Friday, July 22, 2005

Here comes Cheney!

Vice President Dick Cheney will be here in Central Jersey tonight, stumping for Doug Forrester at a big $1000-a-plate fundraiser. And even while taking the money, Doug tried to distance himself somewhat:

Forrester said yesterday he doesn't agree with all of the president's initiatives, but he said there is nothing wrong with him taking cash from a Cheney event when Corzine makes hefty donations to the state's Democratic bosses.
"I have not expressed support for any aspect of a federal agenda that is not good for New Jersey," Forrester said.


That's probably because support for Bush's administration is at an all-time low in Our Fair State, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson poll this week. Some local politicians, including Assemblyman Bill Baroni(R-Hamilton), are sitting this one out too. As of yesterday, the state Repubs hadn't even sold all the tickets yet.

Doug's support in NJ is not on the rise. That FDU poll showed him 13 points behind Corzine. The money may be nice but associating with the rather unpopular Bushies is a bad move right now. Plus the traffic tie-up on Rt. 1 and 295 on a Friday night resulting from the complete closure by the Secret Service of the highways on which the VP will travel will result in bad press and bad feelings.

I don't think the Forrester folks really thought this one through.

2 comments:

Rob said...

The Foundation closed early today - at 1:45 PM - to give everyone a good jump on getting outta dodge before the traffic snarl up on Rt. 1. They apparently were closing Rt. 1 from College Road to 295 from 3:30 to 7 PM. Normally a mess every day, I'm sure that it was a disaster for all the side roads.

It's one thing to do this on a Monday, but a Friday in the summer? Yeah someone sure didn't think THAT through.

--*Rob

ken said...

yeah, the traffic must have been a nightmare!

But I agree, I can't see how a Cheney visit is going to help Forrester's image any... it may put some dollars in his campaign bankroll, but the people that he needs to convince that he isn't 'one-of-tme' are going to keep turning away.