Hi -- I am honored to receive the Star-Ledger's endorsement for re-election, and for their recognition of commonsense governing. As they so kindly put it, “[Josh] is a proven leader with a laudable record, he builds trust and relationships, and he has a gift for finding a sensible center and withstanding the noise from the fringes and his own party leaders. We endorse Gottheimer for a fourth term because he occupies a political space where most Americans want their leaders to be.”
Here is a link to the editorial, and I pasted it below.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thanks for all of your support, and now let’s bring it home!
Yours,
Josh
In the NJ 5th, an obvious choice: Re-elect Gottheimer | Editorial
Updated: Oct. 09, 2022, 7:19 a.m.|Published: Oct. 09, 2022, 7:00 a.m.
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
This political era is defined by gridlock, and too often our federal government is brought to a screeching halt by what constitutional scholar Daniel Lazare calls “slow-motion trench warfare.”
To get the important stuff done – infrastructure, climate action, lower drug prices, law enforcement reform – some believe it takes a bulletproof majority and a miracle. In reality, however, it takes lawmakers who reject political division, embrace bipartisanship, and accept compromise.
This is how Rep. Josh Gottheimer has managed to have his fingerprints on the most significant legislation to ever come out of Washington. It is that political gift and his dedication to improving the lives of all Americans that earns the congressman from New Jersey’s 5th District our enthusiastic endorsement for a fourth term.
Gottheimer, who is being challenged for a second time by Wall Street investment banker Frank Pallotta, is an anomaly in Washington. Whereas most people in Congress stay in their lane -- pinned down by their party leaders in partisan neutral corners -- Gottheimer’s career has been defined by forming cross-party alliances as the founder of the Problem Solvers Caucus.
It is a quixotic group of 29 Democrats and 29 Republicans who meet once a week to untangle the gridlock and find common cause, and at the tip of the spear is the indefatigable former speechwriter for President Clinton. Gottheimer, 47, says he hopes one day “that we don’t need a Problem Solvers Caucus, and that people will reflexively be rewarded for bipartisan governing,” but that unlikely when there is a 50-50 Senate and a four-seat margin in the House.
That leaves Gottheimer’s caucus as the most reliable template for democratic compromise and effective policy.
Count just a few ways:
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He and the Problem Solvers helped craft the blueprint for 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which upgraded highways, railways, water systems, the electric grid, and included the largest public transit investment in history. The $1.25 trillion package didn’t happen without some prolonged intra-party drama from the Democrats’ progressive wing and Gottheimer’s team, but as colleague Tom Malinowski (D-7th) put it, “That bipartisan infrastructure bill would not exist if not for Josh.” And just to hang a lantern on it: The Gateway Project would not exist without the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
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In February, President Biden signed the CHIPS Act, which included eight key amendments authored by Gottheimer, including supply chain fixes, protections against Chinese market manipulation, and a historic push for cutting edge high-tech research.
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After the 2021 Build Back Better plan withered and died, Gottheimer kept Senate colleagues like Joe Manchin on speed dial and helped redraft it into Inflation Reduction Act in August -- the largest piece of legislation ever to address climate change. It also lowers prescription drug prices, expands health care, and goes after tax cheats – all while lowering the deficit.
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Just two weeks ago, he celebrated the passage of his Invest To Protect Act, which authorizes $60 million a year for five years to provide more safety, de-escalation training, recruitment grants, and mental health help for local police departments.
These are echoes of what Gottheimer had accomplished in previous sessions.
With Americans still reeling from the pandemic late in 2020, Gottheimer and the caucus resuscitated the dormant stimulus bill after leadership and the Trump administration walked away from the table.
That September, the caucus found a framework for a new bill known as the “March to Common Ground,” which delivered more state and local aid, help for small businesses and the food insecure, and more unemployment assistance -- while cutting the cost of the original bill in half.
Ultimately, Trump signed it. This is what Gottheimer does: He breaks stalemates. And that has made him, after only three terms, one of the most influential members of the House.
It would be ludicrous to replace him with a political neophyte, particularly this one.
Pallotta received Trump’s support in 2020, and is anxiously awaiting a second helping.
“He likes our policies. I enjoy his policies. His policies were spot-on,” Pallotta said of Trump on WABC radio last month. “If he picked up the phone and said, ‘I’d like to endorse you,’ that’s something I would accept.”
Most voters should find that nauseating, because pledging fealty to the man who tried to subvert democracy by inciting a riot which led to the death of five cops can only give Trump more incentive to try it again.
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Coaxing Trump into his corner is crucial to Pallotta’s MAGA bona fides, which is why he ignored most of the questions we sent him about the former president’s role in the attack on our government on Jan. 6 and Congress’s duty to investigate it.
For Pallotta, that seems to be old news. He says that if Trump is the nominee in 2024, he will vote for him.
If you need more evidence of Pallotta’s keen moral and political judgment, recall his vigorous defense of the Oath Keepers prior to the 2020 election, when he called them “good people,” solicited their support, and vowed to “stand by them.”
Three months later, the same domestic terrorists led the attack on the Capitol. Today, their leaders are on trial for seditious conspiracy.
On policy, Pallotta is out of central casting, as a Wall Street conservative culture warrior who rages against creeping socialism. He “can’t say” if he supports the bipartisan infrastructure bill that will be of momentous benefit to his district, and he offers no inflation solution other than tax cuts, because “that will spur growth.”
That is the usual trickle-down mysticism, yet if you ask Pallotta if he would have voted for the 2017 Trump tax cuts, he responds, “It’s kind of hypothetical – I wasn’t there.”
It is a predictable dodge, because that Republican tax bill did not include spending cuts to cover the cost, and the deficit exploded. That same tax cut included the unpopular $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions (SALT), which Pallotta accuses Gottheimer of failing to repeal, even though Gottheimer has led a vociferous effort to do that.
And on social policy, Pallotta can be flat-out dangerous: He calls abortion “legalized manslaughter,” and believes it should be banned even in cases of rape and incest.
This is not a difficult choice. Gottheimer calls it “a race between common sense and extremism,” and that is hard to refute. He is a proven leader with a laudable record, he builds trust and relationships, and he has a gift for finding a sensible center and withstanding the noise from the fringes and his own party leaders. We endorse Gottheimer for a fourth term, because he occupies a political space where most Americans want their leaders to be.