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New Jersey Senate Veteran Lautenberg Draws First GOP Foe for '08
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| Contributor | The Sunset Provision |
| Last Edited | The Sunset Provision Nov 29, 2007 09:08pm |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Website - Yahoo News |
| News Date | Friday, November 30, 2007 03:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Veteran Democratic Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg will soon have his first announced Republican challenger, as real estate developer Anne Evans Estabrook said Thursday that she will be officially declaring her candidacy for Senate next week.
Despite Estabrook's entry, CQ Politics will hold its rating on the 2008 New Jersey race at Democratic Favored. Though she has long been a behind-the-scenes activist in New Jersey Republican politics and has personal wealth that she could bring to bear on her Senate bid, Estabrook is little known to most voters statewide and must raise her profile quickly if she is to seriously compete with Lautenberg in a state that has been trending steadily Democratic in recent years.
Lautenberg, who turns 84 in January, has a combination of Senate seniority, name ID and personal wealth -- he founded the Automatic Data Processing computer services firm -- that make him a strong bet to win a fifth term in two slightly separated tenures. Lautenberg, who was first elected in 1982, did not seek re-election in 2000 after three terms. But his status as the best-known available Democrat spurred his party to call him out of retirement late in the 2002 campaign when Democratic Sen. Robert G. Torricelli, plagued by ethics controversies, abandoned his re-election bid. Despite fierce Republican complaints about the late ballot substitution, Lautenberg defeated GOP businessman Doug Forrester by 54 percent to 44 percent.
Although polls on the 2008 race have not been all good news for Lautenberg -- his job approval ratings have been tepid and most respondents to one survey say he may be "too old" to serve -- they also show most saying they would vote to re-elect him. And Lautenberg, who has utilized personal funds in some past campaigns, put $1 million of his own money into his campaign treasury in December 2006 and could add more if he believes he needs to. He already is well-financed for the upcoming contest, with $2.8 million in receipts through the |
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