Midterms in New Jersey: "It’s All About Stopping Trump"

The video above is how most New Jersey voters got to know Jim Keady. Now he's running for Congress, in the district Republican Chris occupies.

Chris Smith (R-NJ) is an anti-Choice fanatic; other than that, though-- and I emphasize FANATIC-- he seems as much a moderate Democrat as a Republican. His voting record is a lot like New Jersey Blue Dog's Josh Gottheimer. He's been representing the 4th district since 1980. The district is mostly made up of Monmouth County but includes some of Ocean and some of Mercer as well. It starts on the east side of Trenton heads northeast to Middletown, Red Bank and Neptune and southeast to Manchester Township and Lakewood. It was Trump's (and Romney's) best-performing district in New Jersey, largely because of a huge community of very right-wing Orthodox Russian Jews (and human organ traders) in Lakewood. The district has the worst PVI in the state, R+8, a point worse than it was in 2017.

Nationally, June 5 is a huge primary day. Going to the polls to pick candidates for November will be some states with incredibly important contests-- New Jersey, as well as California, New Mexico and Iowa. In NJ-04 there are two Democrats competing--Jim Keady, a proven progressive Berniecrat, and some right-of-center carpetbagger the DCCC is pushing, Josh Welle, who seems to be running a campaign that says, "I'm just like Chris Smith" but without the anti-Choice fanaticism. The only political contribution I could find for Welle was when he was still living in Arlington, Virginia a few months ago and he contributed to right-wing Democrat ("ex"-Republican) Joseph Kopser in Austin, Texas.

Dan Jacobson, a former Democratic Assemblyman now publishes the TriCity News in the district and he posted a recent OpEd he wrote about the NJ-04 race , calling out the notoriously corrupt Monmouth County Democratic Party machine. They had a convention last weekend and endorsed "endorsed a boring establishment candidate-- a carpetbagger who just moved up here from Virginia-- to run against Republican Congressman Chris Smith." Jacobson wasn't surprised and he wasn't happy.

Fiery progressive Jim Keady, a former Asbury Park Councilman, came up short. Yet he still showed significant support among the delegates. Now he will take on the machine by running in the June Democratic primary against organization-backed candidate Josh Welle, a mutant who’s decided this is his time to be a Congressman.

(Hilariously, this Publisher was barred by the Monmouth County Democratic Chairman from voting at the mini-Convention, even though I was eligible to do so as a former Democratic Assemblyman back in 1990-91. Apparently, I haven’t been a loyal enough Democrat, as-- shocking!-- I’ve publicly endorsed some Republicans in these pages, while skewering some assholes who are Democrats. Hey, now I know how the Bernie Sanders people felt!)

Although conventional wisdom says Smith is unbeatable in this Republican district, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added it to its list of targeted races. For there is an outside shot to win.

At least for now, I am a Democrat in good standing-- as the Monmouth County Democratic Party by-laws would describe me since I voted in the last two Democratic primaries over my revulsion at our Jackass-in-Chief. In reality, though, I’m a right-of-center voter. I tend to vote a bit more Republican.

Not now. I’m not voting for any Republicans. We need at least one house of Congress in Democratic hands to investigate Trump and expose him for the fraud he is. The end game for this voter is for Trump not to be on the ballot again, so people like me can vote for a Republican if we so choose. In other words, so the country has a sane choice.

That means contesting every seat in the House of Representatives with even a remote chance for the Democrats. That now includes Chris Smith’s seat. On social issue, I agree with Keady on everything, but on economic issues we part ways. He was a Bernie Sanders guy before people around here even knew who Bernie Sanders was. I think all that left-wing shit they espouse-- while wonderful if it could work-- is economic nonsense. Just ask the next Venezuelan you meet.

But that’s not important now. It’s all about stopping Trump. And Keady is clearly the best choice for this long-shot race precisely because he is a Bernie Sanders progressive. The best way to beat Smith is for an unprecedented turnout among Democrats. Keady can fire them up. Meanwhile, organization-backed candidate/carpetbagger Josh Welle says flat out that his strategy is to win over moderates and Republicans. I say it won’t work. Welle may be a Navy veteran — thank you for your service-- but he’s a pretty lackluster campaigner. Seems like a typical ambitious politician to me, who’s typically uninspiring. Too canned.

Keady is a total animal who’s been consumed with progressive social justice issues since I first met him almost 15 years ago. He’s the real deal. By running in the primary, Keady will now get to put his theory to the test about his ability to uniquely boost Democratic turnout.

In New Jersey, it is extremely rare to win a primary without party organization backing. Josh Welle will now appear in the “organization” column on the Democratic primary ballot. The few people who bother to vote in such primaries blindly go down the organization column, as there’s rarely a serious challenger.

Keady, though, has some things going for him. This is a Republican district which means there’s even less Democrats there than usual. The turnout will be particularly light with no other high profile Democratic primary fights on the ballot, like for President or Governor. Keady can potentially reach this relatively small number of voters. And as a rule, the relatively few Democrats in a heavily Republican area like this tend to be the more hard-core believers in the party.

A Bernie Sanders progressive, running against a triangulating moderate like Josh Welle, can appeal to those true believing Democrats who’d vote in a primary. I’m not saying Keady can pull it off. Right now, it’s likely he won’t.

But it’s also not impossible. In fact, I’ve always thought Keady’s path to victory — and flipping this seat for the Dems-- is to indeed lose the Monmouth Democratic Party convention, and then beat the party organization in a stunning primary upset.

