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BY MICHAEL OLOHAN
OF PASCACK PRESS
PASCACK VALLEY AREA, N.J.—Democratic U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer won a second two-year term Nov. 6, defeating Republican John McCann by grabbing 55.2 percent of district voters to McCann’s 43.5 percent, 148,021 votes to 116,505, in a district that favored President Donald Trump in 2016.
As well, Rep. Tom Reed (NY-23), Gottheimer’s fellow co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, was re-elected.
On Nov. 9, Gottheimer announced he had contributed to and/or raised $1.5 million for more than 50 Democratic candidates and members of Congress. He supported Problem Solvers-minded candidates, current Problem Solver Caucus members, and other moderate members and candidates for Congress.
“I believe that politics is a team sport, and I am proud to have been able to help elect and re-elect candidates and members of Congress committed to working across the aisle to break the gridlock and move our country forward,” he said in a press release. “I am grateful and honored to have been re-elected to my second term in Congress, and eager to partner with my newly elected colleagues find a bipartisan path on many of the most pressing issues facing our country.”
Gottheimer made headlines two years ago when he defeated longtime Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett in North Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District, a seat previously controlled by Republicans for 74 years. The 5th District includes all of Warren County and parts of Bergen, Passaic and Sussex counties.
Gottheimer’s re-election to the House was seen as part of a political backlash against Trump, with Democratic candidates sweeping four of five key New Jersey Congressional races, including Mikie Sherrill beating Jay Webber in District 11; Tom Malinowski defeating Leonard Lance in District 7; and Andy Kim knocking off Tom MacArthur in District 3.
A Wyckoff resident, Gottheimer viewed as a moderate Democrat, and has worked with Republicans to support tougher penalties for deported gang members and criminals who enter the U.S. illegally, and also strongly advocated for a New Jersey law that would allow local charitable trusts to enable taxpayers to deduct state and local taxes that exceed the $10,000 deduction cap imposed by Trump’s 2018 tax reform act.
The federal tax law deduction was viewed by many public officials—including Gottheimer, Gov. Phil Murphy and state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal—as political retribution against so-called “blue states” that did not vote for Trump in 2016.
Throughout his campaign, Gottheimer, 43, a former Clinton speechwriter and Microsoft executive, portrayed himself as a centrist deal-maker who works easily with members of both parties while McCann blamed Gottheimer for voting for Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi to be house speaker in 2016, something Gottheimer hinted he’s likely to oppose now.
McCann, an Oakland resident and former Cresskill councilmember, focused on taxes, health care and immigration throughout the campaign. An attorney who serves as special counsel to Bergen County Sheriff’s Office, he advises sheriffs across New Jersey on legal and policy issues.
“Two years ago, they said it was impossible. That we couldn’t win here. The odds were too long, the ads too expensive, the District simply too partisan. Then, together, we proved them wrong. Handshake by handshake, call by call, living room by living room, diner by diner, vote by vote, you, all of you, bucked the national trend and we defeated a seven-term Tea Party extremist [Garrett],” Gottheimer said Nov. 6 following his re-election.
“Tonight’s victory is a clear win for all those in the common-sense middle and for the values we hold so dear. Now it’s our time to bind up our nation’s wounds. It’s our time to come together, and move forward, remembering that extremism, on either side, holds our country back,” Gottheimer said.
“Division isn’t the answer. Neither is obstruction for the sake of it, or attacking success, and old-time class warfare. Now, more than ever, we must work together, united, as one nation under God, to solve the challenges we face and seize upon the opportunities ahead,” he told an audience of campaign workers and supporters.
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