A lot will happen between now and the November 2014 election. But let’s just say the stars align and my colleagues at Fox News and Cumulus Media let me run as a Republican for the United States senate seat from New Jersey, my home since 1989.
A year and a half from now, my probable opponent would be either the admirable five term incumbent 89-year old Senator Frank Lautenberg or the charismatic Newark mayor 43-year old Cory Booker, fine men and formidable candidates in a state where almost 60 percent of the people identify as Democrats.
Despite its popularity in the Garden State, their party is the problem. I endorsed the economic platform of Romney/Ryan in 2012 because Democrats were denying the deficit and decrying necessary changes in federal entitlements. Unfettered, theirs is a recipe for generational catastrophe. To pretend the government can just print money is untenable and irresponsible.
But I voted for Obama/Biden because the fiscal threat posed by the Democrats seemed less immediate then the GOP’s intrusion into the private space of abortion, as well as Republicans’ opposition to both the inevitability of immigration reform and the rights of gay people to get married. Those things I believe, so how am I a Republican?
Geraldo Rivera was on Fox and Friends this morning sounding very much like a candidate for U.S. Senate.
He said that he’s a voice for “a point of view that is unrepresented in states like New Jersey,” fiscal conservatives who are pro-immigration reform, pro-gay rights, pro- gay marriage and pro-choice within limits.
He said he would ride his Harley throughout the Garden State to campaign against Senator Frank Lautenberg or Newark Mayor Cory Booker in the 2014 U.S. Senate Race.
Television personality Geraldo Rivera announced on his radio show this morning that he is considering seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2014, according to The Hill.
“I mention this only briefly, fasten your seatbelt,” Rivera said on his radio show. “I mentioned this only briefly to my wife … but I am and I’ve been in touch with some people in the Republican Party in New Jersey. I am truly contemplating running for Senate against Frank Lautenberg or Cory Booker.”
“I’m not going to drill this out, because obviously I’ve got commitments to Fox and to here at the radio program and I’m really having a great time,” Rivera added. “But I figure at my age, if I’m going to do it I’ve got to do it. And there doesn’t seem to be any Republicans ready to work against or run against Corey Booker, the popular Newark mayor.”
Riviera is a former Monmouth County resident and the former owner of The Two River Times. He currently lives in Edgewater, Bergen County.
The Hill says Rivera could face a tough primary should he seek the nomination.
Rivera could face a tough primary challenge, however, with reports suggesting that Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick of Westfield, state Sen. Joe Kyrillos of Monmouth County and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno are all weighing bids for the GOP ticket.
Don’t count on that. If Rivera is willing to spend his own millions on a Senatorial run, the NJ GOP would clear the decks for him, barring another televison personality with millions to spend, like Lou Dobbs, getting into the race.
