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Can Americans still have a sensible and friendly political discussion across the partisan divide? The answer is yes, and we prove it every week. Julie Roginsky, a Democrat, and Mike DuHaime, a Republican, are consultants who have worked on opposite teams for their entire careers yet have remained friends. Here, they discuss the week’s events with editorial page editor Tom Moran.
Q. New York’s highest court overturned the 2020 conviction of Harvey Weinstein, which kicked the #MeToo movement into high gear. The court found that the trial judge erred by allowing testimony from several women who claimed he assaulted them, but were not part of the criminal charges against him. He’s being transferred to California to serve time on a separate rape conviction for now, but New York prosecutors may retry him as well. Thoughts?
Mike: I’m happy Weinstein will stay behind bars, but I worry about the New York precedent of discounting the testimony of victims. I am hopeful non-disclosure agreements will have changed forever. They should be to protect business secrets, not bad behavior.
Julie: Let’s remember why Weinstein got away with this for so, so long. He was prolific in doling out non-disclosure agreements to bind the women he harassed and assaulted to perpetual silence. They could not warn anyone about his toxicity or tell other women never to be alone with him, even to discuss potential work projects. And because he was so powerful, even those who knew of his awful behavior stayed silent or – what’s worse – enabled him by retaliating against women who refused to go along with his demands. Weinstein is just one illustration of how powerful people use their perches to punish those who do not go along with their disgusting schemes and how they wield NDAs to cover up the worst kind of abusive behavior.
Q. More than half of the Republicans in the House opposed the bill providing military aid to Ukraine, but it passed with unanimous Democratic support. It was almost the same bipartisan coalition that voted to raise the debt ceiling to avoid default last year. So, are MAGA extremists empowering Democrats by mistake?
Mike: Well, Congress hadn’t always been so partisan, so perhaps this is what we should expect, so maybe this is good. Give the Speaker some credit. Not every decision in Washington should simply fall along partisan lines. My old boss, Rep. Bob Franks, a moderate Republican who represented a district that had more Democrats than Republicans, told me that in the early 90′s, the coalitions were often more regional than partisan. One of my first meetings as a staffer was to meet with Rep. Jerry Nadler, a staunch Democrat from Brooklyn, but he was working with Franks on issues regarding the shipping ports in NY and NJ. He told me much of that had changed by 2000, and it has only grown worse.
Julie: Smart people know when not to overplay their hand. No one ever accused Marjorie Taylor Greene or the rest of these nihilists of being smart – just great at grandstanding.
Q. After Columbia University called in the police to remove pro-Palestinian protesters, more protests erupted at college campuses from coast to coast, with hundreds more arrested. How are these rising passions going to affect the election? Is the Democratic convention in Chicago going to be a repeat of the chaos in 1968 during the Vietnam War?
Mike: This isn’t 1968. We need perspective. There haven’t been recent assassinations of a president, a former attorney general and leading candidate for the presidency, and the most prominent civil rights leader in American history. There also isn’t a draft, conscripting hundreds of thousands of young men into military service, sending them halfway around the world to an unpopular war where tens of thousands of Americans were killed. I am not discounting the passion and importance of these debates or the crazy divisions within the Democratic party, but the anger simply isn’t as widespread right now because sons and brothers are not being shipped off to die.
Julie: I fear that the Democratic convention is going to be a mess this year. I just hope these protesters realize what is at stake. Elections are a set of binary choices and regardless of whether you vote or how you vote, you will be living with the outcome. These students are the ones who will be inheriting a country that will be unrecognizable if Biden loses, not Joe Biden. And if they think that Trump is somehow going to fight for a two-state solution or justice for Palestinians, they are delusional. They don’t have to take my word for it. They can just see what his first term was like for Palestinians and what his former – and possibly future — ambassador to Israel is tweeting about both these protesters and the Palestinian issue now.
Q. Rep. Josh Gottheimer has nearly $19 million in the bank, the largest sum of any House candidate this year, twice what House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has in the bank. How big an advantage does that give him in next year’s race for governor? And why is most of his money coming from New York City?
