While people may not remember the road traveled come September, the traveling circus known as the GOP U.S. Senate Primary campaign has seen many twists and turns.
In less than one year, the NJ GOP has gone through or proposed 15 candidates, experienced many false starts, had calls for resignation of the State chair and for candidates to drop out all while giving us tons of fun to watch. Here's a recap, in case you haven't been following along...
4/26/07- Assemblyman Mike Doherty became the first candidate to join the show.
5/2/07- A blog aimed at encouraging former baseball player Al Leiter to seek the nomination was started.
7/11/07- Anne Estabrook dipped her toes in the water forming an exploratory committee.
8/9/07- Assemblyman"Jersey Joe" Pennacchio said he was mulling a Senate bid.
8/10/07- Assemblyman Doherty ended his short lived Senate bid leaving only Estabrook and Penachio as candidates expressing interest.
9/10/07- Pennacchio tapped Morris GOP chair to oversee his then exploratory bid.
10/22/07- Anne Estabrook let people know she would run for the Senate seat.
11/13/07- Al Leiter crushed the hopes of conservative bloggers by saying he had his eye on a Senate seat just not Lautenberg's in '08.
This is only the beginning of the ridiculousness. There is MUCH more below the fold...
1/4/08- Anne Estabrook formally announced her campaign for Senate.
1/10/08- Murray Sabrin joins in the fun announcing his campaign for Senate and not getting the headlines he was hoping for.
1/14/08- Estabrook ups the ante saying she will give $1.6 million of her own money to the campaign.
1/17/08- Pennacchio formally enters the Senate campaign and we have a 3 candidate race for a month and a half.
3/5/08- The Senate race is turned upside down by the sudden withdrawal of Anne Estabrook from the campaign after she suffers a stroke. That same day, speculation of a Mike Huckabee campaign surfaces and is promptly put to rest. The Monmouth GOP even called for Rudy Giuliani to enter the race, but he leaves them hanging. Today, Murray Sabrin also basically declared war on the New Jersey Republican Party, calling for the resignation of GOP State Chairman Tom Wilson and threatening to run primaries against all Republicans.
3/6/08- The GOP rolodex swings open with speculation that Assemblyman Kip Bateman wants his shot and Ocean County Boss George Gilmore tosses out the name of Former New Jersey Highway Authority Chairman Joseph Buckalew.
3/13/08- U.S. Marshal James Plousis decides against seeking the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate.
3/17/08- "Jersey Joe's" Manifesto becomes public leading to calls by Murray Sabrin for him to drop out of the race.
3/19/08- Dr. Mehmet Oz, a nationally prominent cardiothoracic surgeon from Cliffside Park, says he will not run.
3/20/08- Former Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) Executive Director Curtis Bashaw chooses not to join the show.
3/23/08- Goya boy Andy Unanue says he will run for Senate.
3/24/08- From the ski slopes in Vail, Unanue announces his Senate campaign.
3/25/08- Although he is not yet in the state, Dennis Levinson says he will not run and throws his support to the Unanue campaign.
3/27/08- It becomes public that Andy Unanue actually lives in NYC, while voting in NJ and keeping his cars at his parents' house. Many questions abound. The John Crowley saga begins as his name surfaces as a possible candidate with rumors that he is about to get in.
3/31/08- For the 1st time, John Crowley won't run for the Senate seat.
4/1/08- Today we learn that now non-candidate Crowley almost ran the table of county endorsements and cleared the field.
4/2/08- This was a busy day for John Crowley. In the morning, he was not running for sure, but by the afternoon he was re-considering and leaning toward a run because John McCain and John Ensign asked him to.
4/3/08- Another busy campaign day for potential candidates not to be. Crowley says he is still thinking about running while Unanue says he is in, even though he's still skiing.
4/4/08- Maybe he likes the slopes because today sources said that Unanue would drop his bid before the filing deadline. Maybe it was these same sources who said that Crowley was in today as well.
4/5/08- GOP Chairs prepared to switch from the candidate that never was, Andy Unanue to the candidate that still can't decide what he wants to do, John Crowley even though reports today said he still had not reached a decision.
4/7/08- Turn that bus around because John Crowley decided that would not run which was followed by reports that Andy Unanue had returned to the state and that for like the 9th time, he was ready to run. For the 1st time, rumors of a Tom Kean Jr. campaign begin to surface as well.
4/8/08- Andy Unanue won't step down (yeah right) and speculation still builds over a Junior redux.
4/9/08- The day the campaign changed. Junior broke people's hearts saying he wouldn't run, Andy Unanue says he will drop out and GOP savior/Former Congressman Dick Zimmer will replace him on the ballot. Making sure their name is in the news, Sabrin and Pennacchio give great welcomes to the campaign.
4/10/08- Joe Pennacchio says he plans to file a complaint against the candidacy of Andy Unanue. Sources say Unanue will end his candidacy tomorrow and Zimmer will enter the race.
