Joe Lieberman

Getty Images Photo

U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Joseph Lieberman (ID-Conn.)

Both of New Jersey's Democratic Senators voted to keep Joe Lieberman as Chairman of the Senator Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Lieberman, an Independent Democrat who backed John McCain for President, held his post by a 42-13 vote, with Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez voting in the majority.

Over the last twenty years, five of eight vice presidential candidates had defeated incumbents in races for the United States Senate. Joseph Biden, who was picked as the Democratic VP candidate on Saturday, won a U.S. Senate seat in 1972 when he upset J. Caleb Boggs, a two-term incumbent and a former Governor of Delaware.

John Edwards defeated one-term U.S. Sen. Lauch Faircloth in North Carolina in 1998; in 1988, Joe Lieberman ousted three-term U.S. Sen. Lowell Weicker in Connecticut; Dan Quayle beat Birch Bayh, a three-term U.S. Senator from Indiana; and in the 1970 Democratic U.S. Senate primary in Texas, Lloyd Bentsen upset the incumbent, Ralph Yarborough.

But during the same time period, just one of the three successful candidates for Vice President – Quayle -- had ever defeated an incumbent. Al Gore won open seats for the House (1976) and Senate (1984), and Richard Cheney won an open seat for the House in 1978. Another VP candidate, Jack Kemp in 1996, had never run against an incumbent. Kemp won his House seat in 1969 special election.

TRENTON -- While some local Republicans think that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-D, Conn.) could be the John McCain running mate who could appeal to Jewish voters who traditionally go for Democrats and potentially put this state into play, Gov. Jon Corzine said today that the selection would have minimal – if any – impact. 

“I think people elect presidents, not vice-presidents.  At the margin it might take a double-digit victory for Sen. Obama down into the high single digits,” said Corzine.

But Corzine said he wasn’t even sure it would go that far, since a Lieberman selection could cause the party’s most right wing voters to sit the election out.

Conservative activist and potential gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan said that he’ll support John McCain for president, even if he picks a pro-choice running mate.

But he hopes it doesn’t come down to that.

“I’m going to support the McCain ticket, but I think that would be another discouragement for conservatives. So I hope he chooses better than that, wiser than that,” said Lonegan. “Barack Obama is way far to the left, but that would just be, I think,a political blunder on McCain’s part. And I think the signal to conservatives, again, is hey we don’t need you or where else are you going to go.”

GOP presidential candidate John McCain campaigns in New Jersey last February with Sen. Joe Lieberman: Getty Images Photo
Two pro-choice names floated as potential vice-president picks for presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain have caused a lot of grumbling among conservatives nationwide, but some of the most ardently pro-life members of the delegation representing New Jersey at next month's Republican National Convention were circumspect on the prospects.

While McCain has pledged to run a "pro-life administration" if elected, his campaign has floated trial balloons about U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and former Pennsylvania Governor and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Thomas Ridge as possible Veep picks, both of whom are pro-choice.

While some pro-life delegation members would prefer to see a fully anti-abortion ticket, none were committed to casting a protest vote against a pro-choice McCain pick. Still, some of them cautiously suggested that McCain would be wise not to alienate the socially conservative wing of the party, including the evangelical voters who he's had trouble courting in the past.

"I don't from a tactical standpoint see the gain other than maybe he's trying to reach moderate Democrat voters and take them from Barack by putting Lieberman there," said Assemblywoman Allison Littell McHose (R-Franklin), a delegate who sits on the convention's platform committee. "But I think when you have a Republican base that would probably not traditionally vote for a guy like Lieberman, I don't know why McCain would need to do that."

Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union): Politicker photo 

For the good of the country, a Republican with foreign policy smarts and gravitas would be a wise running mate choice for Sen. Barack Obama, in the view of state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union).

In his NJ Voices blog over the weekend, Lesniak said he likes Indiana senior Sen. Richard Lugar, and today he told PolitickerNJ.com that Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) would also be good.

"It would show that Obama wants to bring this country together," said Lesniak. "I’m most impressed with Lugar’s ability to articulate a tough and reasoned approach to Iran.

Maverick Murray Calls Upon Lieberman To Apologize To Obama

While John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, talked about the environment in Jersey City, his prominent New Jersey supporters said that his relatively frequent presence in the state was evidence that his campaign intends to put New Jersey in play in November.

State Sen. Bill Baroni, who chairs McCain's New Jersey campaign, said that the Senator's visits to the state so far - which prior to today included the Lakewood fundraiser and a rally at a Hamilton firehouse in February- prove that they're paying more than lip service to running a competitive race here.

"I have been told explicitly that New Jersey is a state that is in play. We're campaigning here, we're building a staff here, we're building an organization here," said Baroni, who noted that all the campaign stops so far have been in traditionally Democratic areas.