New Jersey: Primed for the 2018 Midterms

The scene outside my NJ voting site on Tuesday

It felt good taking a positive step towards the November midterm elections at my local polling location in the 4th Congressional District of New Jersey on Tuesday morning.

Aside from the fact that it was gorgeous outside (always a plus on election day), overall the primary results looked pretty good for Democrats here in the Garden State.

2nd-term NJ Democratic Senator Bob Menendez got a wakeup call in the form of challenger Lisa McCormick.

Despite being a virtual unknown candidate who spent almost nothing on ads, and ran a below-the-radar shoestring campaign, the life-long Jersey resident still managed to grab an eye-opening 38% of the Democratic Senate primary vote - grabbing the attention of the ethically-bruised Menendez.

McCormick might not have name recognition, but if you take a quick look at a summary of her political views and policy positions posted on her Website, she aligns with the kind of progressive platform that skews more towards Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren ("eliminate the corrupt influence of dirty money in politics") and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders ("paid family leave, universal health insurance, free tuition at public colleges and universities.")

My sense is that her receiving such a large chunk of the primary vote is more reflective of the fact that the progressive political block that was largely sparked by the energy and momentum of the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign, is not only highly motivated, it's expanding in races across the nation.

On Wednesday morning, New York Times political reporter Kate Zernike and LA Times columnist and author Patt Morrison joined the first segment on The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC to discuss the results of the various primaries that were held in eight states around the country on Tuesday.

Trump ogles Bob Hugin at a White House meeting
of pharmaceutical executives

The consensus on the show seemed to be that Menendez only got 62% of the Democratic primary vote because many NJ voters were turned off by the political corruption charges he was on trial for last year.

(We'll circle back to that in a minute...)

But a caller from north Jersey offered an interesting observation on why McCormick scored 38% of the vote.

Bob Hugin is a die-hard Republican Trump supporter and pharmaceutical company exec.

He's become known for raising prices on a cancer drug by 20% and stashing profits overseas, not surprisingly, he's been tapped as the Republican candidate who will try and unseat Menendez for the NJ Senate seat in November.

The caller noted that Hugin (and the national GOP) have been running a steady stream of nasty attack ads on television and radio against Menendez.

Menendez, who served as the Mayor of Union City, NJ before serving in the state legislature and state senate before being elected to six terms in Congress, is a powerful political fixture in NJ politics and the dominant political player in Hudson County.

With Trump extremely unpopular here in NJ, and Hugin hanging his political hat on the whole "Make America Great Again" thing, his only option really is to attack Menendez relentlessly.

And as the aforementioned Brian Lehrer Show caller on Wednesday morning noted, Lisa McCormick benefited from Hugin's anti-Menendez ads by simply being an option on the primary ballot for voters to chose someone other than Menendez.

 (And without spending a dime of her own money on pricey television commercials I might add.)

But politics in the Garden State not a debutante ball (Chris Christie was governor here for Pete's sake...), and my sense is that most Jersey voters are politically savvy enough to know that the federal corruption charges filed against Menendez back in 2015 could arguably be considered borderline "garden variety" abuses of political power from the standpoint of Washington, D.C.

NJ Sen. Bob Menendez votes in Tuesday's primary
election at a polling site in Harrison, NJ 

Let's review: Menendez faced federal scrutiny over a $60,000 campaign donation received from his long-time personal friend Saloman Melgen.

A Florida ophthalmologist and businessman whose company stood to benefit after Menendez used his position as the (then) Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to ask State Department officials to try and pressure Dominican Republic officials to approve a port-security deal that would have financially benefitted Melgen.

Over the course of his lengthy political career, Menendez also accepted a variety of other campaign contributions and personal gifts (totaling about $750,000) from Melgen; including airplane trips on Melgen's private plane and hotel rooms, some of which Menendez didn't declare as required by law.

Did it raise ethical questions? Sure it did, but like it or not, and many people don't, the reality is that kind of thing is standard practice on Capitol Hill amongst many (not all) lawmakers.

And if Congress wants to change the laws and penalties for those sketchy kinds of political shenanigans (which millions of Americans think they should) then they should roll up their sleeves and do so - and if they don't, then American voters need to show up at the polls and vote people into office who will.

But it's not fair to use situational ethics to pick and choose who gets criminally charged for it, especially a Cuban-American Senator like Menendez who's one of four Hispanic politicians currently serving in the U.S. Senate.

Frankly it reeks of ethnic bias, and that's just one of the reasons his trial ended in November of 2017 with a hung jury, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial - and the Justice Department dropped all charges against him in January of this year, though he was "admonished" by the Senate.   

If you take issue with the suggestion that Menendez being Hispanic was a factor in the charges being filed against him, remember, back in December of 2015, as Menendez was being charged, Republican (white) Tennessee Senator Bob Corker was found to have failed to properly report millions of dollars in personal income he'd received (while serving in the Senate) from commercial real estate properties, three hedge funds and various other investment vehicles.

Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker

And don't forget the infamous "Corker Kickback" last December as Republicans tossed out the rule book, ethics and their Obama-era hysteria about the federal deficit in a frantic effort to pass a massive 500-page tax bill at the last minute so they could go home for Christmas with a "victory" and Donald Trump could preen for his wealthy political donor base.

