Dunec Speaks: Livingston Dem Explains His Webber Endorsement
It’s been about two days since onetime Democratic Congressional candidate Mark Dunec endorsed Republican Jay Webber.
Dunec said in a phone conversation on Wednesday that his endorsement prompted about 150 emails.
Over two days?
“No, in two hours,” Dunec said.
He said a lot of the electronic messages were negative and that he was called a “traitor” and a “phony.” But he said a few people wanted a civilized discussion on why he endorsed Webber and not Mikie Sherrill, the party’s District 11 standard-bearer. After all, Dunec ran in the district as a Democrat just four years ago.
Dunec said his views have not changed in four years, but he thinks the Democratic Party has.
“Democrats are being controlled by the fringe,” he said.
By that, Dunec means that nationally, Democrats have veered too far left, and that some in the party have expressed anti-Israeli views.
This is an overly complicated subject to be sure. Keep in mind that many people who express so-called anti-Israeli views are Israelis themselves. Israel is a democracy and as such, there is constant debate in Israel itself among the wisdom of Israeli settlements in
occupied territories and how real peace can be obtained.
Nonetheless, Dunec said he’s convinced Webber is a strong supporter of Israel.
How about Sherrill?
Here is where things get interesting.
Dunec said he’s seen no evidence of Sherrill ever making an anti-Israeli statement. But Dunec said he’s troubled by what he says is her silence on the issue.
“She should be unwavering in her support for Israel,” Dunec said. And in his mind, she has not been.
Are there differences here?
Webber does support moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, which pleases conservatives in both the United States and Israel. Sherrill said in a interview a few weeks back that a decision on the move should have been done more thoughtfully.
It is true that Congress long has backed moving the embassy to Jerusalem. But until now, no president of either party has supported the move.
Broadly speaking, here is Sherrill’s website entry on national security, “Our partnership with Israel is instrumental to global security and has helped pioneer incredible discoveries that have changed the face of technology, homeland security, medicine, clean energy and agriculture. In Congress, I will work to ensure that our long-standing relationship with Israel remains strong.”
As for Webber, his website says the following in regard to Israel: “Israel has been a staunch defender of freedom and democracy in the Middle East and the strongest ally of the United States in the region. The United States and Israel share the objectives of defeating terrorism and preventing nuclear build-up in the Middle East.”
Differences, like beauty, apparently lie in the eye of the beholder.
I have known Mark Dunec since early 2014 when I joined his Congressional campaign to lead digital communications. Like everyone I know who spent countless hours as staff and volunteers working to try to get Mark elected to replace Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen, I was both shocked and deeply disappointed by his recent endorsement and his continuing support Republican Jay Webber in the current NJ-11 race.
However, the events of this week have made it very clear that Mark Dunec is a liar and a phony. Prior to his joint announcement with the Jay Webber campaign, Mark wrote me via email to me that he would not be actively campaigning for Jay Webber. That was clearly a lie. Also, he said that the main reason that he supports Webber over Mikie Sherrill was that, “The mainstream Democratic Party has embraced socialism which is so foreign to me”. He never even mentioned Israel as his reason for supporting Jay Webber. By the way, Israel is more socialist than the U.S.
Mark Dunec also told me that he supports Democrat Bob Menendez over Republican Bob Hugin. Somebody, please ask Mark Dunec how Mikie Sherrill is more “socialist” than Bob Menendez? I asked him and he declined to answer that, or even to point out any of Mikie Sherrell’s positions that he considers “socialist”. Neither Menendez or Sherrill are socialists.
With Mark Dunec’s endorsement and continuing public support of right-wing extremist Jay Webber he has made it crystal clear that he never really believed in ANY of the issues that he ran on in 2014, other than his views on the issue of U.S. relations with Israel. He is truly a one-issue guy and an opportunist. Nobody should take what Mark Dunec says seriously from now on, and I believe that NJ-11 voters are too smart to fall for his self-serving shenanigans.