Tag: GOP Primary

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ,  U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett, considered New Jersey’s most vulnerable House incumbent, will now face two RINO (Republican in Name only) Republican primary opponents before he can take on well-funded and Clinton connected and Wall Street connected Democratic challenger Josh Gottheimer in November.

Garrett has been under attack from his own party for a whole host of issues for years .He has received little to non campaign support form DC.

Garret has come under fire from his own party for not towing the party line and supporting DC’ s borrow and spending binge , not supporting the preordained GOP speaker candidate for the House , and more importantly opposing “to big to fail ” financial regulation .

Peter Vallorosi of Newton and Michael Cino of Demarest have filed petitions with the state Division of Elections to challenge Garrett in the state’s June 7 primary. Mr. Cino lost to Garrett in a landslide in the 2012 GOP congressional primary.

The New Jersey’s media claims Garrett has been also been criticized for allegedly saying he would not support the House Republicans’ fundraising arm because it backed gay candidates. Many insiders view the ‘gay issues” as a smoke screen.

However in a recent interview, the seven-term incumbent insisted that his litmus test was whether a candidate backed the Republican platform’s opposition to same-sex marriage, not the sexual orientation of a particular nominee.

Garret is a House Financial Services subcommittee chairman, and has been prolific fundraiser among Wall Street and banking employees. In response to his  media alleged comments, some companies have said they will no longer make political action committee contributions to his campaign. However, Garrett banked $2.4 million for his re-election campaign through Dec. 31., while his Democratic opponent, former White House speechwriter Josh Gottheimer, entered 2016 with $1.3 million in the bank.