Dennis Shulman for U.S. Congress: Sensible Leadership for New Jersey’s 5th District

August 20th, 2008

By TOM HOWELL JR.

thowell@njherald.com

NEWTON — A man driving down Main Street with an “Obama ‘08″ sticker on his car stopped short Tuesday afternoon. Several folks in cowboy hats had caught his eye.

The young adults, dressed as tycoons of “big oil,” carried signs in praise of Republican Congressman Scott Garrett, but the driver was confused.

“So are you for him?” the driver said, meaning Garrett.

Realizing they weren’t, the man announced his satisfaction and drove off.

The “oilmen” were, in fact, several interns for Democrat Dennis Shulman, a blind rabbi challenging Garrett for the 5th District congressional seat.

The gag is an attempt by Shulman to associate Garrett’s name with big oil, noting the incumbent has accepted $69,000 from the oil and gas industry during his political career, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

According to Shulman’s camp, those contributions translate into congressional votes that fatten oil executives’ wallets while hurting the average Joe at the pump.

On Tuesday, the interns waved signs at passing motorists near Garrett’s office in Newton and attempted, unsuccessfully, to give Texas barbecue sauce to the staff inside.

Amanda Gasparino, campaign manager for Garrett, called it “typical college street theater” that has been employed in numerous political races. The opposition should not be “playing political football” with the energy crisis while families are under financial duress, she said.

The live routine by Shulman’s interns is accompanied by an online parody of NBC’s hit TV show “The Office,” in which the “oilmen” sit at a conference room table, count their greenbacks and verbally kow-tow to the incumbent from Wantage.

Shulman’s schtick highlights energy as a key issue in the campaign and the increasing use of the Internet — namely blogs, listservs, videos, Facebook and MySpace — to curry favor with voters.

Both major parties use the Web to connect like-minded people who would have never met otherwise, pulling more people into the political arena, said Anthony Balzano, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Sussex County Community College.

“Politics is simply not done in the same way anymore,” Balzano said.

Experts say presidential candidate Barack Obama has generated Web traffic like no other candidate before, while John McCain allows his daughter to write her “McCain Blogette” about the campaign trail.

“Anybody who says they know which way (the Internet trend) is going is fooling themselves,” Balzano said. “We don’t know whether this is going to backfire or not, because this is all new territory.”

Garrett’s camp posted a petition to “Ease the Energy Squeeze” on its campaign Web site.

In the petition, Garrett said Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives abandoned working families in their struggle with high energy prices.

Garrett has pushed for solutions to the crisis through a multi-faceted approach, including conservation, alternative energy sources and domestic fuel production, Gasparino said.

His office also boasts many YouTube hits, including a July interview about “pain at the pump” on FoxNews.

“The Internet is very significant,” Gasparino said. “For most young voters, that is where they get their information.”

Shulman zeroed in on energy prices after a “listening tour” across the four counties of the 5th District, said Jeff Hauser, Shulman’s campaign manager.

“The voters are speaking very clearly,” Hauser said. “They feel like Washington has failed them on energy prices.”

In the opening scene of their “Office” parody, the “oilmen” discuss through-the-roof profits and point to picture of Garrett mounted on a conference room wall. Later, they brainstorm ways to put thousands more in congressional coffers.

Intern E.J. Fagan, cast as the eager-to-please “Dwight,” slams his shoe down to take out a wad of bills.

The skit cost $58.17 to make or, as the Shulman camp put it, the amount of dough needed to fill up their gas tank.

The sarcastic message may be confusing at first glance, but most people seem to get the joke, said Aaron Ament, deputy campaign manager, donning a black cowboy hat in the midday sun.

Canvassing and hitting the phones for 12 hours a day is part of the job, but “you sometimes want to spice it up,” Hauser said.

“I think it’s going to resonate tremendously.”

http://www.njherald.com/story/news/20SHULMAN-web

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