Tag: Ronald Reagan

The Republican screw up that made Menendez Mayor

The success of Bob Menendez’s political career might be because of bad staff work. The story starts in 1976, when Hudson County gave Jimmy Carter a paltry 23,605 vote margin against Gerald Ford.  Assembly Speaker Joseph LeFante (D-Bayonne), largely blamed for shepherding Gov. Brendan Byrne’s unpopular state income tax through the legislature, almost lost his bid for Hudson’s open congressional seat.  He beat Republican Anthony Campenni by just 6,855 votes. 
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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
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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
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Montclair councilman considering House bid

William Hurlock, a two-term councilman from Montclair, is giving strong consideration to a bid for the Republican nomination for Congress in New Jersey’s 11th district. His potential candidacy will create some interest, since he’s been able to win local elections in Montclair, one of the most Democratic suburban towns in the state.  Hurlock defeated incumbent Rich Murnick by a 57%-43% margin in 2012 and ran unopposed for re-election in 2016.
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