Saturday, April 12, 2008

Lautenberg, Zimmer would make for best race

There are very few people in newspapers that I respect more than the APP's Randy Bergmann. He is one of the brightest people in the news industry today, and he has an incredible impact on Monmouth County because he knows what he is talking about and applies common sense to issues.

Yet, I think he is selling Dick Zimmer short. Mr. Zimmer possesses real credentials as a state legislator and represented this state in the U.S. Congress in a dignified and productive way. Frankly, my impression of Dick Zimmer is that he is not an insider. Far from it, my take on it is that Mr. Zimmer is a principled individual who is not part of a "machine."

I thnk Mr. Zimmer is dedicated to his family, and works very hard at whatever is before him. He is quiet, unassuming and genuine -- which is not what I can say about most politicians.

In politics, there are candidates that gravitate toward government and others that gravitate toward politics. Since it is a political process that candidates have to move through before they have the opportunity to serve in government, it is usually candidates that are politically-minded who end up serving the public. This is not a plus for the taxpayer, in my opinion.

I believe Mr. Zimmer is a good person, who is genuinely concerned about the interests of the public.

I do not know if I would vote for Mr. Zimmer over Sen. Lautenberg. I do know that Dick Zimmer makes me think about that question twice. I am very interested about what candidate Dick Zimmer would say about the issues. While I do believe that Sen. Lautenberg has served well and been on the right side of most issues, I think the American process of government is founded on the idea of an adversarial process: The best of both parties contending for one job.

I do believe that Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Dick Zimmer competing for the U.S. Senate would represent their parties best for this election cycle.

Click on the headline to go to Randy Bergmann's blog.

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