Welcome to the 584th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where today, we’re going to talk about the eleven-term U.S. House Representative from New Jersey’s 11th District, Rodney Frelinghuysen, who arrived in Congress all the way back in the 1994 Red Wave Election. Quite literally, he is a part of one of the oldest political dynasties in the history of the United States, that goes all the way back to the Revolutionary War, that has had seven generations serve as politicians from New Jersey at the state and federal level. The family name has intimidated enough within New Jersey that many pundits note that over the past two decades, Rodney hasn’t had to face much in the way of a challenger at the polls.
Frelinghuysen is now of interest to us not just because of a variety of controversial ethical decisions through the years like accepting donations from military contractors while sitting on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, often getting those donations on the same days he voted to get the same companies lucrative government contracts. But of late, Rep. Frelinghuysen hasn’t been so bold, though, and has decided it would be more prudent to stop pretending he represents his constituents at all, dodging town halls altogether. This of course would have a lot to do over the outrage surrounding his endorsement (albeit reluctant) of Donald Trump during the 2016 elections, and in the current term of Congress, his flip-flopping over support for repealing the Affordable Care Act. He insisted he wouldn’t vote to repeal… and then he did.
So almost immediately, disgruntled constituents began calling his Washington, D.C. office, and staking him out if possible. One of the main grassroots activists working against him was Saily Avelenda, a banking executive from his district. And that was unacceptable to Congressman Frelinghuysen, who responded by writing a poison pen letter in the form of an e-mail to Avelenda’s boss, outing Avelenda’s out of work activities to him as a “ringleader”. Thus, he’ll definitely be the target of an ethics investigation over this, because WOW that is beyond the pale.
Then, there’s the matter of Frelinghuysen’s voting record, in a reasonable moderate district:
- July 12th, 1996: Rep. Frelinghuysen co-sponsors and votes for the Defense of Marriage Act.
- December 19th, 1998: Rodney Frelinghuysen votes for the impeachment of President Clinton for lying about the Monica Lewinsky affair.].
- October 25th, 2007: Frelinghuysen votes against the reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, denying health insurance to millions of children.
- November 7th, 2007: Rodney Frelinghuysen votes against ENDA, allowing the continued discrimination of LGBT citizens based on their sexual identity in the workplace.
- January 9th, 2009: Frelinghuysen votes against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
- June 30th, 2010: After Wall Street bankers taking unnecessary risks nearly imploded the global economy in 2007, legislation finally comes forward to prevent the same behaviors from being permitted in the future. The signature piece of legislation to prevent another financial meltdown was Dodd-Bill Wall Street Reform, which Tom Frelinghuysen voted against.
- December 8th, 2010: Rep. Frelinghuysen votes against the DREAM Act.
- December 15th, 2010: Frelinghuysen votes against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.
- On January 5th, 2011, Rodney Frelinghuysen co-sponsors the first attempt by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He has voted for every attempt to do so since.
- September 15th, 2012: Rodney Frelinghuysen votes for the “No More Solyndras Act”.
- September 30th, 2013: Rep. Frelinghuysen votes for the 2013 Government Shutdown.
- Feb 26th, 2014: Rodney Frelinghuysen goes “all in” on the faux-scandal surrounding the IRS researching SuperPACs by voting for the “Stop the Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act”.
- July 10th, 2014: Frelinghuysen votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty, that in spite of just being recommended climate change guidelines, have many conspiracy theorists within the extreme right convinced it’s a plot for global domination.
- February 3rd, 2015: Rep. Frelinghuysen votes for the 60th Republican attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act. This in spite of the fact that the law is not just working, but better than experts predicted.
- March 3rd, 2015: Frelinghuysen votes against funding the Department of Homeland Security.
- September 11th, 2015: Frelinghuysen votes against the United States’ nuclear treaty with Iran.
- September 18th, 2015: Rep. Frelinghuysen votes for a bill with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, based on highly edited “sting” videos submitted by a Pro-Life advocacy group that have been repeatedly debunked by investigators.
- November 19th, 2015: Frelinghuysen co-sponsors and votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to the terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks.
- February 2nd, 2016: Rodney Frelinghuysen votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).
- February 16th, 2017: Frelinghuysen votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping. Because… well, the logic really isn’t there as to why, it’s just awful.
- March 16th, 2017: Rodney Frelinghuysen votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge’s written order. We feel safer already.
- March 28th, 2017: Rep. Frelinghuysen votes for SJ Res 34, which allowed internet providers to sell the data information of their customers’ internet usage to businesses.
- May 4th, 2017: Frelinghuysen votes for the GOP’s healthcare plan, that would allow 24,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions, and would treat pregnancy, post-partem depression, and sexual assault as “pre-existing conditions”. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District has only a +3 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, and it barely broke in favor of Donald Trump in the 2016 elections. Experts are thinking it’s starting to trend more blue as it is, and given how there’s currently an insurrection of sorts beginning against Frelinghuysen, who’s retreating from those town halls and beginning to embody all that’s wrong with American politics rather than honor his family’s proud legacy. 2018 is coming around the corner fast, and the rumored Blue Wave to respond to Republicans having control over the White House, Senate, and House could sweep him up, as well.
One Year Ago, May 29th, 2016: Spencer Bachus (AL)
Two Years Ago, May 29th, 2015: Jay Townsend (NY)