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Monday, November 20, 2006

No. Just, please....no.
Posted by Jill | 7:24 AM
When bad campaigns happen to otherwise good people, they should just hang it up.

On a national level, we have John Kerry, who just refuses to do the right thing and go represent the people in Massachusetts, as they're paying him to do.

Sounding as clueless as George W. Bush, Kerry said yesterday, in response to a question about whether his infamous "botched joke" would affect a possible presidential run, he replied, "Not in the least. The parlor game of who's up, who's down, today or tomorrow, if I listened to that stuff, I would never have won the nomination."

And we would have been better off if he had not. Maybe then a candidate with some stones might have actually fought off the Administration's personal attacks, and would not have taken his $14 million and gone home.

And here in New Jersey's Fifth Congressional District -- "The Fightin' Fifth", as Stephen Colbert told us derisively, we have the appalling prospect of ex-Pfizer PR flack and Clintonista Paul Aronsohn strongly hinting at another run -- because a 10-point loss, barely three points better than a previous candidate was able to generate in this Republican district, in the best environment for Democrats in a generation, is somehow a mandate for another go -- or so he seems to think:

But let’s be clear: This fight is not over. There is too much at stake for any of us to walk away. And there is too much promise for us not to build on the foundation that we established.

Simply stated, our work is not done.

To that end, my inclination is to run again – to continue leading this fight over the next two years. Before I make a final decision, however, I must first spend some time with my family and close friends.

In the meantime, I just want to say a big "Thank You" to those of you who were a part of our campaign family. By supporting our effort – through your money, your hard work, or your prayers – you helped turn an ambitious idea into a full-fledged, nationally-recognized, “winning” campaign. For that, I will always be grateful.

So, rest up...have a wonderful Thanksgiving…and stay tuned for an official announcement in the near future...


I'm not trying to pile onto Aronsohn as a person. For all I know, he's a very nice guy. But he's as awful and inept a candidate as I've seen in my 10 years of living in this district.

This is a tough district for Democrats, largely because a few Democratic representatives so spinelessly gave it away during the last gerrymandering, in a bid to make their own seats safe. It consists of the affluent bedroom communities of Bergen County, northern Passaic County, and parts of rural Sussex and Warren counties. For 25 years, the district was represented by Marge Roukema, a moderate Republican who had lived in the district her entire adult life. Roukema fought off two primary challenges by E. Scott Garrett, a Christofascist Zombie Wingnut from Sussex County, before retiring in 2002. Garrett then ran on a platform of lies, claiming "I'm just like Marge", and has been representing this district ever since.

Garrett is on the House Budget Committee and the House Financial Services Committee, and yet the district receives even less federal money now than it did before he decided to "represent" us. Garrett is a slippery character. His constituent mailings give no hint of his extreme views. Instead, he presents himself as a "mainstream tax cutter," but he has voted against the renewal of the Voting Rights Act, against restrictions on oil company price gouging, against mandatory child safety locks on handguns, and against an extension of unemployment benefits during the high unemployment levels of 2003. He also backs the teaching of intelligent design in schools, for all that he is also a passionate advocate of home schooling.

But this tends to be a "party line" district: Republicans vote the Republican line, and Democrats vote the Democratic line. The party chairs are just fine with this setup, and it's the reason why Diebold-style, one-race-at-a-time voting machines are unlikely to be used in New Jersey. It's also why the independent candidate in the recent 5th District Congressional race, R. Matthew Fretz, often encountered the response "Why are you running against Marge?" when doing handshakes at public events when he would explain that he was running for Congress.

This year, the Democratic party chairs in the district were so tantalized by Paul Aronsohn's Clintonista connections, and the fundraising potential seemingly offered by his high profile exploratory committee that included Bill Richardson, Richard Holbrooke, and Mike McCurry, that they hitched their horses to the Aronsohn wagon early on, leaving 2004 nominee Anne Wolfe, who garnered a respectable 41% of the vote with little help from the party, with no party support from which to launch a campaign.

It's a mark of just how lame a candidate Aronsohn is that his much-ballyhooed fundraising capability never materialized. Aronsohn raised a total of $498,951 and spent $401,797 -- over half of that in his primary battle against Glen Rock attorney Camille Abate, who entered the race only three months before the primary in response to Aronsohn's claim that he's a "pro-defense, pro-business Democrat." After gaining the nomination, Aronsohn raised barely $100K for his general election run. So much for the Clintonista connections.

Aronsohn's idea of campaigning was the gimmick of "walking the district." Along with a small parade of high school kids (and one day in which Howard Dean inexplicably came down to offer assistance), Aronsohn would walk streets in the district, knocking on doors. In high summer. In the middle of the day. When few people are home. It's a convenient way for a candidate whose unease with people he doesn't know is palpable to APPEAR to be making contact with the voters without actually having to do so.

I'm not trying to pile on Aronsohn; I'm really not. I'm not comfortable in large groups of people I don't know either. Shyness is not a fun thing to deal with. But then, I'm not running for Congress, either. I'm sure Aronsohn is a decent guy, or as decent as a pharma PR flack who may have covered for Jim McGreevey's relationship with Golan Cipel can be. I'm sure he's a crackerjack staffer, but I have never been convinced that he's a guy who can get things done in Washington, let alone fight the smear machine that is the Scott Garrett Late Campaign strategy.

I can somewhat forgive the party chairs who thought they finally had a candidate who could generate enough money to win. It isn't often that a Democrat with this kind of connections is willing to run in what would appear to be a sure-lose district. But now that Aronsohn has shown that he can't win even in a highly favorable environment, it's time for him, just as it is for John Kerry, to step aside and let someone without a history of campaign ineptitude, to step up to the plate.
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