Forget about slaying dragons.
New Jersey's Republicans are having a difficult enough time trying to knock off someone they say is a dinosaur -- 84-year-old Frank Lautenberg, the state's senior US senator, who has given every indication he plans to run for re-election, despite the public's wariness.
No sooner had the most mainstream candidate dropped out of the Republican race this month than two counterpunchers from the party's conservative flank began lacerating each other.
Now Andrew Unanue, a political novice who is a former chief operating officer at his family's business, Goya Foods, is hoping to make a late splash. And although Unanue, who owned a Manhattan nightclub, has been photographed far more often with socialites than with senators, he does have one attribute that the Republican establishment says is crucial to wage a battle against Lautenberg: a lot of money to finance a campaign.
"He's the only one who can raise the money necessary to defeat Senator Lautenberg," said Mark Campbell, a Republican political consultant who sounded ebullient at the idea of Unanue.
Whether the fortunes of a cash-strapped party that has lost every statewide election since 1997 can be revived by Unanue, a resident of Alpine, a wealthy pocket in Bergen County, who has never held public office is a large imponderable. But with an April 7 primary deadline approaching, some Republicans have been itching, almost obsessively, to attract a moderate candidate to fill the place of Anne Estabrook, a wealthy real estate developer who dropped out this month after suffering a minor stroke.
Hardly a day has passed since Estabrook's withdrawal without rumor of a possible candidate, preferably one with deep pockets, taking on the two remaining candidates from the conservative wing of the party, state Senator Joseph Pennacchio, a dentist and veteran legislator from Morris County, and Murray Sabrin, a finance professor at Ramapo College who ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2000.
After initially throwing up their hands in the face of an anticipated Democratic rout at the polls in November, there has been a clear sign that Lautenberg is vulnerable. His recent poll numbers have been underwhelming, with one finding that while a plurality of residents approved of the senator, 58 percent preferred that someone else be elected.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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