The media was trying to turn this into a battle of surrogates for Obama and Clinton, but I think it was just plain old bare-knuckles politics: In an upset, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell has defeated fellow incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman in the
June 6, 2012

[oldembed src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sfgWqS9EIuk" width="425" height="300" resize="1" fid="21"]

The media was trying to turn this into a battle of surrogates for Obama and Clinton, but I think it was just plain old bare-knuckles politics:

In an upset, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell has defeated fellow incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman in the Democratic primary for the 9th Congressional District.

Rothman conceded shortly after 10:30 p.m.

"The voters have made their choice and we respect their choice," Rothman said at a Fort Lee hotel. He added it was a "tremendous honor” to serve in the ninth district and probably will not run for public office again.

The two men found themselves facing off after redistricting, which put Rothman in a heavily Republican district and Pascrell in a district that more closely resembled the one Rothman had represented than his own. Rather than run an uphill battle against a Republican incumbent, Rothman chose to move to Englewood and run against Pascrell.

Rothman and Pascrell spent the race trying to outdo each others’ liberal credentials and high profile endorsements, with Pascrell showing off former president Bill Clinton’s support while Rothman signaled President Obama favors his candidacy, although not officially.

Pascrell hit Rothman for moving instead of running against conservative Rep. Scott Garrett (R-5th Dist.), while

Rothman attacked Pascrell for opposing partial birth abortion and voting to build a border fence with Mexico, among other things.

Rothman was considered to have an advantage in the race because the majority of Democrats in the district were used to voting for him

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon