New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, is expected to sign a bill into law that would allow illegal immigrants to obtain drivers’ licenses, according to reports.
The
bill headed to the governor’s desk Monday after it was approved in
separate votes in the New Jersey Assembly and Senate during the final
legislative session of the year. Murphy has not said when he plans to
sign the bill, but he had repeatedly asked the Democrat-led legislature to push it forward.
Immigrants
who gathered in Trenton, the state capital, to support passage of the
bill celebrated Monday at a local church, as seen in a video posted on
Twitter by Cosecha Movement, an immigrant advocacy group.
Supporters
argue the measure could increase safety because many immigrants without
legal documentation already drive without licenses and insurance.
“The
legislation advanced on the Assembly floor and by the Senate today is
fair and responsible,” Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, a Democrat, told
The Wall Street Journal. “It brings us one step closer to ensuring all
motor vehicles and drivers are insured, thereby creating safer roadways
for all New Jersey residents.” The legislation
would give illegal immigrants over age 16 the "Green Light" to obtain
driver's licenses and learners’ permits. Under the terms, foreign
documents such as passports or a driver's license can be submitted and
used in the application process. A Social Security number is not
required.
Thirteen states, including Delaware and New York, and
the District of Columbia permit immigrants without legal status to
obtain drivers licenses, according to the National Conference of State
Legislatures.
The
New Jersey bill also includes safeguards to protect the identities of
illegal immigrants from federal agencies – something critics say will
contribute to voter fraud and pose both a public safety and national
security risk.
“How does giving illegal immigrants, who we know
have already broken the law once, an official government document going
to make us safer?” Assemblyman Ron Dancer, a Republican, told the Journal.
“How
does giving illegal immigrants, who we know have already broken the law
once, an official government document going to make us safer?” — Assemblyman Ron Dancer, R-N.J.
Speaking
on "Fox & Friends" Tuesday, Acting Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) Secretary Chad Wolf said the legislation would restrict the
agency’s access to Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) data in federal
investigations.
"It's very similar to what we see with sanctuary
policies around the country that, again, are not protecting the
communities and the law enforcement officers trying to do their job[s],"
Wolf said. “And, that's really concerning from a 'protecting the
homeland' perspective."
The
legislation sets up a two-tiered driver’s license system. One license
would conform to federal REAL ID requirements that include proof of
legal residency. Another license would permit people without a legal
status to obtain a license.
Cosecha Movement celebrated the
legislation’s passage in New Jersey following a two-year campaign to
obtain the "right to drive without fear of ICE detention."
“This
legislation means that I can take my kids to school, go to work and go
to hospitals with peace of mind,” Caritina Hernandez, a Cosecha leader,
told Insider NJ.
“For many years, parents like me had to live our daily lives with fears
that we would be unjustly pulled over, fined, given court dates or even
worse, be separated from our families all because we are not allowed to
drive legally in NJ – this ends today.”
The
New Jersey bill was passed by the state legislature the same day New
York's law permitting illegal immigrants to obtain drivers’ licenses
took effect Monday. An inlfux of applicants flooded DMV offices across
the state as immigrants -- with documents in hand -- suddenly became
eligible to apply for licenses regardless of their U.S. citizenship
status. Fox News' Julia Musto, Fox Business' Audrey Conklin and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
A group of centrist Democrats
ejected Rep. Jeff Van Drew, D-N.J., from its ranks Tuesday, voting to
rescind his membership "indefinitely," as he is likely to switch over to
the GOP, a senior aide to the Blue Dog Coalition told Fox News.
Van Drew's ousting from the coalition follows the resignations of five aides from Van Drew's office Sunday. They said they could no longer work for the congressman as he looks to make the jump across the aisle.
"Sadly,
Congressman Van Drew's decision to join the ranks of the Republican
Party led by Donald Trump does not align with the values we brought to
this job when we joined his office," the aides wrote in a letter
addressed to Van Drew's chief of staff, Allison Murphy.
The
congressman told reporters Tuesday that the exodus of aides was dictated
to them by nameless officials who threatened that they would never hold
another position in the Democratic Party if they did not resign,
according to Politico.
“They were told to,” Van Drew claimed, adding: “They had to or they wouldn’t work again.”
Van
Drew didn't specify if he knew that any threats were made to the aides,
but said “it would be very hard for them to work” if they stayed with
him after he switched parties.
Deputy Chief of Staff Justin O'Leary, center, joins other top
aides to New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a House Democrat who plans to
switch and become a Republican, as leave their office after turning in
their joint letter of resignation, on Capitol Hill in Washington,
Monday, Dec. 16, 2019. (Associated Press)
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, who
reportedly has tried to convince Van Drew to join the GOP, said he has
sent some of his staffers to assist Van Drew temporarily as he deals
with the loss of personnel.
"We believe in helping people," McCarthy said, according to Roll Call.
The
Blue Dog Coalition told Fox News on Tuesday that it ousted the
congressman after reports he was considering switching political
parties.
“Per our by laws, which require all members to be a
member of the Democratic Party, Congressman Van Drew is no longer a
member of the Blue Dog Coalition,” Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., and
co-chair of the Coalition, told Fox News.
Van Drew has been one of only two Democrats to vote against formalizing the impeachment inquiry against
President Trump and has been an outspoken critic of the probe from the
start. The House is expected to vote on two articles of impeachment on
Wednesday.
The freshman represents a southern New Jersey district
that Trump carried in 2016 and was expected to face a difficult
reelection next year.
He
has not formally announced that he is switching parties, but has
instead said: "People kind of know that I'm going in a direction, but I
haven’t announced anything."
A New Mexico state senator was reportedly convicted on misdemeanor aggravated drunken driving and reckless driving charges Tuesday -- nearly six months after he rear-ended a driver stopped at a red light in the state.
Sen.
Richard Martinez, a Democrat, failed a field sobriety test and injured
himself and the two people in the other car in the June crash. He also
refused to take a breathalyzer test, The Albuquerque Journal reported. ARIZONA LAWMAKER ARRESTED FOR DUI, REPORTEDLY TELLS OFFICER, 'YOU'LL GET YOURS'
New Mexico state Sen. Richard Martinez, a Democrat, refused to
take a breathalyzer test after injuring himself and two people in
another car in a June DUI crash, authorities say.
(EspaƱola Police Department )
Martinez
has served in the state’s Senate since 2001 and previously said he would
not resign after his arrest. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
After
his conviction, top Democrats in the state said they would recommend
asking him to leave as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but
Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth and Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay
Papen said they would let Martinez or voters decide his fate in the
Senate. They said they would deliver their recommendation next month.
“The
defendant made the choice to drink. Second, he made the choice to drive
impaired. Third, the consequences,” Mark Probasco, a special prosecutor
with the state attorney general’s office said, according to The
Journal. “No one is above the law, not even a senator — not even this
defendant."
"The defendant made the choice to drink.
Second, he made the choice to drive impaired. Third, the consequences.
No one is above the law, not even a senator — not even this defendant." — Mark Probasco, special prosecutor with New Mexico state attorney general’s office
Martinez
originally told officers he had only “a beer or two,” but later
admitted he had multiple glasses of wine. His attorney claimed the crash
was an accident and said he failed the sobriety test because he was
dazed from hitting the windshield.
The officer who arrested Martinez said the senator was slurring his speech and had alcohol on his breath.
He faces up to 180 days in jail as he goes up for reelection next year.
A former Republican state senator in New Mexico was defeated last year after she was convicted for DUI in 2018, The Journal reported. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trump
on Wednesday will be far away from Capitol Hill -- and the Washington
establishment he has long criticized as an irredeemable "swamp" -- as
the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives prepares to impeach him in a likely party-line vote on charges of obstruction of Congress and abuse of power.
Instead, the president will be on friendly turf in downtown Battle Creek, Mich.,
hosting a rally that may rank among his most defiant -- a marked
contrast from the approach of former President Bill Clinton, who mostly
stayed under the radar during his own impeachment proceedings in 1998.
There
will be unusually tight security near the Capitol building in
Washington on Wednesday, Fox News was told, and some of those measures
were visible Tuesday night. House Democrats will convene to adopt the
rules for the impeachment debate shortly after 9 a.m. ET, followed by
six hours of debate evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats.
Some members will be afforded only one minute to speak, and no
amendments to the impeachment resolutions will be permitted.
The
final vote sequence will likely begin well into the evening hours, with
one vote held on each article of impeachment, Fox News was told.
The stage
was set late Tuesday night by the House Rules Committee, which approved
the procedures for Wednesday's impeachment proceedings in a 9-4
party-line vote after a marathon day of contentious hearings.
Wednesday "promises to be a long day," Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern, D-Mass., told reporters.
It
will likely end with Trump becoming just the third U.S. president ever
to be impeached -- a history-making development that Trump has said
reflects far worse on congressional Democrats than it does on him.
In a blistering, no-holds-barred six-page letter Tuesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,
Trump lambasted the Democrats' impeachment inquiry as an "open war on
American Democracy," writing that Pelosi has violated her oath of office
and "cheapened the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment!"
"Everyone,
you included, knows what is really happening," Trump said. "Your chosen
candidate lost the election in 2016, in an Electoral College landslide
(306-227), and you and your party have never recovered from this
defeat. So you have spent three straight years attempting to overturn
the will of the American people and nullify their votes. You view
democracy as your enemy!"
Conceding the House vote, Trump said he wanted to set his words down “for the purpose of history.”
"You
are the ones interfering in America's elections," Trump wrote. "You are
the ones subverting America's Democracy. You are the ones Obstructing
Justice. You are the ones bringing pain and suffering to our Republic
for your own selfish personal, political, and partisan gain." READ IT: TRUMP LETTER SAYS DEMOCRATS WANTED IMPEACHMENT FOR YEARS, CAN'T HANDLE 2016 ELECTION LOSS
A letter from President Trump to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is
seen Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2019, in Washington. (Associated Press)
Trump specifically hammered Pelosi for daring "to
invoke the Founding Fathers in pursuit of this election-nullification
scheme," and "even worse," for "offending Americans of faith by
continually saying 'I pray for the President,' when you know this
statement is not true, unless it is meant in a negative sense."
"It is a terrible thing you are doing," Trump added, "but you will have to live with it, not I!"
Concerning
the obstruction-of-Congress impeachment count, Trump attacked Democrats
for "trying to impeach the duly elected President of the United States
for asserting Constitutionally based privileges that have been asserted
on a bipartisan basis by administrations of both political parties
throughout our nation's history."
And, regarding the abuse-of-power charge, Trump noted that it was former Vice President Joe Biden who had "bragged" on video about having Ukraine's
allegedly corrupt prosecutor fired by threatening to withhold $1
billion in critical U.S. aid. But, House Republicans have been barred by
Democrats from calling witnesses that would help them make the case
that Trump's concerns about Ukraine corruption were legitimate.
"More
due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch trials,"
Trump wrote, observing that even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
has repeatedly said at the United Nations that he felt no pressure from the White House to conduct political investigations in exchange for military aid.
"More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch trials." — President Trump, to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
The
president argued that Democrats were trying to distract Americans from
the strong economy and historically low unemployment numbers, and
pointed out that Democrats have openly called for impeachment since the day he took office.
Michigan
Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Trump noted, announced that "We're going
to impeach the motherf---er" all the way back in January -- long before
Trump's mentioned Biden's possible corruption in a phone call with
Zelensky.
Democrats' persistent but unsubstantiated allegations
that the Trump campaign had conspired with Russians to influence the
2016 election, the president observed, ultimately "dissolved into dust,"
but not before the nation had to endure years of "turmoil and torment."
(Also on Tuesday, in a highly unusual public statement, the secretive
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court slammed the FBI for
its misleading warrant applications to surveil a former Trump aide
during the Russia probe, and demanded immediate corrective action.)
But
Pelosi, who warned earlier this year that impeachment would need to be
bipartisan, called Trump's letter "ridiculous." She reaffirmed that
Democrats would go ahead with impeachment, even though they lack any
Republican support in the House.
“Very sadly, the facts have made
clear that the President abused his power for his own personal,
political benefit and that he obstructed Congress,” Pelosi wrote to
colleagues. “In America, no one is above the law.”
One by one this
week, centrist Democratic lawmakers, including many first-term freshmen
who built the House majority and could risk their reelection in
districts where the president is popular, announced they would follow
Pelosi's lead and vote to impeach.
Polls have shown that Trump is now leading his top Democratic rivals, and that impeachment is actually helping Trump in key battleground states that might decide the 2020 election.
Nationally, a Fox News poll this week found that 50 percent of respondents want Trump impeached and removed from office, even as Trump's job approval ticked up.
Voters in swing districts have increasingly voiced their frustrations at heated town halls as their representatives have said they will support impeachment. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., who represents a district Trump won in 2016, pointedly ignored protesters as she backed impeachment at an event this week.
For
her part, Rep. Abby Finkenauer, D-Iowa, referred to the oath she took
in January as she was sworn into office as guiding her decision. She
announced support for both articles of impeachment to “honor my duty to
defend our Constitution and democracy from abuse of power at the highest
levels.”
One new Democratic congressman, Jared Golden of Maine,
said he would vote to impeach on abuse of power but not obstruction, in
an apparent effort to appease both sides on the issue.
And a
freshman Democrat, Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, is indicating he will
switch parties to become a Republican after opposing impeachment.
Earlier this year, Michigan conservative Rep. Justin Amash left the GOP
when he favored impeachment. Amash is now an independent.
A crowd gathers on Federal Plaza for a protest against President
Trump on the eve of a scheduled vote by the U.S. House of
Representatives on the two articles of impeachment against the
president, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2019, in Chicago. (Associated Press)
After Trump's likely impeachment by a majority vote in the House, attention will soon shift to the Senate, which,
under the Constitution, is required to hold a trial on the charges.
That trial is expected to begin in January, and a two-thirds vote would
be needed to convict Trump and remove him from office.
Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has embraced the partisan nature
of impeachment, dropping pretenses of fairness -- such as those adopted
by Democrats, which he has characterized as superficial and
transparently phony, even as they refused GOP witness requests, called
numerous hearsay witnesses, and introduced articles of impeachment that
do not track any criminal statute.
“I'm not an impartial juror,”
McConnell declared, saying that Democrats' procedures in the House were
exclusively one-sided. The Republican-majority chamber is all but sure
to acquit the president; McConnell has announced
that he intends to spend Wednesday confirming new federal judges to
lifetime appointments every two hours while Democrats are debating and
voting on impeachment.
“Impeachment
is a political decision,” McConnell said. "The House made a partisan
political decision to impeach. I would anticipate we will have a largely
partisan outcome in the Senate. I’m not impartial about this at all.''
McConnell struck back Tuesday at his Democratic counterpart's calls for an in-depth impeachment trial featuring multiple new witnesses, dismissing the push as a "fishing expedition" that would set a "nightmarish precedent."
"The Senate is meant to act as judge and jury, to hear a trial,
not to re-run the entire fact-finding investigation because angry
partisans rushed sloppily through it,” he said on the Senate floor.
"The
Senate is meant to act as judge and jury, to hear a trial, not to
re-run the entire fact-finding investigation because angry partisans
rushed sloppily through it.” — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., joined by Sen. Roy
Blunt, R-Mo., left, and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, dismisses the
impeachment process against President Trump, saying, "I'm not an
impartial juror. This is a political process," as he meets with
reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2019.
(Associated Press)
In a Sunday letter, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer
had called for the chamber to subpoena new documents and call witnesses
who had been blocked by the White House during the impeachment inquiry
on the House side.
McConnell claimed that such investigative
steps, though, were part of the House role -- not a mission for the
Senate. He warned that entertaining Schumer’s proposal to do House
lawmakers’ “homework” could invite a string of future “dubious” and
“frivolous” impeachment inquiries.
He stressed the fact-finding
mission should have been completed during the impeachment inquiry led by
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff,
D-Calif. McConnell accused the House of doing a rush job, and said
Schumer is now looking "to make Chairman Schiff's sloppy work more
persuasive."
Even after voting to impeach Trump, the House still
would need to vote formally to send the impeachment articles to the
Senate. In 1998, the House approved the resolution to send the articles
to the Senate about 10 minutes after the House voted to impeach
then-President Bill Clinton. But, Democrats might delay sending the
articles to the GOP-held Senate this time around, in a bid to influence
the proceedings there.
Such
an unprecedented move, however, would likely only further inflame
Republicans and moderates who have already looked with skepticism on the
impeachment proceedings.
"The allegations against the President
are incredibly, incredibly serious," Virginia Democratic Rep. Abigail
Spanberger, who flipped a GOP seat in 2018, told constituents this week.
A constituent quickly retorted: "They're incredible bulls--t." Fox News' Chad Pergram, Adam Shaw, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) —
House leaders unveiled a $1.4 trillion government-wide spending package
with an unusually large load of unrelated provisions catching a ride on
the last train out of Congress this year.
A
House vote was slated for Tuesday on the sprawling package, some 2,313
pages long, as lawmakers wrap up reams of unfinished work — and vote on
impeaching President Donald Trump.
The
legislation would forestall a government shutdown this weekend and give
Trump steady funding for his U.S.-Mexico border fence. The year-end
package is anchored by a $1.4 trillion spending measure that caps a
difficult, months-long battle over spending priorities.
The
mammoth measure made public Monday takes a split-the-differences
approach that’s a product of divided power in Washington, offering
lawmakers of all stripes plenty to vote for — and against. House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was a driving force, along with administration
pragmatists such as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who negotiated
the summertime budget deal that it implements.
Trump
hasn’t said for sure that he’ll sign the measure. He invariably has
second thoughts, but he’s not interested in another government shutdown
and has always bowed to Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell, R-Ky., when they’ve teamed up on compromise spending
packages.
Retired
coal miners and labor union opponents of Obama-era taxes on high-cost
health plans came away with big wins in weekend negotiations by top
congressional leaders and the Trump White House. The bill would also
increase the age nationwide for purchasing tobacco products from 18 to
21, and offers business-friendly provisions on export financing, flood
insurance and immigrant workers.
The
roster of add-ons grew over the weekend to include permanent repeal of a
tax on high-cost “Cadillac” health insurance benefits and finance
health care and pension benefits for about 100,000 retired union coal
miners threatened by the insolvency of their pension fund. A tax on
medical devices and health insurance plans would also be repealed
permanently.
The
deficit tab for the package grew as well — almost $400 billion over 10
years to repeal the three so-called “Obamacare” taxes alone — with a
companion package to extend several business-friendly tax breaks still
under negotiation. The Obama-era taxes have previously been suspended on
a piecemeal basis.
The
legislation is laced with provisions reflecting divided power in
Washington. Republicans maintained the status quo on several
abortion-related battles and on funding for Trump’s border wall.
Democrats controlling the House succeeded in winning a 3.1 percent raise
for federal civilian employees and the first installment of funding on
gun violence research after more than two decades of gun lobby
opposition.
The
sweeping legislation, introduced as two packages for political and
tactical purposes, is part of a major final burst of legislation that’s
passing Congress this week despite bitter partisan divisions and
Wednesday’s likely impeachment of Trump. Thursday promises a vote on a
major rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement, while the
Senate is about to send Trump the annual defense policy bill for the
59th year in a row.
The
core of the spending bill is formed by the 12 annual agency
appropriations bills passed by Congress each year. It fills in the
details of a bipartisan framework from July that delivered about $100
billion in agency spending increases over the coming two years instead
of automatic spending cuts that would have sharply slashed the Pentagon
and domestic agencies.
The
increase in the tobacco purchasing age to 21 also applies to
e-cigarettes and vaping devices and gained momentum after McConnell
signed on.
Other add-ons include a variety of provisions sought by business and labor interests and their lobbyists in Washington.
For
business, there’s a seven-year extension of the charter of the
Export-Import Bank, which helps finance transactions benefiting U.S.
exporters, as well as a renewal of the government’s terrorism risk
insurance program. The financially troubled government flood insurance
program would be extended through September, as would several visa
programs for both skilled and seasonal workers.
Labor
won repeal of the so-called Cadillac tax, a 40% tax on high-cost
employer health plans, which was originally intended to curb rapidly
growing health care spending. But it disproportionately affected
high-end plans won under union contracts, and Democratic labor allies
had previously succeeded in temporary repeals.
Democrats
controlling the House won increased funding for early childhood
education and a variety of other domestic programs. They also won higher
Medicaid funding for the cash-poor government of Puerto Rico, which is
struggling to recover from hurricane devastation and a resulting
economic downturn.
While
Republicans touted defense hikes and Democrats reeled off numerous
increases for domestic programs, most of the provisions of the spending
bill enjoy bipartisan support, including increases for medical research,
combating the opioid epidemic, and Head Start and childcare grants to
states.
Democrats
also secured $425 million for states to upgrade their election systems,
and they boosted the U.S. Census budget $1.4 billion above Trump’s
request. They won smaller increases for the Environmental Protection
Agency, renewable energy programs and affordable housing.
“We
are scaling up funding for priorities that will make our country safer
and stronger and help hardworking families get ahead,” said House
Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.
The
outcome in the latest chapter in the longstanding battle over Trump’s
border wall awards Trump with $1.4 billion for new barriers — equal to
last year’s appropriation — while preserving Trump’s ability to use his
budget powers to tap other accounts for several times that amount.
That’s a blow for liberal opponents of the wall but an acceptable
trade-off for pragmatic-minded Democrats who wanted to gain $27 billion
in increases for domestic programs and avert the threat of simply
funding the government on autopilot.
Because
dozens of Democrats might vote against the border wall, Pelosi is
pairing money for the Department of Homeland Security with the almost
$700 billion Pentagon budget, which is guaranteed to win GOP votes to
offset Democratic defections.
The
coal miners’ pension provision, opposed by House GOP conservatives like
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., had the backing of Trump and
powerful Senate GOP Leader McConnell and Trump. Sen. Joe Manchin,
D-W.Va., was a dogged force behind the scenes and said the other leaders
rolled the House GOP leader, who also lost a behind-the-scenes battle
with Pelosi on parochial California issues.
“Something
had to be done and we finally got Mitch McConnell to sign onto the
bill,” Manchin said. “But we could not move McCarthy. Then finally we
just had to move forward and they did it.”
In
this file photo from Jan. 3, 2019, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, D-N.J., arrives
for a classified briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington. Van Drew, a
Democrat who plans to switch and become a Republican, has said he plans
to vote this week against impeaching President Donald Trump.The freshman
represents a southern New Jersey district that Trump carried in 2016
and was expected to face a difficult reelection next year. (AP Photo/J.
Scott Applewhite, file)
WASHINGTON
(AP) — The political fate of party-switching Rep. Jeff Van Drew may
well hinge on how forcefully he is backed by President Donald Trump,
whose impeachment the New Jersey lawmaker is refusing to support.
With the House set for a near party-line vote impeaching Trump this week,
the longtime Democrat told his staff two days ago that he will become a
Republican, a former aide said Monday. Underscoring the partisan
animosity that the impeachment fight has spawned, at least six of Van Drew’s top aides promptly quit.
Now,
the 66-year-old former state legislator, who’s been a political
powerhouse in his southern New Jersey district, must figure out how to
survive a race in which local Democrats now despise him and Republicans
don’t want him elbowing them aside.
His
race will also test the electoral impact of his party switch on the
face of the impeachment showdown, which has sharply divided the two
parties. In recent years, congressional party switchers have had mixed
records extending their careers.
Trump
met with Van Drew last week and has complimented him on Twitter for his
“honesty.” With impeachment on the horizon, Trump praised the
congressman again early Tuesday. “Congressman Jeff Van Drew is very
popular in our great and very united Republican Party,” the president
wrote. “It was a tribute to him that he was able to win his heavily
Republican district as a Democrat. People like that are not easily
replaceable!
