Whether the historically-Republican 11th District remains as such probably has as much to do with Donald Trump as it does Jay Webber.

That’s the inescapable conclusion as the race enters its final full week.

In an election cycle where the man at the top of the GOP ticket, senate candidate Bob Hugin, is quick to say he is “not” a Trump-Republican, Webber most certainly is acting as one.

This has not happened overnight.

Back in February, soon after Rodney Frelinghuysen bowed out of the race and while Webber was involved in a contested GOP primary, he said he likes a lot of what Trump does, but not some of his tweets. He since has said that if he gets to Congress, he will agree with the president when he thinks he’s right and disagree when he thinks he’s
wrong.

All fine and good. However, in recent weeks, it’s become hard to see where Webber thinks the president is wrong.

The dalliance with the White House began in August when Vice President Mike Pence dropped into the district for a Webber fundraiser. Just a week ago, Kellyanne Conway, one of the more visible personalities of the Trump administration, did likewise. A few days later, Webber was in Washington D.C. for a fundraiser attended by the president himself.

In the midst of all this, the president has offered two tweets in support of Webber.

But it’s more than that.

Instead of seeking to claim the middle, which is how races are normally won, Webber continues to push to the right.

From the start of the campaign, Webber’s views on immigration had leaned somewhat to the moderate side. He, for example, supports the so-called Dreamers.

Yet, last week in response to the caravan of migrants in southern Mexico, a Webber tweet – that could have been sent by the president himself –  blamed the Democrats, (who control nothing in Washington) and spoke of a “looming disaster.”

A looming disaster? All this rhetoric just because impoverished people are yearning to do what millions have done before them – come to the United States? As recent history shows, most of the people in the caravan will not be granted asylum even if they make it to the southern border.

Another issue surfaced the end of last week – the arrest of a man for sending apparent pipe bombs to prominent Democrats and Trump critics.

During the same week, Webber reported to police that he had gotten a letter threatening his family.

Late Friday, Webber released a statement criticizing Mikie Sherrill, his Democratic opponent.

Here it is.

“Mikie Sherrill’s politicization of this very serous crime is the exact type of divisive politics she pretends to oppose. Coming in the same week my family was threatened, and a week after Sherrill’s allies promised to ‘take me down,’ Sherrill’s comments are hypocritical, wildly irresponsible and beneath the office she seeks.”

I saw the statement and had no idea what he was talking about.

Sherrill, after all, had publicly condemned the threatening letter sent to Webber.

Then I recalled that earlier that day, Sherrill made general comments along the lines that Trump often uses divisive language about the press and that he missed an opportunity to unite the country. This was prior to the arrest of a suspect in the bombing case.

These were pretty tame comments.

The president, for his part, had complained about how the bombing may have sapped GOP momentum going into the midterm. He also suggested that anger in the country is the fault of – you guessed it – the mainstream media.

If that’s not politicizing a tragedy, it’s hard to see what is. But it apparently was not a time when Webber thought the president was doing something wrong.

So, one must ask, is tying yourself to the president – outlandish tweets and all – going to help Webber win?

A recent Monmouth University poll put Trump’s approval rating in the 11th district at 49 percent, which exceeds what it is across the state and even the nation.

But here’s the fine print. The poll found that 28 percent of respondents said Trump’s support for Webber would make them less likely to vote for the Republican. Only 15 percent said it would make them more likely.

You get the feeling Webber is looking only at the 49 percent number and doing all he can to turn out loyal Trump backers. At times it looks like he’s still trying to win a Republican primary.

In the last week, Webber has been on Fox and Friends twice. He also seems to be a regular of sorts on the morning program on 101.5 FM. This is a way to reach conservatives.

He turned down an invite to talk to the Star Ledger’s editorial board and boasted about it on his website. He was unlikely to get the paper’s endorsement, but that is not the point.

I actually have experience in such things. As a past editorial page editor and editorial writer for the Morristown Daily Record and Bergen Record, the best discussions were with candidates with whom we disagreed. But Webber bypassed a chance to engage.

At this point, we must come to Sherrill, who has been reluctant to sharply criticize Trump. This issue, in fact, came up at two recent press events, one of which was with state Senators Loretta Weinberg of Bergen County and Nia Gill of Essex County, both of whom had no qualms about lambasting the president.

Weinberg and Gill, of course, are in very-Democratic districts.

You get the feeling Sherrill is also looking at that 49 percant Trump approval rating in the district, which still has about 7,000 more Republicans than Democrats. So, not provoking the Trump base may be politically prudent.

But news always gets in the way. There was yet another mass shooting on Saturday; this time at a Pittsburgh synagogue by a man using a semi-automatic weapon.

This will – or at least should – refocus attention on our nation’s gun laws, or lack thereof on a federal level.

After all, there comes a time when the “thoughts and prayers” bromide must be superseded by real legislative action.

Webber and Sherrill already tangled over this issue at a debate in Wayne when the Republican bristled over the Democrat’s charge he only started voting for gun laws in the state Assembly when he began his congressional campaign.

Team Webber sent out a lengthy list of anti-gun bills that the Republican has supported long before he launched his congressional campaign.

Still, Sherrill’s views on gun control are stronger than Webber’s record.

And with a week or so to go, one must assume that the Sherrill campaign well remembers that at a forum in Hanover, Webber said the NRA is no different than any other public interest group.

Is that a campaign piece in the making? We’ll see.