NEW JERSEY SENATE PRIMARY: PASS THE POPCORN

Jersey mishmash

This has got to be one of the craziest contests in the country. The New Jersey GOP has been trying to find a challenger for popular progressive Frank Lautenberg all year. And everyone they come up with turns out to be a dud. After all the first and second tier candidates turned them down flat, they started rooting around for something to stick on the ballot. One of the early disasters was someone's chatty right-wing dentist, Joey Pennacchio, who turned out to be so extremist that he had taken out his crayons and written a kooky 94 page manifesto calling for the Nationalist Party to replace the GOP (which wasn't far right enough for him). It is, basically, a blueprint for a new American Nazi Party made up of the less mainstream two-thirds of the GOP and some Confederates who still hate the Republicans because Lincoln took away their great grandparents' slaves. He turned out to be a bit much even for the whackos and wingnuts who run the state Republican Party. So they moved on to a slick, drunken, sleazy-- and most important, wealthy-- New York nightclub owner (who claims he will move to New Jersey), Andy Unanue. After his trial records came to the public's attention he did move-- but to Colorado, where he went into hiding and eventually, withdrew from the race.

Part of the reason he withdrew was because the same party leaders who talked him into running and then introduced him to the public in glowing terms asked him to take a walk when they started reading more about him. John McCain had also read about him and he went berserk and demanded the Jersey GOP get someone in there who wouldn't depress Republican turnout. He then personally talked a biotech executive, John Crowley, into running. Like many Republican businessmen interested in politics, one doesn't have to scratch too deeply beneath the surface to see that Crowley has some serious ethics problems and many people predicted that he would soon join the other New Jersey rejects.

This morning PolitickerNJ is reporting that Crowley-- McCain or no McCain-- is out of the race already. And what's worse (for the GOP) is that Unanue is threatening to jump back in. I have a suggestion. Why don't the Republicans just get behind right-of-center Democrat Robert Andrews, who is challenging Lautenberg in the primary? He may not be as extremist as what they normally like but he has been a dependable rubber stamp for Bush on the war and on several other important GOP issues.

NEW JERSEY REPUBLICAN PARTY FALLING APART?

Sen. Frank Lautenberg needs some popcorn

The New Jersey Republican Party has been unable to attract any first or second tier candidates to defend red House seats let alone challenge Democratic incumbents. The most startling failure has been in finding anyone remotely credible to run against Frank Lautenberg. They finally settled on an extreme right wing dentist, a Joey Pennacchio. Unfortunately, only days after being embraced by the Republican Establishment, Murray Sabrin, a Libertarian who also would like Republican voters to consider him, distributed a 94-page manifesto the dentist had written calling for replacing the GOP with a more hard right political entity called the Nationalist Party which bears a strong resemblance to the Nazi Party. At that point the NJ GOP soured on the dentist and dug up an alcoholic night club owner, Andy Unanue.

The latest entrant in the race in New Jersey for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, Andy Unanue, said he would bring to the post his business experience as former chief operating officer of Goya Foods.

But Unanue's tenure as a top executive at the company his grandparents founded was short-lived. He and his father were ousted by other family members in 2004, and his management skills were sharply questioned.

During a trial on a lawsuit about the firings, a company vice-president testified Unanue came to work drunk at least five times, possibly more. Unanue denied that, but admitted he had come to work hung over and drank a lot at company parties. "Work hard, play hard. That was my motto," Unanue testified.

Republicans are trying to hype Unanue as a successful and legitimate businessman who could help improve the economy. Imagine McCain's reactionary agenda... but on booze. The Republican response is to whine that Lautenberg's campaign snitched out Unanue, although all his drunken escapades are part of court records from when he was kicked out of his family-owned food company (for acting like a dick and coming to work too drunk to work). Unanue calls himself a "financial consultant." His NYC Meatpacking District shady nightclub is the Kiss and Fly. Seeking to embarrass Unanue, who is a political novice, Murray Sabrin challenged him to a debate, lashing out at the State Republican Party Chair in the process: "Tom Wilson and the failed Republican Leadership are trying to hang on to their limited power by recruiting a slick playboy nightclub owner from New York City to run for the United States Senate...What's next? The manager of the Bada-Bing Club to run for Governor?" Even the dentist has pointed out that Unanue doesn't know anything about anything, taunting him by suggesting that "before he enters the race, the newly minted candidate Unanue ought to share his views on five key issues: how he plans to 'work towards victory in Iraq and execute the War on Terror,' how he would work towards achieving energy independence, how he would make health care more affordable, where he stands on lowering taxes and stopping government growth and his views on stopping illegal immigration."

The national Republicans don't care. They've written off the seat as a Democratic win and just don't want to have to spend any money there. Unanue may be a worthless drunk but he comes from a wealthy family and can finance his own hopeless campaign.

UPDATE: JUAN HAS MORE

Unanue hasn't pulled out of the race yet? BlueJersey isn't happy about the voter fraud aspect to this guy's stillborn campaign. After his staffers lied to reporters all day about his residence Unanue finally admitted that he is a legal resident of the state he actually lives in, New York. "Millionaire Andy Unanue-- who launched his first bid for public office Sunday and has since been wooing GOP leaders via conference calls while on vacation in Vail, Colo.-- said he did not know if he broke any laws or rules by continuing to vote and registering his car in New Jersey, using the Alpine address of his parents." But confusion about where he lives and whether or not he is guilty of voter fraud is just one of many problems facing Unanue's 4 day old vanity campaign for the U.S. Senate. According to the transcript of his 2004 trial, Unanue was playing around with the idea of running for Congress and had Goya Foods pay $12,000 for a political consultant. Federal campaign finance law prohibits corporate funding of candidates or prospective candidates testing the waters. Unanue admits the payment was a mistake that may have been cleaned up when the lawsuit was settled. May have been? I can't find any records at the FEC website that it was cleaned up. This is the best the Republican Party of New Jersey could come up with? What a mess!


UPDATE: MORE WOES FOR THE JERSEY GOP

After failing to attract a first or second tier candidate to run for retiring Congressman Mike Ferguson's seat (NJ-07) in north-central New Jersey, the GOP is stuck with a gaggle of brawling, squawking monkeys all vying for the honor of being decisively beaten by Union County Assemblywoman Linda Stender. Linda came within a handful of votes in 2006 of beating the incumbent and, sensing this was going to be a far worse year for Republicans than 2006 was, Ferguson cut and ran. The motley crew seeking to replace him is a pretty sad statement on what the modern Republican Party in New Jersey has turned into.