One
rival for the GOP nomination for the seat says he’s been told Trump
will endorse Van Drew. While there’s been no word on whether Trump will
help Van Drew win the GOP nod in next June’s primary or aid him during
next November’s general election, analysts say Trump’s backing will be
crucial.
“Whatever
trouble in the Republican primary Jeff Van Drew might have goes away
when Donald Trump throws his arm around the guy,” said Ben Dworkin,
director of the nonpartisan Rowan Institute for Public Policy &
Citizenship in Glassboro, New Jersey.
Van
Drew’s general election prospects will depend on factors including how
liberal the Democratic presidential nominee and the Democrat seeking the
House seat are. His district has become increasingly conservative, with
Trump carrying it narrowly in 2016 after Barack Obama won it in 2008
and 2012.
“I
think Van Drew would be the early favorite, assuming Trump helps him get
the nomination,” said Patrick Murray, director of the nonpartisan
Monmouth University Polling Institute.
Van Drew did not return phone calls and text messages seeking comment.
Van
Drew’s defection to the GOP got a thumbs-up Monday from Cheryl McCleary
as she waited tables at a luncheonette in Surf City, on New Jersey’s
Long Beach Island.
“I
appreciate the fact that he’s staying true to his conscience,” said
McCleary, an independent voter. “If you feel like you’re not in touch
with your party on key issues, it’s a good thing to switch.”
Van
Drew’s decision came after a poll by his campaign showed that by 2-1
margins, voters in his district preferred alternatives to him in the
primary and general election. The poll was provided by a senior
Democratic aide.
“This
is a guy who cut and ran away from the Democratic Party to protect his
own skin,” said David Richter, former CEO of a global construction firm
who’s seeking the GOP nomination.
Richter said local GOP officials have told him Trump will back Van Drew, but says he thinks he can still defeat him.
“Anybody
who runs on the Republican side is against the impeachment. I’m against
the impeachment,” Richter said. “That’s not enough. You also have to be
someone who has integrity. You also have to be someone who stood up for
Republican principles their whole lives.”
Van Drew, a former dentist, was a conservative state senator before he
joined Congress, bucking Democrats on issues including gun control and
gay marriage.
In
his first year in Congress, Van Drew was among a handful of Democrats
who voted against Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., becoming speaker. He and
Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson were the only two Democrats who voted in
October against starting the impeachment inquiry, and both were expected
to oppose impeachment this week, with perhaps a handful of others.
Overall,
Van Drew has voted with Trump 7 percent of the time, according the data
tracking website fivethirtyeight.com. That’s one of the higher scores
among House Democrats, and far beneath the lowest loyalty score for any
Republican, which was 35 percent.
New Jersey Democrats were already bidding him good riddance.
“It’s
certainly not a profiles in courage award that he gets,” Sen. Bob
Menendez, D-N.J., said in an interview. He said he believed Van Drew was
switching because his anti-impeachment vote would have cost him the
Democratic Party’s endorsement next year.
“Congressman
Van Drew has long voted against core Democratic values,” Democratic
Gov. Phil Murphy said in a tweet. “Betraying our party by siding with
Donald Trump is the final straw.”
Montclair
State University political science Professor Brigid Harrison, who
declared Monday that she would seek the Democratic nomination for Van
Drew’s seat, called Van Drew “a blind pawn for Donald Trump.”
After
Republicans captured the House majority in 1994, five Democrats
switched to the GOP, including two who lost their next elections. But
Rep. Billy Tauzin of Louisiana joined the GOP leadership and became a
committee chairman while Georgia Rep. Nathan Deal was elected governor.
“They
were more than happy for us to leave,” former Rep. Mike Parker of
Mississippi said of his former Democratic colleagues in an interview.
In 1999, five House Democrats backed impeaching President Bill Clinton. Three of them eventually switched to the GOP.
Among
the most recent party switchers was Rep. Parker Griffith, D-Ala., who
joined the GOP in 2009. He lost the Republican nomination for his seat
the following year.
Conservative
Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan left the GOP and became an independent
this year after saying he was open to impeaching Trump. His prospects
for reelection next year are unclear.
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Associated Press writers Michael Catalini in Trenton and Wayne Parry in Surf City, New Jersey, contributed to this report.