>Democrats view Tod Theise campaign to unseat Scott Garrett as a long shot at best
Garrett foe will be lucky to get crumbs from Obama dinner
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Last updated: Sunday October 10, 2010, 12:31 PM
By CHARLES STILE COLUMNIST
President Obama may have vacuumed more than $1 million from the dinner reception in public relations executive Michael Kempner’s Cresskill home, money that will help Democratic congressional candidates in November.
But Tod Theise, the Democratic candidate for the 5th Congressional District, which also includes Cresskill, doubts he will get even a token amount from last Wednesday night’s take. In fact, he wasn’t even aware of the Obama event until my colleague, Herb Jackson, called him in late September to ask him if he knew anything about it.
“We’ve come to conclude we are probably not going to get a lot of help from the national level,” said Theise, 48, a litigation analyst who is running a long-shot campaign to unseat incumbent Republican Scott Garrett from Wantage. Donors and other party officials are hoarding their limited recession-depleted supply of campaign cash to prevent a Republican takeover of the House, Theise says.
That means incumbents and challengers in toss-up races are the first priority, and long-shots will be lucky to get a few crumbs. Still, Theise wrote a letter to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to make the case why he deserves a piece of last Wednesday’s proceeds. He’s yet to receive a reply.
