Something is happening in the top of New Jersey: Scott Garrett is having to actually run for the seat he's held in Congress for six terms. A real Democrat outsider, Roy Cho has taken note of Garrett's smug reliance on one of the nation's great gerrymanders, his obedience to knee-jerk conservatism and service to the Tea Party, and his abysmal record.
According to the New York Times, the latest Monmouth University poll shows Cho within margin-of-error range of Garrett. Symbolically, the Times article shows a photo of Garrett in an exurban back yard, essentially kissing a baby, and one of Cho introducing himself to commuters at sunrise.
Garrett has resorted to half-baked robocalls to try to fight back, but he doesn't have much to fight with.
Elsewhere, I've called Garrett my misrepresentative. Here's part of the why, an analysis of the bills his own Web site listed as his accomplishments. I was provoked to it by his Labor Day video "newsletter," in which he claimed it wasn't the House, but the Senate, that was responsible for the abysmal and sinking record of Congress getting anything done.
Scott Garrett has initiated 17 bills, 2 resolutions, and 8 amendments to others’ bills in the 112th Congress. Only one bill — H.R.41, which authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to borrow additional money to cover National Flood Insurance payouts — is directly relevant to New Jersey, though not necessarily to any towns in the 5th District. It’s also the only one of his bills that made it into law. He did propose a bill to name a Post Office in Waldwick to honor a veteran.
His other efforts seem more extreme: H.R.105 was introduced between President Obama’s re-election and his inauguration, and a resolution was filed in July 2013, to attempt to derail the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The resolution was especially deceptive, in that its title accused the president of violating the Constitution when he tried to work with Congress and business leaders around the “employer mandate,” but the resolution got around to repeal of the Affordable Care Act only in the last two of five points, claiming that the issues about the employer mandate proved it was “unworkable.” Which is it? Fortunately, both the bill and the resolution stalled in the House Subcommittee on Health and never made it to the Senate.
Six of Scott Garrett’s eight bills that were referred to his own committee did at least get reported out as approved by the committee, and one actually passed the full house. Maybe that and the two others that were referred to Senate committees and stalled there are the source of Garrett’s blaming the Senate for Congressional gridlock. But what’s even more curious is that, though most of his bills have titles using words like “Main Street,” “Accountability,” “Protection,” and “Freedom,” they’re mostly about directing how agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) write and execute regulations. If these bills passed, regulatory agencies would be tangled up in cost-benefit analyses and reporting to Congress, adding to the gridlock. Congressman Garrett’s legislation is about shifting more power to Congress, where big-money campaign donations rule.
In his September newsletter, Garrett extended his charge to Speaker Boehner's claim that "In the last 18 months, the House of Representatives has passed more than
45 jobs bills—almost every one of them with bipartisan support." I'm working through that list, but surprise, surprise, they start with killing Obamacare and proceed to protections for, yes, business. I haven't heard any more about jobs from Garrett since the unemployment rate fell below six percent, but of course his leader on the issue hasn't had much to say either. Watch this space for the bigger picture.
Mon Nov 03, 2014 at 11:03 AM PT: Politico columnist Alex Isenstadt http://www.politico.com/... counts Garrett "Among the potential losers" in surprise upsets of the smug. Mm-hmm.