Sherrill draws primary opponent because of impeachment position

Mark Washburne, a County College of Morris professor who lost races for two different offices in 2018, has announced he will challenge freshman Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) in the 2020 Democratic primary.

Washburne’ s gripe with Sherrill is that she isn’t supporting the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

“I believe strongly that if we are going to ‘keep’ this ‘Republic’ Congress must fulfill its Constitutional duties concerning a rogue Executive,” Washburne said.

Washburne ran for the open 11th district congressional seat last year.  Sherrill beat self-funder Tamara Harris by a 77%-15% margin, with Washburne finishing third in a five candidate field with 3% of the vote.

On the same day, Washburne won the Democratic nomination for mayor of Mendham Borough with 74 write-in votes.

He lost the general election to Christine Serrano Glassner, the wife of a top campaign aide to Trump, by a 60%-40% margin.

“As it stands right now, a majority of House Democrats elected to the 116th Congress now support an Impeachment inquiry into the criminal behavior of President Trump. Unfortunately, the Representative for my congressional district … is not among the majority of her own caucus on this matter that supports impeachment,” Washburne said.  “She has, in fact, already voted against one impeachment resolution … and has given no indication that she would support any future impeachment vote despite the overwhelming evidence of criminal activity, obstruction of justice, and lying by Trump.”