That epic legislative con-job was drafted in secret, there were no public hearings, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) didn't even get a chance to analyze and score it to see how it would actually impact the U.S. economy.

And it was famously released in the middle of the night - literally hours before a scheduled floor vote with hand-written notes scribbled in the margins (drain that swamp, right?)

If you recall, in the face of an irate public and the Senate wavering, Bob Corker famously announced that he would not support the GOP tax bill; potentially dooming its passage in the Senate.

But on Friday December 15th, Corker (the 4th wealthiest U.S. Senator) miraculously changed his vote after a provision was literally inserted into the tax bill at the last minute.

"The Corker Kickback" as it quickly became known, would allow people who keep vast amounts of real estate holdings in s-corporations (like Corker, Trump and First Son-in-Law Jared Kushner), to save millions in taxes on the "pass through" income they receive from profits and revenue derived from their massive real estate portfolios.   

That's just one example of how it works on Capitol Hill, Corker was never charged for failing to report millions in income from investments he bolstered (in part) by the legislation that he helped to pass - and he was actually rewarded for flipping his vote on the tax bill.

So as far as I'm concerned, Bob Menendez being charged for accepting a $60,000 campaign donation and $750,000 in other donations and gifts over the years from a lifelong friend is like issuing speeding ticket to a driver doing 70 mph during the Daytona 500.

Especially when you consider that the Koch brothers spent almost $900 million of their personal fortune on the 2016 elections, much of it poured into Republican political operations and conservative PACs in the form of untraceable "Dark Money". 

NJ Democratic candidate (NJ 11th) Mikie Sherrill

The Kochs very well could've spent more. 

Here in the NJ-4th Congressional District where I live, 38-year-old Trenton-born U.S. Navy veteran Josh Welle (a self-described centrist Democrat) beat the more progressive Jim Keady for the right to try and unseat the longtime Republican incumbent Chris Smith.

Tuesday was a good day for Democratic Navy veterans in Jersey.

In a widely-watched race in the NJ 11th Congressional District up in north Jersey, former Navy helicopter pilot and one-time federal prosecutor Mikie Sherrill won the Democratic nomination to vie for the seat being vacated by long-time Republican Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen; one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress (and one of the wealthiest too.)

You may remember him as the guy who sparked a steady progressive uprising of sorts by a grass roots organization called NJ 11th For Change in the reliably conservative 11th District by refusing to hold town hall meetings to avoid confronting voters angry with Donald Trump's policies and behavior.

Freylinghuysen supported Trump, voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act and has opposed gun control and same sex marriage during his tenure in Washington.

Members of NJ 11th For Change protesting outside

He hasn't held a town hall meeting since 2013 and NJ 11th For Change members began organizing events to protest his refusal to address his own constituents - including delivering petitions to his congressional office. 

They made national headlines by staging events where some held "Where's Rodney?" sign.

They even held town halls with an empty chair representing Freylinghuysen.


In 2017, as Republicans tried to repeal Obamacare following Trump's inauguration, hundreds of members of NJ 11th For Change began showing up at Freylinghuyen's office each Friday with baked goods to express their anger at his support to snatch healthcare from millions of people.

In response, he famously sent a letter to the board of the local Lakeland Bank complaining about the group's "liberal" tactics and he "outed" Saily Avelenda, a member of NJ 11th For Change who worked for the bank.

Forcing her to resign from her position as a senior vice president.

Freylinghuysen, facing heat over his actions, announced he would retire back in May, opening the door for Democrats to flip a congressional seat that's been Republican since 1980 after Republicans gerrymandered the 11th District by moving it's center from Essex County to Morris County.

A suburban district that's 87% white and one of the wealthiest districts on the nation by median income.

The rise of Fascism in America?

The same grassroots energy that saw millions of people marching in protest of Trump's inauguration in 2017 has only continued and intensified.

That energy is reflected in Tuesday's primary results which have set the stage for Democrats to flip the 24 seats they need to win back the House.

With Donald Trumps lawyers now floating Constitutionally-questionable theories that the president cannot legally obstruct justice, or that he could simply pardon himself in the event that he's found guilty of criminal activity, the disturbing breeze now blowing from the White House reeks of authoritarianism.

Rudy Giuliani telling the Huffington Post on Sunday "If (Trump) shot James Comey, he'd be impeached the next day." to suggest that the 45 is completely immune from being held legally responsible in a court of law for actions that violate the law, is genuinely disturbing.

As CNN political reporter Manu Raju noted on Twitter on Sunday:

"(Republican) Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley just told me this, 'If I were president of the United States, and I had a lawyer that said I could pardon myself, I think I would hire a new lawyer'."

At this point, as AboveTheLaw.com reported back in March, hiring an established top lawyer is no easy feat for Trump - many top legal guns have said they simply won't work for him, especially after he fired respected DC lawyer Ty Cobb.

Sad and pathetic as it may be, there's a reason the unhinged Giuliani is now Trump's most visible lawyer, and it's only served to fire up Democrats, independents, progressives and even some Republicans who've had enough of Donald Trump.

As Tuesday's primary results showed, New Jersey is primed for the 2018 midterm elections.

There's a long way to go to reach November, but the results in California, New Mexico, Iowa and New Jersey clearly demonstrate there's a path to get there.