Bashaw: ‘Andy Kim is not a Strong Candidate’
PITTSTOWN – It’s tough to think of the Republican Party these days without Donald Trump.
The former president endorsed Christine Serrano Glassner three weeks ago for the U.S. Senate. Trump’s involvement instantly focused more attention on the June 4 Senate primary.
Curtis Bashaw, the other major candidate for the Republican Senate nod, is pushing ahead, suggesting he’s unbothered by Trump’s involvement.
All the noise about it, he said Wednesday – a bit tongue in cheek, one supposed – “is trumped up by my opponent.”
“I’m not offended by his endorsement,” Bashaw added. “He supported his friend’s wife.”
Michael Glassner, the candidate’s husband, has worked on Trump campaigns.
Bashaw spoke at a gathering of local voters at the Sky Cafe alongside a small airfield in Hunterdon County.
One of those on hand was former CD-7 congressman Leonard Lance, a Bashaw supporter.
Many in the crowd seemed to think Trump’s endorsement was not a fatal blow to Bashaw’s hopes,
Their overall point was that Bashaw, a hotel and inn owner/operator from Cape May, is simply a better bet to win the general election than Serrano Glassner, the mayor of Mendham Borough in Morris County.
And the consensus was that Trump is unlikely to help a Senate candidate win in November.
Fair point, but that avoids the possibility Trump can help someone win a primary.
Bashaw says he’s travelling around the state doing four or five events a day. He said it doesn’t matter if the crowds are not large; there were about 20 people on hand today. The key is for him to get his name and message out there.
Republicans still have the “county line” and Bashaw has a majority of county committee endorsements.
Issues always take a back seat in most primaries.
Bashaw recently visited the southern border near Yuma, Az. He talked of seeing people literally walking across the border from Mexico.
He also spoke about public schools keeping secrets from parents and ridiculed the president for talking about a good economy.
“It’s not (good) around the kitchen table,” he said.
His views notwithstanding, it’s doubtful if Serrano Glassner is going to quibble with Bashaw’s stated philosophy.
But the Serrano Glassner campaign has tried to say Bashaw is not a dependable Republican.
Bashaw calls these attacks “firebombs.”
And today, he stressed that he voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and that he will do so again in 2024.
A bit confidently, Bashaw also looked ahead to November.
“Andy Kim is not a strong candidate,” Bashaw said, pointing out that the presumed Democratic nominee leans to the left.
Bashaw also raised another point – disarray among Democrats.
The theory is that by beating Tammy Murphy – and by extension the party establishment, Kim has made no friends about party bosses.
It’s an interesting argument. Kim would counter that his success suggests the power of the bosses is not as substantial as some believe.
This is a debate for the fall.
More pressing is whether Trump’s endorsement will win the primary for Serrano Glassner.
She seems to think so.
The Mendham mayor is scheduled to attend a Toms River rally Wednesday night sponsored by the America First Republicans, a MAGA group.
This is Ocean County and just for the record, Bashaw has the county endorsement.
Andy Kim will mop the floor with whichever deluded nominee the gop decides upon
I agree, Andy Kim is just the better candidate, plus GOP has stopped supporting their best candidates and just let Trump randomly support his personal friends.
Bashaw is a Whitman, Christie Establishment Republican, who supported the ANTI-Trump candidate Chris Christie in the primary! He also has liberal Rockefeller Republicans like Mike Duhame and Jannette Hoffman advising him!
Trump ENTHUSIASTICALLY endorsed Glassner because he will need Senators who will support his agenda in his 2nd term. He doesn’t need another Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Lindsay Graham, or the likes of Curtis Bashaw in the Republican Senate!
LOL, the Liberal Establishment Leonard Lance endorsement speaks volumes of Bashaw! Birds of a feather flock together!
No TRUE MAGA Trump supporter could vote for Bashaw, but liberal Establishment Republicans could!
On June 4th, if you’re a MAGA supporter of Donald Trump, you’ll support Christine Serrano Glassner! CLEAR, CUT and DRY! Go MAGA! She can beat Lil’ Lib Kim!
Henry, you need to lay off the shrooms or whatever other hallucinogenic substance you’re taking.
LOL leftist attack personally when unable to refute what is being started. It’s a tired banal lib technique.
Henry, if too many Republicans think like you, R’s will not do well in November. The ONLY thing you should be thinking about is who has a better chance of beating Kim. Not doing so is what gets R’s into trouble. They get pulled into Trump’s world of tit for tat and don’t think strategically. Bashaw may not be perfect but he’d have a much better shot at beating Kim than Glassner would in this state. That is, unless MAGAs childishly refuse to vote for him because of his Christi connection. Either way, Kim will probably win in Nov – but it will be a slam-dunk if Glassner is the R nominee because Anti-Trump I’s and moderate R’s will just stick with Kim.