Right-wing Rock Star Durr Takes ‘Global Warming Hoax’ and Other Hits Statewide
FLORHAM PARK – Ed Durr is not the type to shy from a fight.
The Republican gubernatorial candidate from Salem County ventured to the Fairleigh Dickinson University campus Thursday afternoon and said he doesn’t believe in global warming and that individuals should be able to own just about any firearm they want.
This is nothing new for Durr, the truck driver who became a right-wing star when he upended Senate President Steve Sweeney in 2021, but his views drew some surprise looks – and some pushback – from an audience of about 50.
This was part of FDU’s “Gubernatorial Conversations,” a series of interviews with announced or presumed candidates for governor in 2025.
The host is FDU political science professor and pollster Peter Woolley.
Durr lost his re-election fight last fall to John Burzichelli and soon thereafter, announced a run for governor.
After some preliminary chit-chat about Durr’s background – he most famously spent very little money (comparatively) in beating Sweeney – Durr said he strongly opposes constructing windmills along the Jersey shore for wind energy. He prefers nuclear power.
That prompted an audience member to ask if he believed in global warming.
He said he did not, contending that some practitioners of climate change manipulate numbers to their advantage.
Another member of the crowd brought up the overwhelming consensus of scientists about how a warming planet is melting ice caps, increasing ocean temperatures and fueling more severe storms.
Durr was not persuaded, offering that he believes in some climate change.
“It’s called the four seasons,” he said.
The question and answer session moved to guns and some background is needed.
It was firearms – or rather Durr’s inability to get a concealed carry permit – that prompted his initial runs for office a few years before his 2021 victory. He said he could not understand why a law-abiding man like himself was prevented from getting one.
Things have changed somewhat because of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, but gun laws in New Jersey are still among the toughest in the nation.
Durr contended that every individual has the right of self-protection and mirroring the views of the NRA, said the best way to stop a bad person with a gun is with a good person with a gun.
He was asked if people should be allowed to have “machine guns” in their homes. They are illegal under federal law, but it was the point that counted.
Durr said he does not make a distinction among weapons and that people who carry firearms tend to be the most law-abiding people in society.
He said he would combat school shootings with armed guards in schools.
None of these views would raise eyebrows in very conservative circles.
But the practical problem for Durr – if he can get to the general election – is that they are not in line with a majority of New Jersey voters.
The session would not have been complete without Durr being asked about the abortion comment that was a big part of the campaign against him last year.
That was when he suggested before getting elected that women have the “choice” of keeping their legs closed.
“It was a very crass comment,” Durr said today, adding, “I’m not the same person I was seven years ago.”
But Durr said what he called his “rude” comment does not alter the fact he is pro-life.
Durr is one of four Republicans in the field so far. The others are Jack Ciattarelli, Jon Bramnick and Bill Spadea. whose views are similar to Durr’s.
Spadea, who hosts a radio show on 101.5, is involved in an unfolding drama of his own.
The state Election Law Enforcement Commission has scheduled a Friday hearing to consider whether Spadea’s show constitutes an improper “in-kind contribution.”
Durr offered his position:
“Where’s my equal time?”
Durr is a mental pygmy.
Global warming is a hoax. When I was taking environmental science courses in college back in the late 1970s, scientists were screaming “chicken little” that we were all going to freeze to death by 2000. Then in the late 1980s we were all going to burn to death because of the depletion of the ozone hole in the atmosphere (which has now closed). Then in the 1990s we were all going to die from overheating from “global warming”. When that moniker was debunked, it became the all-inclusive “CLIMATE CHANGE”–which is what the Sun does to our planet every day.
Global warming/CLIMATE CHANGE is the hoax of hoaxes. It is a multi-TRILLION dollar rip-off that World Economic Forum elitists and the Communist-Marxists running the EU and Washington D.C. are trying to become rich off of. So far, solar energy is a failure, wind energy is a failure, EV vehicles are a failure and are made in China (the biggest polluter of the environment and the largest contributor to any purported ‘GLOBAL WARMING’ allegedly occurring).
As for the ‘melting’ ice caps, the Arctic Ice sheet has increased dramatically over the past 10 years. If one really did any research they would find that the Arctic and Antarctic Ice caps ebb and flow in size every several years, as part of the Earth’s breathing.
Governor Phil KNUCKLEHEAD Murphy was hell-bent on getting windmill farms built off the NJ coast. Because it was uncovered that Murphy had huge financial ties to the foreign windmill company, and stood to make tens of millions of dollars. That failed when New Jerseyans pushed back, saw that it was environmentally unsound (as it was killing whales and dolphins due to the windmill company’s underwater sonar testing), and saw that it would be a disaster for the NJ shore tourism industry ($5 BILLION/YEAR) if people stopped going to the shore to see 400-foot windmills 10 miles offshore–ruining the beautiful ocean view.
With regard to the 2nd Amendment, the idiot who asked should people be allowed to have “machine guns” in their homes, knows that the laws do not allow common citizens to have “machine guns”–unless you purchase a special license, a special tax certificate, and have to pass several tests. But, then again, the anti-2nd Amendment, pro-gun confiscation crowd wouldn’t mind seeing government agents shooting innocent citizens or loading them on trucks in the middle of the night and carrying them off to concentration camps in the midwest or Alaska. This is what happens when you have gun control. It results in total gun confiscation, and then tyranny by the government over its people. (See Red China, North Korea, former Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Vietnam, Cambodia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.).
Toose that are clueless about the 2nd Amendment and what it stands for, are the real “useful idiots” and mental pygmies we New Jerseyans have to deal with.
Taxing people into oblivion will not solve the so called climate crisis. We can be good stewards of the planet without increased taxes or crises fear mongering.
Everything that occurs related to climate change.
So Tired of Fake Crisis
It’s Hot = Climate Change
It’s Cold = Climate Change
It’s Windy = Climate Change
It’s Raining = Climate Change
It’s Sunny = Climate Change
It’s Cloudy = Climate Change
There’s a Fire = Climate Change
There’s a Drought = Climate Change
Thomas Jefferson, or whatever TF your real name is get psychiatric help.
Another intelligent, thought provoking response.
Just wonderful.
Mr. Schnackberg, I believe you should get out your opinions, policing and positions to the public more often. Perhaps you should run for a local office in NJ.
Along with hearing your opinions, policies and positions on major issues, perhaps local Democrat organizations will assist you in running for office in NJ.
You should seriously consider running for an office and begin your fundraising.