Wrong Finger, Sir

by: Rosi Efthim

Wed May 30, 2007 at 11:03:32 AM EDT

President George W. Bush coming to the Garden State today, bringing with him his 28% approval rating and the dark cloud that follows him everywhere he goes. Fun!

Anti-Bush Rally details here and here. We'll crank up the Springsteen, and have a few things to say ourselves. Who can bring the beachballs?

In his 6 years in the White House, this is the first time ever that Bush has come here just to raise money for the Jersey Republicans. And yeah, the Republicans really need the cash. Dems have a staggering fundraising advantage, with Dem incumbents going into '07 with $15.5 million to the Repubs' $5.3 million, and Dems with more $$ in the bank.

But it's more than that. Star-Ledger calls it right:

Not since Watergate have New Jersey Republicans endured such a painful losing streak. It's been a decade since voters last elected a GOP governor. They hold their fewest number of seats in the Legislature since 1979. A Republican presidential candidate hasn't won the state since Bush's father ran for office in 1988. And they haven't won a U.S. Senate seat since before the disco era.

The NJ GOP's in malaise. From the same Star-Ledger piece, a longtime Republican consultant is quoted, anonymously:

We don't have an identity of being good at anything or being for anything

They got nothing. And by contrast, the state Dems are surging, with incursions into bastions like Cape May and Bergen counties, and recently Howard Dean's spirited 50-State Strategy helping to drive surprise Special Election wins in hard-to-crack red areas like Hunterdon, Morris and Ocean counties. And there's an unprecedented, though still-wobbly sense of cooperation between the NJ State Democratic Committee and activist groups.

So, welcome to New Jersey, Mr. President. The Republicans need the cash you can generate real, real bad. But there's a huge price to getting too close to you right now. They've already got their own dark clouds, after all.