The score so far: George Norcross 2, Steve Rothman 0
By Wally EdgeSouth Jersey Democrats were unable to send their longtime Congressman to the United States Senate, but they have taken two key statewide party posts this month. Tricia Mueller, a top political operative for the Carpenters Union, will run Barack Obama’s New Jersey presidential campaign, and Mike Muller, who works for Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts as the head of the Assembly Democratic campaign committee, has been tapped to run the coordinated campaign.
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2-1, at least
Lautenberg's win has got to count for something.
Agree
Placing staffers in important positions is nice (for the staffers anyway), but it doesn't take away from the fact that South Jersey Dems are having a tough time breaking through statewide. Its not as if the positions of Muller and Mueller are going to make SJ Dems some dominant statewide force all of the sudden.
Second that
I think that Rothman's complete shut-down of any chance Andrews might have had at a statewide seat is worth at least one point -- probably even more than that. Lets be real here -- like Mr. Democrat said, getting staff on the Presidential campaign is cool (for the staffers) but I'm not convinced it shows equal political cojones of ending a Senate bid.
Sounds to me like punishment
for having a hand in defeating Andrews than any real defeat for Rothman.
Let's look at what happened:
* Rothman endorsed Obama when everyine else was wrong. Where's the downside?
* Rothman prevented Ferriero from endorsing Andrews and produced a lopsided victory not only in Bergen County, but in the 9th CD. The result was a 5-1 Lautenberg landslide!
Rothman goes to Denver as the only member of the congresional delegation to endorse Obama. Was it ever realistic that Rothman was going to choose these patronage positions given the fact both Corzine and Norcross were with Clinton?
Rothman made the right choice no matter who runs the statewide effort. He beat back Andrews as well as his own party chairman without causing an after effect.
That's a pretty good Winter and Spring.
Vote Column - All the way!
It's about Jobs!
I read all these comments and realize most people have no idea what is at stake.
If you only knew. . .