| This explanation from Rob Andrews as to why his wife is on the ballot to be the Democratic nominee but won't commit to running is pretty damning.
Essentially he is saying that instead of having an open primary (which he sued for in other counties) in NJ1 and allow anyone with an interest in running go before the voters and make their case, he and the party bosses arranged to bypass the voters and give 600 people the final say on who succeeds him.
There are currently 156,789 Democrats registered to vote in NJ1, and another few hundred thousand undeclared voters who can declare as Democrats on primary day. But Andrews thinks that it would be akin to a "civil war" to allow them to vote for their preferred candidate. No, it should be decided by .03 percent (not three percent, point oh three percent) of the Democrats in the district.
The people of NJ1 should rise up and have a civil war over this transparent, blatant and apparently unrepentant effort to discount their votes and subvert the democratic process. This is perfectly legal, but it's incredibly unprogressive.
What is most shocking to me is just how blasé he is about the fact that he not only created this mess, but had a hand in finding this massively undemocratic solution that disenfranchises the voters. And at the same time his campaign is yelling that Lautenberg is the one subverting democracy by not doing a retail campaign and using surrogates.
Q: Why did your wife not just agree to serve? She's running, why wouldn?t she just agree to serve?
A: Because in a two day period it was not fair or possible to fairly consider all the applications of the people who wanted to serve and there's a bunch of really qualified people. Dana Redd, Steve Sweeney, John Burzichelli (sp?), Lou Capelli (sp?). Lots or really good people.
Q: They could have all filed.
A: Well, I'll tell you what we didn't want to have happen there. It's not in the interest of the Democratic Party to have some big civil war over the Congressional seat at a time when we are trying to have a unified effort in the south. And why her? I'll tell you why her. Because she gave her word that she would abide by the county committee process and she'll keep it and not fall in love with the idea that she maybe won the primary and then not get off the ballot.
Q: So you don't see any problem with how a representative for your seat will be chosen?
A: There is a process.
Q: You don't have any problem with that?
A: No I don't have any problem with that, because the alternative would have been, given my late entry into this race which is something that I will explain why that was, given my late entry into this race there would have been a handful of people who put someone on the party line and no competition whatsoever. Instead what will happen is that 600 county committee people in the first Congressional district will have a chance to vote on who that replacement should be.
Apologies for any typos or small inaccuracies. This is a rush transcript. Anyone who wants to clean it up, just put the corrections in the comments. |
