N.J. GOP Senate candidates swarm right

MADISON, N.J. - In the contest to prove who is the most conservative of the three Republican U.S. Senate candidates, there was no clear winner at their first debate last night.

But they tried their best to take a hard line on taxes and terrorism and abortion in hopes of getting the attention of Republican June 3 primary voters, who tend to be more conservative than those who vote only in general elections.

Former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer told the audience of about 100 gathered at Fairleigh Dickinson University's library that he was consistently named a "taxpayer's hero" by antitax groups when he served in Congress from 1991 to 1996.

When it came to a question on what he'd do about homeland security, he said: "We could see the Twin Towers burn from our state. We lost friends, relatives and first responders in 911. And we know that what we have to do is seek out the people who mean to kill us, track them down, and destroy them."

Murray Sabrin, who ran for governor as a Libertarian in 1997, spent much of the evening telling the students, teachers and community guests that he'd return the government to its bare essentials and let the free market run its course.

He said Washington bureaucrats "shuffle paper and take our money and run it round the bureaucracy and give us 50 cents on the dollar. It's called a rip-off."

And State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio, a Morris County dentist, said that "Iraq has to step up" and use its oil money to finance its own security.

The GOP primary winner will face either Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg or U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews of Camden County in the fall.

Each of the three said they would cut government spending by stripping pork-barrel projects out of the federal budget, and each zeroed in on farm subsidies.

Reaching into the past, Zimmer told the audience that when he served in Congress in the 1990s, he cut a farm subsidy that he would have been eligible for, a subsidy on wool and mohair. Zimmer owns a sheep farm in Hunterdon County.

Sabrin one-upped him by saying he would cut the entire Department of Agriculture as well as a half-dozen other agencies. Pennacchio, not to be out-conservatived, said he'd eliminate subsidies to corn and tobacco.

The candidates also addressed abortion.

In response to an audience member's question, Zimmer acknowledged that he had voted against a ban on partial-birth abortions while in Congress. However, he said, he changed his position after leaving the House and wrote an opinion piece in a local newspaper asking Congress to impose a partial-birth abortion ban.

Pennacchio and Sabrin, who oppose abortion rights, had less complicated positions.

Sabrin said: "It is indefensible to do what a late-term abortion does and call it a woman's choice."

Pennacchio said: "I don't need a court to tell me that late-term abortions are infanticide."

The candidates had their best lines when asked a hypothetical question: If presumptive GOP presidential candidate and Arizona U.S. Sen. John McCain lost the presidential race in November, would they be more comfortable serving with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York or Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois?

"Do I prefer getting hit by a truck or a bus? That's what you're asking me," Sabrin said.

Pennacchio couldn't even give an answer. "I'm putting all my faith in McCain so your scenario doesn't come to pass," he said.

Zimmer postulated that Clinton and Obama have descended to personal attacks because they have so many similar views on the issues.

"I really can't distinguish between the two on policy. It seems to be all about style in the Democratic Party," he said.

Despite Sabrin and Pennacchio's earnest performances last night and elsewhere around the state, less than 20 percent of the state's Republican voters know who they are, according to a poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind polling institute, which sponsored last night's debate. No independent pollster has released results on Zimmer, who jumped into the race a few days ago.

With so little recognition among voters, the candidates are hoping their paid advertising campaigns as well as support from county political machines will help them win the June 3 primary and become the first Republican to win a U.S. Senate seat for the state since 1972.

So far, Zimmer has the support of nine county Republican machines. Pennacchio has seven and claims strong support in two others that do not endorse candidates. Sabrin has support from the Gloucester County GOP.