The wild and wacky NJ-GOP senate race got even wilder and wackier when Murray Sabrin, who now calls himself "Maverick Murray", issued a press release demanding that US Attorney Chris Christie immediately investigate his opponent, former congressman Richard Zimmer, for alleged corruption related to the filing of candidacy papers to replace Andy "The Bean" Unanue (who is still vacationing in Colorado) on the ballot.

In the New Jersey GOP Senate primary race we start with Mean Murray Sabrin, Jersey Joke Pinnocchio and Annie "the Nebish" Estabrook.  First, Murray attacks Annie, Annie gets all famished and flubs her lines, then Annie has a stroke and everyone else in the GOP gets agita.  To cure the agita the GOP big shots turn to Andy "The Bean Baron" Unanue who, they later find out, is really a nightclub owner from New York who lives with his parents in New Jersey so he doesn't have to pay taxes, and then is fired from the bean factory by his own cousins who claim he was drunk on the job.  

I'm beginning to think Frank Lautenberg must be subsidizing Republican Murray Sabrin's campaign as his own personal attack dog, considering all the damage Murray is inflicting on his GOP primary opponents.  By the time Murray gets through with them, if either of them wins the nomination they'll be so bloodied and battered their own mothers won't recognize them.  

Regardless, Murray closely resembles Joe Cantwell (played by Cliff Robertson), a main character loosely based on Richard Nixon and Joe McCarthy from Gore Vidal's play called
"The Best Man" about two rivals for the presidential nomination.  I've seen the movie version several times and, though made in 1964, eerily resembles many of the current crop of presidential contenders.  Joe Cantwell, just like Murray Sabrin, comes across as a reactionary Goldwaterite with a mean streak which exemplifies Cantwell's belief that the ends justify the means.  Like Murray, Cantwell doesn't hesitate to dish the dirt against his main rival for the nomination, accusing the latter of extra-marital affairs and a history of mental illness.

While the New Jersey GOP whines that the Bergen Record couldn't possibly have dug up public court records about their candidate without Frank Lautenberg's help, we find out that their latest recruit doesn't even live in New Jersey.

His campaign manager:

Andy Unanue lives in New Jersey, he votes in New Jersey, his car is registered in New Jersey, he pays New Jersey auto insurance, and his business is in New Jersey. Andy Unanue is New Jersey"

Unanue himself:

"For the past few years I've lived in New York. I'm in the process of moving back to New Jersey."

I'm sure Lautenberg was behind that as well.

Unanue/Olivo 2012!

Race tracker wiki: NJ-Sen

US Attorney for NJ Chris Christie has made a lot of hay over his bi-partisan political convictions, a record that is largely reliant on his early indictment of Republican Jim Treffinger in spring 2002.  At the time, Treffinger was the leading candidate for the Republican nomination for US Senate.

Now Christie has an opportunity to bookend his career as a US Attorney -- even if McCain wins it is very unusual for a US Attorney to continue after eight years -- by investigating and indicting another leading candidate for the Republican nomination for US Senate: Andy Unanue.

Mr. Unanue appears to have committed voter fraud by maintaining and exercising his voting rights at his parent's house in Alpine while admittedly living on Central Park West in Manhattan.  According to Unanue's campaign manager, Unanue "votes in New Jersey." (covered here and here on Blue Jersey)

Politically speaking the New Jersey GOP is beginning to resemble downtown Basra as Republican Shiites battle each other for control over the hearts and minds of the Party Faithful, and the patronage that goes along.  In the Senate primary the contest between fundamentalist Mullah Murray Sabrin, "Jersey Jerk" Pinnocchio, and GOP country club favorite Andy Unanue keeps getting uglier and uglier.  A political news website is reporting that Unanue lives in New York but is using his parent's address in New Jersey to register his car and vote.  Even more troublesome is a report that the family's food business, Goya Foods, paid thousands of dollars for Unanue's political consultants when he considered a run for Congress a few years ago.  This report, if true, would involve serious violations of campaign finance laws.

New Jersey Republican Senate candidate Andy Unanue has a problem.

Earlier today, his campaign manager responded to charges that the candidate lives out of state and said that Unanue lives and votes in New Jersey:

"Andy Unanue lives in New Jersey, he votes in New Jersey, his car is registered in New Jersey, he pays New Jersey auto insurance, and his business is in New Jersey. Andy Unanue is New Jersey."

But Andy Unanue told the Star Ledger today that he doesn't live in New Jersey:

"For the past few years I've lived in New York. I'm in the process of moving back to New Jersey."

So if he votes in New Jersey, but lives in New York, isn't that voter fraud?

Cross-posted from Blue Jersey

With their semi-credible recruit forced to drop out for health reasons, the GOP has found a new candidate to take on Sen. Frank Lautenberg in New Jersey.

Andrew Unanue, a former top executive with Secaucus-based Goya Foods Inc., announced Sunday that he will seek the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in June.

The announcement followed calls from party leaders across the state for a candidate with the personal fortune to mount a television advertising campaign in the expensive New York and Philadelphia media markets [...]

Unanue, 40, will face state Sen. Joseph Pennacchio of Montville and Murray Sabrin, a Ramapo College professor from Fort Lee, in the Republican primary on June 3 [...]

Unanue was ousted from the leadership of Goya Foods in a family feud in 2004 and has since run a financial consulting firm and a New York nightclub [...]

Pennacchio could not be reached for comment on Sunday. A spokesman for Sabrin, George Ajjan, said Ortiz and other Republican Party officials were playing favorites by drafting Unanue.

"I guess the party's elitists have reached the letter 'U' in their Rolodex of fourth-string candidates," Ajjan said.

Unanue was ousted from Goya by his own family because of "concerns about his professionalism" and general rank incompetence, and now runs this nightclub:

Just when you thought the Meatpacking District couldn't handle another over-priced club-bar catering to hordes of pretentious Euro-trash, along comes AER.

Race tracker wiki: NJ-Sen

New Jersey GOP leaders had their Easter prayers answered today as a
political news site is reporting multi-millionaire businessman Andy Unanue will seek the nomination to take on Frank Lautenberg for the US Senate.  

After multi-millionairess Anne Estabrook withdrew after suffering a stroke, the GOP's country club establishment went about frantically trying to find a replacement to prevent the nomination from going to one of the two reactionary wingnuts vying for the seat.  

Unanue is heir to the Goya Foods family fortune, the largest Hispanic-owned business in the country.  As such he can finance his own campaign.  He can also appeal to New Jersey's considerably influential Hispanic community.

This Easter weekend New Jersey's Republican leaders are praying desperately in their country club hangouts as they anxiously await a decision next week by a potential messiah who will deliver them from the yoke of having to choose between the lesser of two clowns to run against Frank Lautenberg.  Andy Unanue is young, articulate, moderate and most important, as heir to the largest Hispanic-owned business in the US (Goya Foods), fabulously wealthy and willing to finance his own campaign.  

The real challenge for the chablis-and-brie country club set will be getting their chosen savior passed the gauntlet of reactionary Pharisees who seem to be coalescing around "Ron Paul wannabee" Murray Sabrin.  The small but potent group of Pharisee wingnuts in the NJGOP is already gearing up to politically crucify Andy Unanue should he have the temerity to defy their aspiration to win the primary for Sabrin.  Expect the mud-slinging (mostly in one direction) to be fast and furious.