New Jersey US Senate Election: A Time for Greatness - A Time for Curtis Bashaw
This column will surprise many of my friends and readers. I have advocated emphatically for the election this November of a Democratic US Senate. I was a partisan Republican throughout my career in government and politics, but the Republican party of Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower, which I venerated throughout my adult life, no longer exists.
Today’s Republican Party is the party of Donald Trump, a racist, misogynist, and rapist, now a convicted felon, who has no respect for the rule of law. He is the leader of the racist MAGA cult and is supported by the racialist White Supremacist Nationalist movement. MAGA is inherently a political Jonestown without a mass suicide, with Donald Trump as its James Jones.
MAGA members and Trump are experts in the art of defamation. Any Republican who dissents from Trump's authoritarianism is labeled as a RINO- Republican in Name Only. Trump and his MAGA followers would have labeled such eminent Republicans as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower as RINOs.
However, I feel compelled to endorse two Republican US Senate candidates this November. One is Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland, and the other is Curtis Bashaw of my home state of New Jersey.
Curtis Bashaw and I have a profound difference. Out of Republican Party loyalty, he has endorsed Donald Trump's 2024 Presidential election. I view Donald Trump as grossly unfit for the presidency.
But Curtis is not a MAGA cult member. He has an admirable record of working productively with public officials of all political stripes. He is a Reaganite conservative who is electable. This is a significant factor in his obtaining “the Republican line” status in 11 counties and the county organization support in three counties where the Republicans do not have a line. Unlike his prime GOP rival, Christine Serrano Glassner, Curtis has never been a 2020 election denier.
Curtis Bashaw is a man of goodness and greatness. He could be the greatest New Jersey US Senator of the 20th and 21st Centuries.
In 1960, John F. Kennedy’s campaign slogan at the Democratic National Convention was “A Time for Greatness.” Curtis Bashaw’s record in the private and public sectors demonstrates goodness and greatness in abundance. He is a gay man with a gay husband, a welcome symbol of inclusiveness in the New Jersey Republican Party. The Bashaw time for greatness is now.
His unsurpassed success as a developer and hotelier is distinguished by the restoration of Cape May as a first-class East Coast destination resort. His restoration of Congress Hall in Cape May was a triumph that earned Curtis credit for a landmark accomplishment in New Jersey's economic development history.
The Bashaw business success was always totally compatible with the public interest. His understanding of the public interest was demonstrated by his achievements as Executive Director of the New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA). Appointed to this position by the then Governor Jim McGreevey, Curtis resisted the pressures of political bosses and developers, instead focusing on an agenda of economic and quality of life benefit for all New Jerseyans.
I always consider the issues of Israel and the New Jersey Jewish community. The lifelong support of Curtis Bashaw for Jewry, including the recent strong advocacy of Curtis for the safety and security of the Jewish students at Rutgers, is largely a product of his grandfather, the late Reverend Carl McIntire, the famed radio host who was an outspoken foe of Nazism and fervent advocate for the establishment of the State of Israel.
The putative New Jersey Democratic US Senate nominee, Andy Kim, has generated the distrust of the New Jersey Jewish community with his flip flops during the campaign in support of Israel’s defense activities. Curtis will find a receptive audience in the Jewish community.
One issue that gave me some reluctance to support Curtis at the beginning of the campaign was the role of the Republican Senators in Supreme Court appointments.
During my years as a Republican, I was always a follower of the doctrine of originalism: the principle that judges should interpret the Constitutional provision and/or statute in question based on the original understanding by the ratifiers at the time of its enactment. Such adherence to originalism enables justices to avoid legislating from the bench. The classic example of an originalist jurist was the late Robert Bork. I still am a believer in originalism.
The present Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, is the most politically corrupt Court since the Dred Scott decision. Five of the six Republican justices (Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh) abandoned all principles to make decisions that further Donald Trump's authoritarian agenda.
In our interview, Curtis satisfied all my concerns about judicial appointments. He is a passionate Constitutionalist who will be most reluctant to approve any judicial nominee with a propensity for legislating from the bench.
Curtis Bashaw is a unique New Jersey US Senate candidate with an impressive combination of competency and character. Given the substantial Democratic voter registration advantage, he will be an underdog in this year’s general election. However, Curtis is the kind of candidate with definite potential to score an upset. Keep your eye on the Bashaw campaign.
Alan J. Steinberg of Highland Park served as regional administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as executive director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission. He graduated from Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin Law School.