The Republican Party of New Jersey just can’t seem to settle on a sacrificial lamb candidate for Senate:
The merry-go-round of New Jersey Senate candidacies continued today, as one controversy-riddled Republican businessman officially dropped out, while a well-known former Congressman is back in the political picture.
Former Goya Foods executive Andrew Unanue, whose campaign was controversy-ridden ever since he announced his candidacy on Easter Sunday, withdrew from the race today and threw his support behind former GOP Rep. Dick Zimmer.
Unanue, even after his campaign kickoff, spent most of his time in Vail, Colo. on a family skiing vacation. Despite filing papers for his candidacy, he never held a formal campaign kickoff.
New Jersey election law allows candidates who withdraw from the race to choose a replacement in a period of time after the filing deadline. And in his withdrawal statement, Unanue announced he is endorsing Zimmer.
“I wholeheartedly endorse Dick Zimmer for U.S. Senate. I have already committed to him that I will play a significant role in his campaign,” said Unanue. “I look forward to working with him and I urge my supporters to support Dick Zimmer as energetically as they have supported me.”
Zimmer would join state senator Joe Pennacchio and Ron Paul supporter Murray Sabrin on the June 3 Republican primary ballot. Pennacchio’s campaign has told the Newark Star-Ledger that he may file a complaint against Unanue’s withdrawal, claiming he never intended to run for the Senate in good faith.
Zimmer has been out of the New Jersey political scene since 2000 after he lost a House race to Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) in his old congressional district. After serving in the House from 1990-1996, he ran unsuccessfully against Bob Torricelli (D-N.J.) for the 1996 Senate race, losing 53 percent to 43 percent.
I met Dick Zimmer a few times before I moved to Virginia, and attended his swearing-in reception in Washington when he was first elected to Congress. He’s a decent guy, and, for New Jersey, really the perfect Republican —- fiscally conservative and socially liberal. If the Democrats are dumb enough to renominate Lautenberg, he might actually have a chance, but I’m not holding my breath.
