NJ-05: Dennis Shulman featured in Time Magazine!
Sun Jul 20, 2008 at 08:03:08 PM PDT
Cross posted at BlueJersey.com
It appears our good friend and NJ-5 Democratic candidate Dennis Shulman has a nice article written about him in Time Magazine. It's very positive and displays the great qualities about Dennis that we at Blue Jersey have come to love. Dennis has also been mentioned here at Daily Kos for his inclusion on the DCCC's "emerging races" a few weeks ago. His race has garnered some nice attention nationally, and it gets even better with a feature article in Time Magazine.
The main focus is of Dennis being a rabbi, as detailed in the title of the article. It also touches on the "change" theme being embraced by the Obama campaign and many Democratic challengers across the nation. Though the realities of a tough race against Garrett are noted, there are some positive trends in my hometown district:
"A self-described mainstream Democrat, Shulman is "outraged" by the direction in which the Bush Administration has taken the country. And despite Garret's advantages of incumbency, he believes he has a decent chance of unseating the Republican. According to his campaign's internal polling, the district has caught the "change" bug: 69% of the district thinks the country is on the wrong track, and even Republican voters overwhelmingly disapprove of President Bush's performance. According to the Shulman numbers, the district's lopsided Republican-to-Democrat registration notwithstanding, an equal number of voters plan to vote Republican (39%) as plan to vote Democrat (39%)."
Perhaps the best part about the article is how it frames issues that are important to voters of the 5th district (SCHIP, healthcare, energy policy, among others) as moral imperatives, a theme Shulman has used in his campaign, and with much clout as a rabbi.
Win or lose, Shulman, who runs a Sabbath morning discussion group at his synagogue (currently they're dissecting the Book of Job), views entering the political race as an ethical imperative. He often frames issues such as universal healthcare and energy policy in moral terms, and adopts an almost righteous anger when discussing Garrett's positions on social welfare programs such as SCHIP and Head Start.
There are a myriad of religious voters in this district, especially in the western part, which encompasses Sussex and Warren counties. In order to have a serious chance at winning, Shulman must appeal to these voters, and framing the issues as moral causes seems to be the way to captivate their attention. The last few candidates (Anne Sumers, Anne Wolfe, and Paul Aronsohn) have all been from Bergen County, and as we've seen Bergen County cannot alone deliver the 5th, especially since Garrett's hometown is Wantage, which is in Sussex County. I'd like to know how the Shulman campaign is working for voters in the western part of the 5th.
Overall, a very nice feature on our great candidate for New Jersey's 5th district, and hopefully we can get this on the national scene. Most voters in the 5th are low-information, which is seemingly why they keep electing Garrett over mostly moderate Democrats the past few years. If this race gets more national attention, perhaps finally a lot more voters will know Garrett's horrendous and out-of-touch record for New Jersey.
**Link to Time article**
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