Democrat Josh Gottheimer appeared in Jersey City to blast his Republican opponent, Rep. Scott Garrett.
JERSEY CITY -- Josh Gottheimer, the Democrat seeking to unseat Rep. Scott Garrett in New Jersey's 5th Congressional District this fall, appeared at Exchange Place this morning to attack Garrett as a "coward" for not supporting federal legislation backed by families of 9/11 victims and first responders.
Flanked by a group that included the widow of a pilot whose plane was hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center 15 years ago, Gottheimer tore into his Republican opponent and vowed to wage a more aggressive war on terrorists around the globe if he is elected in November.
Standing on the waterfront with One World Trade Center as a backdrop, the 41-year-old Wyckoff Democrat called Garrett "the walking definition of weak on terror" and accused him of hewing to his conservative views at the expense of his constituents.
"Scott Garrett is a coward who would rather put Americans at risk than risk his perfect Tea Party record," said Gottheimer, a former speechwriter for Bill Clinton.
Garrett's campaign responded by saying the remarks made by Gottheimer and his surrogates today are offensive lies.
"Scott has fought for our first responders and he has opposed efforts to politicize their struggles," Robert Knapp, a former Oakland volunteer fire chief, said in a statement.
Gottheimer has ratcheted up his criticism of Garrett regarding the 9/11 attacks, sparked by a press release Garrett issued last week touting his co-sponsorship of a federal bill named for James Zadroga, a New York City police detective who is believed to be the first 9/11 responder to die of exposure to toxins at the World Trade Center wreckage site. The law assists emergency workers sickened by the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath.
Garrett ended up voting against a reauthorization of the Zadroga Act, saying his no vote came because the reauthorization was included in a "bloated" omnibus spending bill he opposed.
Zadroga's father, Joe, stars in an ad for Gottheimer and appeared alongside the congressional hopeful today, as did Ellen Saracini, the widow of Victor Saracini, the captain of the plane that was flown into the south tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11. Jaime Hazan, an EMT who assisted in the cleanup effort after the towers collapsed, also appeared alongside the Congressional candidate.
Saracini has been pushing for a federal law requiring a barrier to cockpit doors -- a second door that would create a secure vestibule when pilots need to exit the cockpit -- but the legislation has stalled in Congress. The bill is opposed by an airline industry trade group, which says the decision on including barriers should be left to the airlines. Garrett is not one of the bill's 81 co-sponsors.
9/11 hijackers would not have been able to access the planes' cockpits if there had been barriers present, Saracini said today. She noted that you can find barrier doors at dog parks to keep dogs from escaping.
"We have this courtesy that we offer dogs in America," she said.
The 5th District, which includes parts of Bergen, Passaic, Sussex and Warren counties, is a reliably Republican district that Democrats targeted aggressively two years ago.
In response to today's Gottheimer event, Garrett's campaign offered three statements from Garrett surrogates who praised the congressman and blasted his opponent. Assemblyman Parker Space, R-Sparta, a former fire chief for Wantage, called Garrett "a champion" for men and women in uniform.
"Any suggestion otherwise is a shameful smear manufactured to score cheap political points," Space said in the statement. "As a third generation firefighter, I'm deeply offended by the lies cooked up by some Washington, D.C., political operatives in a ploy to obscure the truth here in New Jersey."
Garrett was first elected to Congress in 2002.
Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.