The Most Powerful Legislator In New Jersey Is About to be Deposed By a Truck Driver Who Spent $153.00 On His Campaign

One hundred and fifty three buck.

And he's about to drop the king of the legislature.

The New Jersey Legislature could see a major shakeup -- including the possible disappearance of its most prominent lawmaker, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney -- following a closer-than-expected governor’s race between Gov. Phil Murphy and Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli.

It’s likely that Democrats will retain their nearly two-decade hold on the Legislature, the body in Trenton that crafts the state's laws and passes the state budget. But their influence is poised to shrink.

...

In the most stunning twist, Sweeney, D-Gloucester -- the second-most-powerful elected state official after Murphy and a force in New Jersey politics -- is trailing his relatively unknown Republican opponent, Edward Durr.

Durr is a truck driver of 25 years. He did run once before, for state Assembly in 2019, but he lost. Given that he only spent $153 on this year's run, I doubt he mounted a much better funded effort then.

Sweeney beat back another challenger in 2017, who was slightly better funded.

The Senate president warded off what was seen as a more serious challenge in 2017 from Republican challenger Fran Grenier, a candidate backed by the powerful New Jersey Education Association -- still the costliest legislative race in the U.S. history, at $24.1 million, according to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. Despite the battle, Sweeney beat Grenier by more than 9,300 votes, or 18 percentage points.

Durr leads the current Senate President -- who is the longest-serving politician in NJ -- by 2000 votes.

I can't find any commercials for Durr for Senate. I guess a $153 budget doesn't permit for such luxuries.

Here's an interview he did with "The Nader Narrative." Not Ralph Nader, a presumably unrelated Elizabeth Nader.

By the way, Ciatterelli jumps on the interview at the end, and announces: "This is the guy who's going to defeat Steve Sweeney."

This interview was from two months ago

Durr's rationale for getting into the race is straightforward and simple: the district has 150,000 votes. Sweeney has never received more than 31,000 votes.

Ergo, anyone who can get 32,000 or more votes can win.

He also points out that South Jersey is a conservative area (witness the red in the maps for voting for Ciatterelli) and it's just silly that they're electing a liberal Democrat every year.

This is dead-simple reasoning. It's also dead-right.

As for motivation: Despite having a spotless police record, he was repeatedly denied a concealed carry permit.

And so here we are.

A bet a state senator will have an easier time securing a concealed carry permit. That's how this vile game is rigged.

He's a sharp guy. I really like this guy.

We need ten thousand more Edward Durrs.

I bet there are ten thousand Democrat seats -- or more -- at all levels of government, from schoolbard to mayor to state senator -- where the incumbent scrapes by chiefly on the strength of no one who actually reflects the sentiment of the district challenging him.

I bet half the people reading this site could win a race. If you could stop masturbating for like six hours in a row. Which-- nevermind.

No one here can win a race.

Here's a likely-handmade graphic he made and posted on Twitter:

"3D4NJ" is of course a well-known QAnon code.

No, just kidding, it just means "3rd District for New Jersey."

Or maybe he couldn't get his preferred campaign name "ED4NJ" as a domain name so he had to go with the leetspeak workaround of 3D4NJ.

Or maybe it's a mix of both.

But I think we can very, very easily trick the media into reporting that it's a QAnon code meaning something just absolutely scandalous!

I mean, Don LeMon would be easy. He thinks that that their are black holes floating through the earth's atmosphere.

Update: Thanks to Fenelon Spoke, here's 3D4NJ's ad:

She says his main form of advertising was driving around the district speaking to voters.

posted by Ace at 02:42 PM

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