Daryl Kipnis, the Republican candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s 12th district has reported raising $20,958 in his bid to unseat Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing).
Kipnis has $1,548 cash-on-hand as of September 30, according to a report he filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.
Of the money Kipnis has spent so far, 44% of it went to pay for a fundraiser at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster.
Kipnis faces an uphill battle against Watson Coleman, a former Assembly Majority Leader and Democratic State Chair who replaced Rush Holt in 2014. The district gave Hillary Clinton a +33 point win in 2016, and has 130,426 more Democrats than Republicans.
One interesting name on Kipnis’ report is a $500 contribution from Joan Haberle, who served as Secretary of State under Gov. Jim Florio.
Haberle became involved in politics in the early 1970’s and came within fifteen votes of winning the Democratic nomination for Hunterdon County Freeholder in 1975. She worked on Florio’s 1981 and 1989 gubernatorial campaigns, was the Hunterdon County Democratic Chair, and served in his cabinet during the first two years of his administration.
After the 1991 general election, Florio shifted Haberle to the front office as deputy chief of staff to make room for Daniel Dalton, who had lost his bid for re-election to the State Senate in a Gloucester-Camden district. Haberle attempted a political comeback in 2002 when she ran for mayor of Stockton and lost the general election by eight votes.
In 2009, Haberle backed Republican Chris Christie for governor against the Democratic incumbent, Jon Corzine.