The Bergen Record and the USA TODAY Network New Jersey Editorial Board have endorsed Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly) for re-election in New Jersey’s 5th district, and State Sen. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon) for Congress for the 9th district seat left vacant when 87-year-old Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-Paterson) died in August.
The newspaper praised Gottheimer as “steadfast in his work to safeguard our democracy, its institutions, and our elections.” They also called him a “steadfast supporter of reproductive and women’s rights and believes that American commitments to aid Ukraine and support Israel should be kept.”
“Gottheimer has also been a leading official in working to stop — or at least defer — congestion pricing plans that would have unfairly targeted New Jersey commuters who head to work in Manhattan by car.
The Record said that Gottheimer’s Republican opponent, Mary Jo Guinchard, “positioned her candidacy in broad alignment with the national Republican platform and former President Donald Trump.”
“Guinchard may well have a future in Bergen County Republican politics — but should think hard about her alignment with Trump,” the editorial stated. “In the meantime, voters should support Gottheimer.”
In endorsing Pou, the newspaper said she “positioned herself as a candidate who balances a host of positions on national issues — support for women’s and reproductive rights; support for American commitments in Ukraine and Israel; and support for ongoing infrastructure investment, particularly in New Jersey, where mass transit investment is sorely needed.”
The Record called Prempeh “an emblem of a new generation in New Jersey politics that may prove post-partisan and focused on legislative solutions for solving constituents’ everyday problems.”
“The positions he espouses were arrived at through personal experience – each one had a backstory that tracked how Prempeh arrived at his viewpoint. We respect that,” the editorial stated. “However, Prempeh could not commit to us that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election. He would do well to reconsider that position if he seeks to serve in public office.”
The USA TODAY Network New Jersey Editorial Board appears to be rebranding a decimated opinion section. Gannett replaced local editorial boards at their seven New Jersey newspapers, some of which ran their Kim endorsement. That’s because Gannett fired their regional editorial page editors and mostly pulled out of the opinion business as a cost-saving measure.
Gannett stock prices have dropped by over 76% since they acquired the Bergen Record in 2016.
The New Jersey Globe has confirmed that the editorial board participants included only Bergen Record staff and didn’t include representatives from the other six newspapers. The panel asking questions of Kim and Bashaw included The Record’s executive editor, Daniel Sforza, opinion director Ed Forbes, assignment editor Albina Sportelli, and columnists Mike Kelly and Charlie Stile.
In recent years, after longtime Record editorial page editor Alfred P. Doblin was terminated, the newspaper pulled back from its century-long practice of endorsing national, state, and local candidates.
Sforza did not respond to a Thursday email about the endorsement process.