Webber: Ghee’s dodge is a disqualifier

Antony Ghee’s refusal to say who he voted for in the last three presidential elections disqualifies him as a candidate for the Republican nomination for Congress, according to his opponent.

Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains) says Ghee’s refusal to answer the question of who he supported in 2008, 2012 and 2016 is “ridiculous, cringe-worthy, and awful.”

“Why bother dodging the question?  We know that Mr. Ghee voted for Obama, Obama, and Hillary Clinton, and his repeated stonewalling and Twitter manipulation keep confirming it,” Webber said.

Webber likened Ghee’s dodge to an issue in a Kentucky U.S. Senate race in 2014, where Mitch McConnell’s Democratic challenger refused to say if he had voted for Obama.  Some pundits said her non-denial denial disqualified her a candidate.

In New Jersey, there’s the story of the 1990 U.S. Senate race against two-term incumbent Bill Bradley.  A Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers poll released a week before the election showed Bradley with a 36-point lead over Republican Christine Todd Whitman.  The poll didn’t pick up voter anger over Gov. Jim Florio’s $2.8 billion tax increase – an issue Bradley steadfastly refused to discuss.  Bradley wound up winning by a scant 58,936 votes in an election that tarnished his brand heading into the 1992 presidential election.  The race catapulted Whitman into becoming the front-runner for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 1993.