you a happy May 5th – specifically not a happy Cinco de Mayo.

Sabrin plans to use the occasion – the date of the Mexican Army’s 1862 victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla – to rally his supporters against illegal immigration and outline his five point immigration reform plan at a press conference this afternoon in Mount Holly. 

“The U.S. Constitution was written in English and these powerful words bind our nation together.  As someone who immigrated legally to the United States as a boy whose second language was English, my family was proud to assimilate into American culture and learn English,” he said in a press release (Sabrin, the son of Jewish holocaust survivors, immigrated to the United States from Poland when he was two-years-old).

Murray Sabrin prides himself in his support for fiscally conservative government policies, but he’s being quite liberal with some of his campaign donations.

At a press conference in Atlantic City today, Sabrin announced that all the money he raised during an internet “money bomb” between 2:00 and 3:00 this afternoon would be bet on a horse named Cowboy Cal at the Kentucky Derby tomorrow.

Sabrin spokesman George Ajjan is keeping the amount raised secret until tomorrow afternoon, when Sabrin will appear at Monmouth Park Racetrack to place the bet.

Leading up to the March 31st Federal Election Commission deadline, Senate candidate Joe Pennacchio raised only $107,710.

At the end of last month, Pennacchio had $25,081 cash-on-hand.

While those numbers appear to contradict the fundraising information the campaign released earlier this month -- which showed Pennacchio having raised $361,710 and having 279,081 -- Pennacchio said that wasn’t the case.

During the two weeks between the FEC’s cut off date and his campaign’s release of the fundraising totals, Pennacchio loaned himself an unspecified amount of money that may account for the discrepancy. As noted by Pennacchio’s campaign when the information was released, that total included two weeks after the FEC's cut off date.

For the first time, the full field of three Republican Senate candidates met tonight to debate.

The forum, held at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Madison campus, was moderated by Star-Ledger conservative columnist Paul Mulshine. Candidates Joe Pennacchio, Murray Sabrin and Dick Zimmer spent their time addressing the issues and laying out some stark differences in policy– for the most part, anyway.

A question from former Bergen County Freeholder candidate Deirdre Woodbyrne did spark a heated argument between the two longer standing candidates, Joe Pennacchio and Murray Sabrin.

Woodbyrne asked whether the candidates would pledge to stop making personal attacks on fellow Republicans. Sabrin responded that he would continue to campaign against what he saw as failed party leadership in Trenton.

Pennacchio said that he had issued his own similar clean campaign pledge months ago and kept to it.

“We made it public and we encouraged all candidates to sign that pledge,” he said. “Today none have. And it’s funny, because I was the proud recipient of some of Murray’s promises: distortions, name-calling, because he believes in practicing politics instead of delivering a principled message.”

A Mercer County Superior Court Judge has dismissed Joe Pennacchio’s complaint against former Senate candidate Andy Unanue that could have ended Dick Zimmer's fledgling Senate candidacy.

Pennacchio campaign manager Dan Gallic confirmed that the challenge was tossed out.

“I didn’t read the opinion. All I know is it was dismissed,” he said.

The Pennacchio campaign filed suit on the grounds that Unanue didn’t file to run as a Senate candidates “in good faith,” and said that he signed a form indicating that he was a resident of New Jersey when he actually lived in New York City.

Senate candidate Joe Pennacchio hung on to the Hunterdon County Republicans' line tonight.

Pennacchio kept the prominent ballot spot, winning 34 votes to Zimmer’s 30 at a special county committee meeting.

It was the second time that Pennacchio won a county committee vote in Hunterdon County. In late February, he beat Anne Estabrook and Murray Sabrin to win the coveted ballot spot.

But after Hunterdon native Dick Zimmer entered the race last week, the county’s Republican chairman, Henry Kuhl, scheduled a special county committee meeting to vote on whether to change the county’s ballot placement.

Republican Senate candidates Joe Pennacchio and Murray Sabrin have raised roughly equal amounts of money, but Pennacchio has a much larger cash reserve.

Pennacchio has raised $361,710 for his U.S. Senate candidacy so far -- including the two weeks that have passed since the Federal Election Commission's March 31st cut off date. At least some of that money was put in by Pennacchio, who said he didn’t know off the top of his head how much he’s donated to his own campaign. He currently has 279,081 cash-on-hand.

“The only thing I can tell you is this: compared to some of the other self-funding candidates, the money I’ve put in to date is not that significant,” said Pennacchio.