McCarthy Invited to Kean Campagn Kickoff as ‘Special Guest’
Moderate Republicans are abuzz behind the scenes and some of them irritated by a Kean Campaign decision to invite House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy as a special guest to Tom Kean’s scheduled kickoff.
Three sources described receiving invitations with the inclusion of special guest McCarthy.
“Outrageous,” fumed a Kean, Sr. era ally of the successful New Jersey political family, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Kean is formally launching his 2022 bid later this month – reportedly on July 14th – for the CD-7 seat currently occupied by U.S. Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-7) ($821K cash on hand).
Kean came close to beating Malinowski last year (49-50%) and is hoping for some redistricting help (perhaps the removal of Democratic-heavy Milburn from the 7th) in addition to the pendulum swinging away from President Joe Biden in the coming midterm election.
Democrats are eager to tie young Kean to Trump, and the presence of the controversial and Trump appeasing McCarthy, sources say, will give them that opportunity.
CNN reported Wednesday morning that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has given up
on the notion of boycotting the select investigative committee created by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Instead, he plans to recommend some GOP members for the panel. But the idea isn’t to help get to the bottom of what happened during the attack on Jan. 6 — it’s to create a “counternarrative” so that Republicans don’t get all the blame for a problem that we already know was created by a Republican president, Donald Trump, and enabled by GOP stalwarts like McCarthy himself. He reportedly hopes to pin some responsibility on Pelosi for failing to do more to secure the Capitol.
When he first ran for the seat in 2018, Malinowski had his own leadership association woes to confront, as he ultimately stared down then Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance’s (R-7) attempt to brand him a liberal instrument of once and future Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Yeah, Pelosi’s committee will be real bipartisan, I’m sure we can count on that. Trump told no one to storm the capitol, and you know it. Same with the Charlottesville “some fine people on both sides” lie. And then quote CNN, seriously? Keep repeating it long enough, and loud enough….Uncle Joe Goebbels would be so proud.
As for Malinowski, 2020 was a very tight race. Obviously a lot of people sitting on the fence. Which will they remember more in 2022; Kevin McCarthy coming to town, or Malinowski’s stock trades/ethics issues?