Representative Jeff Van Drew, Anti-Impeachment Democrat, Plans to Switch Parties – The New York Times

Thanks! Share it with your friends!

Close

Mr. Van Drew may already have Democratic challenger. Brigid Harrison, a politics professor at Montclair State University, had been publicly signaling that she was considering a primary challenge to Mr. Van Drew. Already, she has met with many of the county Democratic leaders in the district, as well as Stephen M. Sweeney, the powerful State Senate president.

Now, she says an announcement about her candidacy as a Democrat is imminent.

“At the end of the day, whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican or an independent, what you don’t like is a traitor,” Ms. Harrison said in an interview. “So now, in addition to prioritizing his political career over the direction of the country, Congressman Van Drew is also a traitor to his voters.”

Mr. Van Drew has long had a difficult relationship with many Democrats in his home state, based in part on his support for gun rights. But during his years in the state legislature, he was an important Democratic vote for the southern block of the state, so he was largely spared from intraparty threats.

Still, once he was elected to Congress, Mr. Van Drew began to stray more visibly from the state delegation. He skipped a delegation meeting in Washington with Gov. Philip D. Murphy, the lone lawmaker from New Jersey’s 13 Democratic representatives and senators to do so.

And since he has been publicly indicating he will not vote for impeachment, party leaders in New Jersey have intensified their opposition. Mr. Van Drew had reportedly sought a letter of support from Democratic county leaders to help prop him up after his impeachment vote, but was denied.

Instead, Mr. Suleiman, the powerful Atlantic County chairman, sent the stern letter to Mr. Van Drew.

“Atlantic County Democrats have a tough time as it is facing 100 years of ‘Boardwalk Empire;’ we cannot afford to have Democrats sit on their hands in a presidential year when we usually perform well,” he wrote in a letter first obtained by The New Jersey Globe.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/14/us/politics/jeff-van-drew-democrat-republican.html

Comments

Write a comment