{"id":170767,"date":"2019-12-17T10:03:54","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T07:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whaj24.com\/?p=170767"},"modified":"2019-12-17T10:03:54","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T07:03:54","slug":"party-switching-nj-congressman-will-need-trumps-help-in-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/?p=170767","title":{"rendered":"Party-switching NJ congressman will need Trump\u2019s help in \u201920"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whaj 24\u00a0 – WASHINGTON (AP) NEWS :\u2014 The political fate of party-switching Rep. Jeff Van Drew may well hinge on how forcefully he is backed by President Donald Trump, whose impeachment the New Jersey lawmaker is refusing to support.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the House set for\u00a0a near party-line vote impeaching Trump this week<\/a>, the longtime Democrat told his staff two days ago that he will become a Republican, a former aide said Monday. Underscoring the partisan animosity that the impeachment fight has spawned,\u00a0at least six of Van Drew\u2019s top aides promptly quit.<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, the 66-year-old former state legislator, who\u2019s been a political powerhouse in his southern New Jersey district, must figure out how to survive a race in which local Democrats now despise him and Republicans don\u2019t want him elbowing them aside.<\/p>\n

His race will also test the electoral impact of his party switch on the face of the impeachment showdown, which has sharply divided the two parties. In recent years, congressional party switchers have had mixed records extending their careers.<\/p>\n

Trump met with Van Drew last week and has complimented him on Twitter for his \u201chonesty.\u201d With impeachment on the horizon, Trump praised the congressman again early Tuesday. \u201cCongressman Jeff Van Drew is very popular in our great and very united Republican Party,\u201d the president wrote. \u201cIt was a tribute to him that he was able to win his heavily Republican district as a Democrat. People like that are not easily replaceable!<\/p>\n

One rival for the GOP nomination for the seat says he\u2019s been told Trump will endorse Van Drew. While there\u2019s been no word on whether Trump will help Van Drew win the GOP nod in next June\u2019s primary or aid him during next November\u2019s general election, analysts say Trump\u2019s backing will be crucial.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever trouble in the Republican primary Jeff Van Drew might have goes away when Donald Trump throws his arm around the guy,\u201d said Ben Dworkin, director of the nonpartisan Rowan Institute for Public Policy & Citizenship in Glassboro, New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Van Drew\u2019s general election prospects will depend on factors including how liberal the Democratic presidential nominee and the Democrat seeking the House seat are. His district has become increasingly conservative, with Trump carrying it narrowly in 2016 after Barack Obama won it in 2008 and 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Van Drew would be the early favorite, assuming Trump helps him get the nomination,\u201d said Patrick Murray, director of the nonpartisan Monmouth University Polling Institute.<\/p>\n

Van Drew did not return phone calls and text messages seeking comment.<\/p>\n

Van Drew\u2019s defection to the GOP got a thumbs-up Monday from Cheryl McCleary as she waited tables at a luncheonette in Surf City, on New Jersey\u2019s Long Beach Island.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate the fact that he\u2019s staying true to his conscience,\u201d said McCleary, an independent voter. \u201cIf you feel like you\u2019re not in touch with your party on key issues, it\u2019s a good thing to switch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Drew\u2019s decision came after a poll by his campaign showed that by 2-1 margins, voters in his district preferred alternatives to him in the primary and general election. The poll was provided by a senior Democratic aide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a guy who cut and ran away from the Democratic Party to protect his own skin,\u201d said David Richter, former CEO of a global construction firm who\u2019s seeking the GOP nomination.<\/p>\n

Richter said local GOP officials have told him Trump will back Van Drew, but says he thinks he can still defeat him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody who runs on the Republican side is against the impeachment. I\u2019m against the impeachment,\u201d Richter said. \u201cThat\u2019s not enough. You also have to be someone who has integrity. You also have to be someone who stood up for Republican principles their whole lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Drew, a former dentist, was a conservative state senator before he joined Congress, bucking Democrats on issues including gun control and gay marriage.<\/p>\n

In his first year in Congress, Van Drew was among a handful of Democrats who voted against Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., becoming speaker. He and Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson were the only two Democrats who voted in October against starting the impeachment inquiry, and both were expected to oppose impeachment this week, with perhaps a handful of others.<\/p>\n

Overall, Van Drew has voted with Trump 7 percent of the time, according the data tracking website fivethirtyeight.com. That\u2019s one of the higher scores among House Democrats, and far beneath the lowest loyalty score for any Republican, which was 35 percent.<\/p>\n

New Jersey Democrats were already bidding him good riddance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly not a profiles in courage award that he gets,\u201d Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said in an interview. He said he believed Van Drew was switching because his anti-impeachment vote would have cost him the Democratic Party\u2019s endorsement next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongressman Van Drew has long voted against core Democratic values,\u201d Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said in a tweet. \u201cBetraying our party by siding with Donald Trump is the final straw.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montclair State University political science Professor Brigid Harrison, who declared Monday that she would seek the Democratic nomination for Van Drew\u2019s seat, called Van Drew \u201ca blind pawn for Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Republicans captured the House majority in 1994, five Democrats switched to the GOP, including two who lost their next elections. But Rep. Billy Tauzin of Louisiana joined the GOP leadership and became a committee chairman while Georgia Rep. Nathan Deal was elected governor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were more than happy for us to leave,\u201d former Rep. Mike Parker of Mississippi said of his former Democratic colleagues in an interview.<\/p>\n

In 1999, five House Democrats backed impeaching President Bill Clinton. Three of them eventually switched to the GOP.<\/p>\n

Among the most recent party switchers was Rep. Parker Griffith, D-Ala., who joined the GOP in 2009. He lost the Republican nomination for his seat the following year.<\/p>\n

Conservative Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan left the GOP and became an independent this year after saying he was open to impeaching Trump. His prospects for reelection next year are unclear.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Michael Catalini in Trenton and Wayne Parry in Surf City, New Jersey, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Ap NEWS *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whaj 24\u00a0 – WASHINGTON (AP) NEWS :\u2014 The political fate of party-switching Rep. Jeff Van Drew may well hinge on how forcefully he is backed by President Donald Trump, whose impeachment the New Jersey lawmaker is refusing to support. With the House set for\u00a0a near party-line vote impeaching Trump this week, the longtime Democrat told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":170768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/800.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=170767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/170768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=170767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=170767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=170767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}