The Record Endorses Paul Aronsohn

by: Juan Melli

Wed Nov 01, 2006 at 11:40:23 AM EST

Voters in Rep. Scott Garrett's district should take a good look at his record. Chances are they would be amazed. Chances are they would find the views of Democratic challenger Paul Aronsohn more in line with their own.

Republican Garrett is not a conservative in the true sense of the word, as one who seeks to uphold traditions and institutions. He is radical.

He was the only House member from the Northeast to vote this year against extending the Voting Rights Act. He was the only House member from New Jersey -- Republican or Democrat -- to support a significant weakening of the Endangered Species Act. He calls for making abortion illegal even when a woman is a victim of rape or incest.

Garrett, 47, a Sussex County resident whose district stretches across northern Passaic and Bergen counties, first won election to Congress four years ago on a pledge to support the Bush tax cuts while increasing homeland security funding.

"Send me to Washington and I'll help our president and vice president get the job done," Garrett said in 2002. He's kept his word. He has helped the president and vice president pass massive tax cuts in a time of war, cuts that have primarily benefited the very wealthiest Americans at the expense of increased federal budget deficits.

Garrett has also helped the president weaken Americans' civil liberties, voting in favor of wiretapping phone calls and searching e-mails without a warrant. He was an outspoken proponent of the administration's effort to partially privatize Social Security.

Compared to Garrett, Democratic candidate Paul Aronsohn appears to be the true conservative.

Aronsohn, 39, a Fort Lee native who now lives in Ridgewood, is against privatizing Social Security and opposes the government's warrantless spying on Americans. He supports the federal environmental protections Garrett has voted to curtail.

Aronsohn would bring valuable foreign policy experience to the job. He served in the Clinton administration, first at the State Department and later at the United Nations under then-U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright. When not in government jobs, he has worked in public affairs for Pfizer.

The low point of Aronsohn's career has been his work as press secretary for former Gov. James McGreevey during his first year in office. Rock bottom was probably when he had to defend McGreevey's hiring of Golan Cipel as the state's homeland security adviser. The public later learned Cipel was, according to McGreevey, the then-governor's lover.

Aronsohn says he never was part of McGreevey's inner circle and had not been aware of the nature of his relationship with Cipel. Aronsohn left the McGreevey administration after a year. His stint as press secretary should not be held against him.

Bergen County accounts for upward of 60 percent of the 5th Congressional District. Until Garrett's election, the district was always represented by someone from Bergen. But in 2002, a three-way GOP primary fight split the Bergen vote to give Garrett the nomination.

It's time for moderates in the 5th District to look beyond party affiliation and at the record of candidates. It's time to reclaim the more expansive representation in Congress they deserve.

The Record endorses Aronsohn.