AP: NJ congressman faces challenge from blind rabbi

August 2nd, 2008

By CHRIS NEWMARKER
The Associated Press

TRENTON, N.J. - In the far north of New Jersey, an unusual congressional candidate appears to be gaining some attention in his race to unseat a Republican incumbent.

Dennis Shulman is a blind psychologist who’s also an ordained rabbi. He says he decided to run for Congress last year after his wife told him he looked like he was ready to throw a shoe at his television every time he followed the news.

Political experts say the 58-year-old Democrat’s quest to unseat Rep. Scott Garrett is a long shot. But they say that the fact that Shulman would even have a chance is a sign of just how Democratic-leaning this election year may be.

“The Republican administration has simply made so many mistakes that people have given up on seeing Republican leadership as dealing with the issues facing the country,” said Ingrid Reed, director of the New Jersey Project at Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute of Politics.

For now, the most competitive New Jersey congressional races are elsewhere , in two other districts where GOP incumbents are retiring and providing Democrats a chance to widen their 7-6 edge in the state’s delegation, and their 236-199 majority nationwide.

But Shulman’s run against Garrett, a 49-year-old finishing his third two-year term in the House, is getting some attention. That’s because historians say Shulman, if elected, would likely be the first rabbi in Congress, and the first blind person in that body in decades.

Still, Garrett has all the advantages typically enjoyed by an incumbent.

The 5th District, a narrow strip running along the state’s northern border, covers traditionally conservative areas that compliment Garrett’s own conservative views.

Republicans enjoy a 2-to-1 advantage over Democrats in areas of Garrett’s district, nearly the reverse of their statewide proportions, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 5-to-3 edge. Independents, however, are still the largest group in New Jersey, with 45 percent.

Garrett, as an incumbent, also has the potential to raise cash fast.

“When we’ve thought there have been contenders in the 5th District in years past, on Election Day it turns out they wind up losing by more than 10 points,” said Brigid Harrison, a political scientist at Montclair State University.

Reached on the phone as he drove between a motorcycle rally and a county fair last weekend, Garrett said he’s heard many concerns from his constituents, especially about high gasoline prices, but that he believes they trust him to represent their interests.

(Read more at philly.com)

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