Tag: Jeff Bell

The Life and Times of Jeff Bell

Jeff Bell’s upset victory over four-term U.S. Senator Clifford Case in the 1978 Republican primary was one of the great political campaigns in New Jersey history.  Bell was a 35-year-old speechwriter for Ronald Reagan’s 1976 presidential campaign, and Case became the only incumbent U.S. Senator in New Jersey history to lose a primary. Bell, who died on Saturday at the age of 74, was a thinker, an intellectual who was
Read More

Jeff Bell dies at 74

Conservative icon Jeff Bell, a former Ronald Reagan speechwriter who toppled a four-term United States Senator in a Republican primary, died last night.  He was 74. In 1978, Bell mounted a primary challenge against Clifford Case, a liberal Republican who had spent 24 years in the Senate.  The 35-year-old Bell beat Case by 3,473 votes (50.7%-49.3%).  He lost the general election to former New York Knicks player Bill Bradley by
Read More

Grenier pays for poking the bear

There is already speculation that Salem County Republicans will seek new leadership after a disastrous 2017 for their chairman, Fran Grenier. Grenier won just 41% against Senate President Steve Sweeney in an $18.7 million contest that may be the most expensive state legislative race in American history. Republican Freeholder Bob Vanderslice lost by seven points, leaving the GOP a narrow 3-2 control of county government. But five days before Christmas,
Read More