North Carolina

ROONEY: EnCap LAND DEAL PROBE A PRIME EXAMPLE
OF THE NEED FOR A STATE COMPTROLLER WITH TEETH

As the state Inspector General begins an investigation into the EnCap land development deal at the Meadowlands, Assemblyman John Rooney today said this latest scandal is a prime example of why the watered-down state comptroller bill will be virtually useless.

New Jersey Right to Life
113 North Avenue West
Cranford, NJ 07016

Contact: Marie Tasy
Executive Director
(908) 276-6620

January 9, 2007--

Today, New Jersey Right to Life, the state’s largest pro-life organization, is urging Governor Corzine and state and federal legislative leaders to support legislative initiatives that exclusively limit public funds to life-saving stem cell research that does not cause harm to either the mother or the fetus or destroy life at any stage.

The call comes on the heels of action being pushed at both the state and federal levels of government to publicly fund life-destroying research. The Federal House of Representatives is scheduled to take up a bill tomorrow which will expand federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research. During NJ Governor Corzine’s State of the State address today, he reiterated his support for a referendum to be placed on the ballot asking NJ voters to approve funding for stem cell research grants.

The Democratic U.S. Senate primary in Connecticut next week has some similarities to New Jersey's GOP U.S. Senate primary of 1978. Conservatives had almost captured the Republican presidential nomination in 1976, when Ronald Reagan came close to defeating an incumbent President; two years later, Jeffrey Bell, a conservative who had been Reagan's speechwriter, challenged four-term incumbent Senator Clifford Case. Case was enormously popular among independents and even Democrats, but was viewed as too liberal for his own party and Bell beat him in the primary. Ned Lamont's challenge to Senator Joseph Lieberman comes two years after progressive Democrats believed they had secured the presidential nomination for Howard Dean.

Lieberman says he will run as an Independent if he loses the Democratic primary, which raises an interesting question for New Jersey political junkies: how would Case, who won re-election in 1972 by over 700,000 votes, have fared in the 1978 general election had he run as an Independent against Bell and Democrat Bill Bradley?

For extreme political junkies, here's the list of incumbent U.S. Senators to lose primaries over the last sixty years:

2002: Bob Smith lost to John Sununu, New Hampshire
1996: Sheila Fraham lost to Sam Brownback, Kansas
1992: Alan Dixon lost to Carol Mosely Braun, Illinois
1980: Jacob Javits lost to Al D'Amato, New York
1989: Mike Gravel lost to Clark Gruening, Alaska (Frank Murkowksi won seat)
1980: Donald Stewart lost to Jim Folsom, Alabama (Jeremiah Denton won seat)
1980: Richard Stone lost to Bill Gunter, Florida (Paula Hawkins won seat)
1978: Clifford Case lost to Jeff Bell, New Jersey (Bill Bradley won seat)
1978: Maryon Allen lost to Donald Stewart, Alabama
1978: Paul Hatfield lost to Max Baucus, Montana
1974: J. William Fullbright lost to Dale Bumpers, Arkansas
1974: Howard Metzenbaum lost to John Glenn, Ohio
1972: David Gambrell lost to Sam Nunn, Georgia
1972: Everett Jordan lost to Nick Galifanakis, North Carolina (Jesse Helms won seat)
1970: Ralph Yarborough lost to Lloyd Bentsen, Texas
1968: Edward Long lost to Thomas Eagleton, Missouri
1968: Ernest Gruening lost to Mike Gravel, Alaska
1968: Thomas Kuchel lost to Max Rafferty, California (Alan Cranston won seat)
1968: Frank Lausche lost to John Gilligan, Ohio (William Saxbe won seat)
1966: Donald Russell lost to Ernest Hollings, South Carolina
1966: Ross Bass lost to Frank Clement, Tennessee (Howard Baker won seat)
1966: Willis Robertson lost to William Spong, Virginia
1964: Howard Edmonston lost to Fred Harris, Oklahoma
1962: Maurice Murphy lost to Perkins Bass, New Hampshire (Thomas McIntyre won seat)
1954: Robert Upton lost to Norris Cotton, New Hampshire
1954: Alton Lennon lost to William Scott, North Carolina
1952: Ralph Brewster lost to William Payne, Maine
1952: Kenneth McKellar lost to Albert Gore, Tennessee
1950: Claude Pepper lost to William Smathers, Florida
1950: Glen Taylor lost to Worth Clark, Idaho (Herman Welker won seat)
1950: Frank Porter Graham lost to Willis Smith, North Carolina
1950: Elmer Thomas lost to Mike Monroney, Oklahoma
1950: Chandler Gurney lost to Francis Case, South Dakota
1948: Thomas Stewart lost to Estes Kefauver, Tennessee
1946: Charles Gossett lost to George Donart, Idaho (Henry Dworshak won seat)
1946: George Radcliffe lost to Herbert O'Conor, Maryland
1946: Henrik Shipstead lost to Edward Thye, Minnesota
1946: Burton Wheeler lost to Leif Erickson, Montana (Zales Ecton won seat)
1946: Robert LaFollette lost to Joseph McCarthy