Mike: The New York part is easy. Gottheimer is on the Financial Services Committee, which means some jurisdiction over Wall Street. Given the finance sector employment in the Bergen County portion of his district, this is somewhat typical. His GOP predecessor was also on the Financial Services Committee. But that’s only part of the story. Gottheimer has been a prolific fundraiser since his first campaign. One thing he could do with that money that isn’t directly for a campaign for governor would be to spend a fortune on New York broadcast television ads in his re-election for Congress. New York television goes far beyond his district, covering nearly 80% of Democratic primary voters in the state. That would certainly be permissible in his re-election and have the ancillary benefit of raising his name ID nearly statewide just before he announces for governor. I’m sure campaign finance lawyers can also determine if that money could go to a 527 for the governor’s race as well.
Julie: Rep. Gottheimer’s money gives him a massive advantage, particularly if there are no lines next year and candidates have to compete in a very expensive media market without the benefit of ballot placement. There are a million (or 19 million) ways he can spend that money in the ostensible service of a House race that would get him very well known in the New York media market, where the bulk of the primary vote is.
Q. Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, a candidate for governor, vowed to spend $10 million supporting down-ballot candidates who support his agenda, in offices from state legislators to the local mayors. What’s he up to? Is this a challenge to the Democratic establishment?
Mike: Fulop feels he has nothing to lose by offending those who weren’t with him anyway. He is trying to build and fund his own organization, which is one important way to beat any organization opposing you.
Julie: As a messaging tactic, it makes sense. If Mayor Fulop is doing it as a political tactic to ensure that some county chairs are on their best behavior lest their candidates are primaried, that is a different thing altogether. As someone who has put together both a gubernatorial primary and run a caucus operation (though not at the same time), I can tell you that each is more than a full-time job. If Fulop has people around him good enough to recruit and successfully elect an army of legislative candidates, their time would probably be better spent working to elect him governor instead.
Q. Protesters demanding the right to grow weed at home planted a half-dozen marijuana plants at the Statehouse as an act of civil disobedience, naming the garden after Senate President Nick Scutari, who is blocking their efforts. Is the ban on home grown politically sustainable? If I can grow tomatoes in my yard, why not weed?
Mike: Maybe we should go back to the moonshine days as well. Everyone can distill a little booze in the garage and sell it out back. How about we legalize meth labs while we’re at it? Can the weed people just be happy that you can buy it downtown now? And you have Scutari to thank for that. Why attack a guy who has helped you along the way? Have a brownie and chill, my friends.
Julie: Grow weed, don’t grow weed. I personally don’t care. Just please don’t exhale what you are smoking when you walk past children, because I am very tired of inadvertently having my 11-year-old’s lungs polluted with the smoke emanating from people who are toking up on the street.
Q. Rep. Donald Payne, a well-liked Congressman who succeeded his father in 2012, passed away Wednesday at age 65 after suffering a heart attack that left him in a coma for more than two weeks. How will he be remembered and who might replace him in the House?
Mike: I will remember Rep. Payne as someone who loved Newark and fought hard for the people he represented. He was a throwback, a loyal Democrat without being a rabid partisan. Payne’s constituents could count on him supporting progressive causes and being a champion for social justice, not because polling said it was popular, but because it was right. As political rancor grew and divided the country, he remained more pragmatic than combative, finding more satisfaction in delivering funding for new lead replacement lines in his district than in delivering partisan tweets or speeches. Payne’s family legacy is secure, and I am praying for him, his family and his friends.
Julie: Congressman Payne was a gentleman and a gentle man. He was always very kind whenever we ran into each other. I am heartbroken for his wife and children and for all the people who thought of him as a friend and not simply as a member of Congress. As for who will replace him, there is no shortage of qualified candidates, especially well-credentialled women of color.
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A note to readers: Mike and Julie are deeply engaged in politics and commercial advocacy in New Jersey, so both have connections to many players discussed in this column. DuHaime, the founder of MAD Global, has worked for Chris Christie, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and President George W. Bush. Roginsky, a principal of Comprehensive Communications Group, has served as senior advisor to campaigns of Cory Booker, Frank Lautenberg, and Phil Murphy. We will disclose specific connections only when readers might otherwise be misled.