That would be a big deal in the political community in the state, and the national progressive movement. That will attract Jim Keady a lot more attention and support than just winning the party endorsement and cruising though the primary. Local supporters will be even more fired up. In other words, if Keady’s theory is right that his brand of progressive politics can trigger an epic Dem turnout in this district, he has the chance to prove it by winning a huge upset in the Democratic primary.

No, Jim Keady Won't Sit Down And Shut Up

by Tracy B Ann

Jim Keady is running for Congress in New Jersey's 3rd district and despite Chris Christie's "request" for him to sit down and shut up when he was protesting for Superstorm Sandy victims, Jim Keady just isn't that kind of guy. He doesn't sit down and shut up when people need help and aren't getting it.

Chris Christie wasn't home in New Jersey enough to realize what the victims of Sandy needed. If he cared he would have been there; Jim Keady was. I remember seeing this on the news; a woman whose house was destroyed was given $10,000 by FEMA. (80% of the Federal money given for victims has not been distributed by the State.)

At that time, I was wishing I could have a screened in back porch. How much could that cost? Very simple; some posts, a bit of decking, some screen and a door or two. The lowest price I got was $10,000 (I did not get a porch) and this woman was expected to rebuild her house for that amount?!?!

Plus, she and many others got letters from FEMA asking for half of the money back. Ok, not asking, demanding and threatening. Where was Chris Christie? Not in New Jersey, but Jim Keady was.

He told me he's running for Congress to represent the people in the 3rd district in New Jersey and the United States. "There are too many in DC who serve billionaires and big business and have no time for the everyday people in America," he says.  Which can sometimes sound cliché, and I admit that when he first started talking to me about that I inwardly rolled my eyes. He added:

"Every decision or vote a Congressperson makes not only affects their immediate district but every person in the US, which is why it's important to unite for progressive candidates and progressive values everywhere in the United States."

He had me with that. I may not live in New Jersey but as a member of Congress he can help improve my life even here in Tennessee, because we are the United States of America. If that wasn't enough, he went on to tell me that he shares the progressive message and commitment of Bernie Sanders. To "get informed and get engaged." He truly is a grassroots warrior for social justice.

"I don't need to be convinced of wage equality, gender equality, racial equality, labor rights, the important of environmental issues and climate change. It's part of my DNA."

I asked him about his connection to the band Rage Against the Machine. He's noted as one of their Freedom Fighters of the month on their website.

That all starts with his soccer career.

Jim played and coached soccer at the high school, college and professional level. He also taught high school religion for 5 years along with coaching soccer. He played for 3 seasons as a goalkeeper for the NJ Imperials.

He has a Masters Degree in Theology from St. John's University where he was also a soccer coach when they were the defending NCAA Division I National Champions.

In getting his degree in Theology he focused on social ethics and pastoral theology. It should be no surprise that when he was forced to wear Nike's as part of a more than 3 million dollar endorsement deal St. Johns signed with Nike, Jim Keady resigned rather than wear the Nike shoes.

During his studies for his degree he had learned that Nike pays their workers $1.25 cents a day, Even though studies were pointing out that this wasn't a living wage, even in Indonesia, Jim was having a hard time getting this point across.

Jim Keady was being featured on all the major network sports shows and speaking at the top colleges in the country but couldn't get past the "Those are great jobs for those people" mentality.

So he went to live in Indonesia and proceeded to see what it was like to survive on $1.25 a day. He came back being able to testify first hand that these are starvation wages.

This all got a lot of press and got Rage Against the Machine's attention, which is when they made him one of their Freedom Fighters of the month. Keady met Tom Morello, originally from Rage (most recently on tour with Bruce Springsteen), back then. They've been friends ever since.

Morello and Serj Tankian of System of a Down are the co-founders of Axis of Justice, a political group whose declared purpose is "to bring together musicians, fans of music, and grassroots political organizations to fight for social justice together." Jim Keady did consultant work for them for 2 years.

Keady also made a documentary about his experience in Indonesia called Behind the Swoosh.



NJ-03 is discombobulated swing district that takes in large parts of Ocean and Burlington counties including the vast, mostly empty Pine Barrens and stretches across the state from Tom's River to the suburbs northeast of Philly. Obama won the district twice, 51-48% against McCain and, 4 years later, 52-48% against Romney. The incumbent is Republican freshman and backbencher Tom MacArthur.

Before Keady faces off against MacArthur in November, he has to win a June 7th primary against Frederick LaVergne, who ran for this seat in 2012 with no party affiliation and got .02% of the vote. In 2014, as a third party candidate, what he called a "Democratic-Republican candidate."

Meanwhile, MacArthur is a notorious self-funder who wrote himself five 1 million dollar checks. Jim Keady is not a millionaire, he runs his family's Lighthouse Tavern in Waretown. He wants dark money out of elections so that the government can represent the majority of Americans, not the few.

When Keady was a city council member for Asbury Park, he wouldn't let anyone buy him a beer, not even people he'd known all of his life, and he still doesn't. He says you have to draw a line early and stick to it.

This is exactly what we need in Congress, in our political system today. This is what we need to counteract the recent Supreme Court arguments over former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's bribery charges. When Justice Stephen Breyer says "the government’s standard for criminal corruption is so vague that political figures don't know what conduct crosses the line" when referring to McDonnell accepting $20,000 shopping sprees and $5,000 engraved Rolex's, I just want to scream.

When I'm done screaming I'll go to donate to Jim Keady's campaign fund, because this guy knows where to draw the line and he draws it at one single beer.

You can contribute here or at the thermometer just above on the right. Keep in mind, Jim  Keady is also a supporter of 90for90 a voter advocacy movement. He doesn't have much info on his website (go to his Facebook page and Twitter feed for that) but what he does have front and center is voter registration information. If I wasn't already a huge fan, that would have done it right there.