The video just above is one of the best congressional campaign clips I've seen from anyone anywhere. Please watch it. June 7 is going to be another SuperTuesday, a congressional one. California, Iowa and New Jersey have red hot primaries pitting grassroots progressives like Lou Vince, Pat Murphy and Alex Law against establishment hacks like, respectively, Brian Caforio, Monica Vernon and Donald Norcross. South Dakota, New Mexico and Montana have primaries the same day but without the fiery contests.And Law's isn't the only congressional contest that needs to be watched in New Jersey. Next door in NJ-03 (Tom's River, the Pine Barrens, Mt. Laurel and suburbs northeast of Philly) Jim Keady will be taking on GOP incumbent Tim MacArthur in a district Obama won twice. Like Law, Keady is too honest and too progressive for the DCCC and the only New Jersey race they're working is in the Wall Street-and-Mafia-oriented 5th district where Scott Garrett sits (and where Obama lost both times) because they have a corporate woody for slimy little Beltway douchebag Josh Gottheimer. Two dedicated Bernie supporters, Peter Jacob and Eloy Delgado are running in NJ-07 and NJ-08. Peter is taking on Leonard Lance and Eloy's race is another June 7 primary, this one against Machine hack Albio Sires.Alex Law is running one of the most compelling primary challenges anywhere in the country. He has a tough time, going up against the full might and power of New Jersey's sleaziest and most corrupt political machine, George Norcross', which is backing the incumbent, George's conservative little brother Donald. Although values-and-issues oriented candidates like Law around the country have been working tirelessly to schedule public debates with their opponents, the opponents usually refuse. In Florida, for example, Wasserman Schultz refuses to debate Tim Canova and Patrick Murphy is too scared (and too sadly ignorant) to debate Alan Grayson in the Senate race. But observers were stunned when Law's challenges were finally met with a white flag from Norcross, who agreed to 2 debates just before election day, one in Voorhees on May 31 hosted by the Southern New Jersey Chamber of Commerce and another in Deptford on June 2 hosted by the Gloucester and Cameden counties NAACP organizations, along with the Jewish Community Relations Council of South Jersey, and the Islamic Center of South Jersey.This is what the Norcross Machine will have to face. Please watch it all the way through and then consider making a contribution to Alex's grassroots campaign.The folks at PolitikerNJ.com could barely believe it when they heard "Donald Norcross’s handlers agreed to let him on a debate stage. "I couldn’t believe my eyes/ears!"
Generally well-funded incumbents like Norcross fancy themselves unassailable and don’t deign to debate, preferring instead to flood our mailboxes, airwaves, and phone lines with their one-sides message. I wrongly assumed Norcross would fall into that mold and forgo debating Alex Law altogether.So what’s the deal? Does Norcross actually think he’ll lose the primary? Doubtful. Is this debate a nod to (small-d) democracy? More doubtful given his crew’s Machine-oriented sensibilities (i.e.: scheduling a debate in the waning hours of the campaign, long after vote-by-mail deadlines have passed.) What does Norcross possibly stand to gain by debating a 25-year-old anti-machine liberal who never ran for office? I suppose there’s the possibility that Norcross might clean Law’s clock. Butt that’s a stretch for an incumbent who’ll be keen to ride out the debate clock with minimal turbulence.“I think (debate night) is going to be one of the strongest days of the entire campaign for us,” Law told PolitickerNJ. “As someone who has heard Donald Norcross address a room, I don’t think the question is whether we expect to win this debate. The question really is how dramatically will we win. When Mr. Norcross and I are put on stage next to each other the results will not be all that close.”Snap! (But can we get some substance to go with that shade?)“Mr. Norcross will need to counter our superior policy positions and grassroots organization while trying to defend his own record of voting with Republicans (Keystone XL, Cuba, Iran, consumer protections), taking tremendous amounts of special interest dollars, and perpetuating a horrific system of pay-to-play. No matter how much money you spend to convince the public that a bag of coal is really diamonds, at the end of the day, no one is going to be fooled.”That’s some pretty audacious talk from a man who’s barely old enough to run for Congress. But that’s bravado you need just to get on the ballot opposite Donald Norcross and the (mostly) impregnable south Jersey democratic establishment. Democrats like Norcorss prefer their primaries as tidy as possible. And they usually don’t like debates. That’s what makes the upcoming Norcross/Law showdown such a mouth-watering proposition. “My team and I are looking forward to it,” Law added.And so are political junkies.
You can contribute to Alex's campaign at the thermometer-- as well as to the campaigns of his fellow New Jersey progressives, Jim Keady, Eloy Delgado and Peter Jacobs: