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October 01, 2002

Hurray for Lautenberg

Assuming that the Dems can engineer Lautenberg onto the ballot and into office by whatever scenario, all I can say then is hurray for David Chang. Lautenberg is far more progressive than Torricelli-- he would never have voted for Bush's tax cuts as the Torch did. Rarely can you compare a successor to a departing politician so completely, but rarely do you have them serving together in the Senate in the past for four years. So compare their Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) ratings:

Year Torch Lautenberg
2000 85% 95%
1999 95% 100%
1998 85% 95%
1997 80% 95%

Lautenberg was always one of the most liberal politicians in the Senate. Add him to Corzine and New Jersey will have one of the strongest progressive delegations in the US Senate.

BTW Lautenberg was similarly more progressive than Bill Bradley who Torricelli replaced, so I for one am just as glad that Dollar Bill passed on the job. Six years of Lautenberg will hopefully give some other progressive comer a chance to take his place -- maybe Governor McGreevey who has made a lot of progressive moves himself since taking office.

Posted by Nathan at October 1, 2002 10:23 PM

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