A Dem Dustup In The Garden State

Blue Jersey has been all over the story of Dem congressional Rep. Rob Andrews running in the primary for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Frank Lautenberg (here and here), with Andrews’ wife Camille currently serving as a “placeholder” of sorts while her husband tries to knock off Lautenberg in the primary (she has not yet declared whether or not she would run for her husband’s House seat in the general election).

If Andrews loses to Lautenberg, might he decide to defend his Congressional seat after all, even though the Newark Star-Ledger thinks this is it for Andrews in the House regardless? And how could he do that after the filing deadline for the Congressional election had passed?

Hey, we’re talking about New Jersey, OK? Anything can happen.

My concern about Andrews in the Senate would be that he could turn into that state’s version of Tom Carper in Delaware, who is the closest thing our party has to Joe Lieberman this side of Ben Nelson (kind of circuitous I know, but apt I think). Meaning that Andrews was maddeningly centrist during the run of the happily-now-departed 109th Congress, though he has sided with his party more often than not in the 110th (here, voting for the Military Commissions Act and the Secure Fence Act in 2006 in the 109th, as well as a constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration; it’s ridiculous and stupid free speech, but free speech all the same).

Worst of all, though, Andrews was a high-profile Dem cheerleader for Dubya’s Iraq war (here).

And Lautenberg has been a “good soldier” on a variety of issues, from gun control to choice and also the bill he sponsored which became the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban (here), prohibiting anyone convicted of that charge from owning a weapon or ammunition.

(Also, I seem to recall Lautenberg saying, when he stepped into the 2002 campaign against Doug Forrester, that he would only serve one term, but I cannot verify that anywhere online, so that may not be correct after all.)

Even though all of this does indeed “smell bad,” as the Lautenberg campaign has noted (particularly with Andrews’ wife not knowing if she’ll actually run for her husband’s seat), I cannot in good conscience find a reason to oppose it. At 84, I believe Lautenberg is a better man than Andrews could be at any age. However, Andrews sees the advancement opportunities closing up – if these people weren’t ambitious, they wouldn’t be politicians – with Bob Menendez not going anywhere in the Senate until 2012, and Jon Corzine likely to run for another term as governor.

This is particularly true in a year when the Repugs don’t seem to be able to get it together (as noted here with their most recent candidate).

Update 4/10/08: What Stoller sez...