Another Disgraceful Special Interest Tied to Scott Garrett

July 24th, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 24th, 2008

Contact: Jeff Hauser, (201) 767-8162, jeff@shulmanforcongress.com

With Garrett so far out of touch with the economic crisis and local and national support consolidating, Shulman is poised to defeat Scott Garrett

New Jersey –  As fears about an economy that Garrett this year described as “good” grow, in large part due to the continuing reverberations of a housing crisis which Garrett dismissed as fear mongering, we learn that another bank is endangered by reckless practices and a failure of Congress to provide proper regulation. This week, the nation’s largest savings and loan, Washington Mutual, reported an enormous $3 billion loss, the biggest quarterly loss in its history.  Like Countrywide Financial, Washington Mutual used to utilize Scott Garrett’s chief of staff as a lobbyist.

“Reckless unregulated activity by banks like Washington Mutual and Countrywide Financial has thrown America’s financial system into crisis,” said Dennis Shulman, the Democratic nominee in New Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District.

“Voters need to ask themselves - who let this happen, and why? Scott Garrett sits on the House Financial Services Committee, and specifically its Housing subcommittee, and yet he was so out of touch as to term the economy “good” in 2008. And it was “good” for him — Scott Garrett bankrolls his campaigns with hundreds of thousands of dollars from disgraced financial services companies like Countrywide Financial.

“We cannot let foxes guard the henhouse, and yet Scott Garrett is using our taxpayer’s money to hire a former lobbyist for Washington Mutual and Countrywide Financial to serve as his chief of staff. The corrupt revolving door culture of Washington, where corporate special interests get what they want and hard working families are left behind, needs to end. That is why I vow, when elected, to forego all corporate special interest funds from companies with business before my committees.”

Dennis Shulman was recently profiled by The New Yorker and Time as momentum for his campaign continues to grow.

SOURCE: http://ap.google.com/article/
ALeqM5gYCq4ZbVJB6P2HxZoY6Gop0QXWxAD923C2P01

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Recent polling in the district validates the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s recent decision to upgrade NJ-5 as an “Emerging Race.”  Only 31% of likely voters in NJ-5 plan to re-elect Garrett and, by a 68-17% margin, the district seeks change from George Bush’s policies.

Dr. Dennis Shulman has gained international recognition for his 30 years of work as a psychologist, educator, and author.  An ordained rabbi for five years and blind since childhood, he has lived in New Jersey’s Fifth District for more than 25 years with his wife, Dr. Pamela Tropper, an obstetrician. They have two adult daughters.

Additional background on Dr. Dennis Shulman and his challenge to Scott Garrett:

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