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
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
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,
