Five men in our congressional delegation remain devoted to a candidate also endorsed by the K.K.K. Watch video
This is a pivotal moment in the American story, which is just one national brain cramp away from giving the nuclear codes to Donald Trump, so it is incumbent on New Jerseyans to know where their elected officials stand on the Republican Party's nominee for president.
The constituents of each district, above all, deserve to know whether their congressman supports a relentlessly ignorant vulgarian whose default positions include malice toward all and charity toward none.
The voters deserve to know which man up for reelection endorses someone with the temporal proximity to a roadside bomb, a candidate epically unprepared to hold any high public office, and one who pursues it with less deliberation than most of us would undertake to buy a sandwich.
New Jerseyans need to know whether their representatives approve of a Trump agenda that their districts will roundly reject on Election Day.
There are varying degrees of commitment from GOP members, of course.
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Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd Dist.) hung in there as a Trump acolyte for months, then bailed out after Locker Room Confidential, so his solution is to write in Mike Pence.
Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.) says he remains committed to Trump, because that's the promise he made to tribal lords at the convention, who apparently know what's best for his constituents.
Those are the extremes. The others in our delegation are wandering the electoral wilderness, ghostlike and plaintive, praying that nobody sees them until it's time to pull the levers on Nov. 8.
Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.) has chosen to shillyshally. He has condemned Trump's remarks about women as offensive and demeaning, but was mollified by what he interpreted as a Trump "apology." He has not withdrawn his support.
Tom MacArthur (R-3rd Dist.) apparently hasn't changed his opinion since he was seen at the convention waving pom-poms and proclaiming: "We need to win as a party. We need to elect Donald Trump."
Leonard Lance (R-7th Dist.) has called Trump "vulgar," but nothing has changed his level of devotion since he said in May that "Donald Trump will have my enthusiastic support for President."
Scott Garrett (R-5th Dist.) is the most irritating, because of his rhetorical gift as a mealy-mouthed opportunist.
After the vile hot mic episode, Garrett suggested that Pence "would be the best nominee" - which was irrelevant as to whether Trump has his support - and two days later, his campaign manager tried to clarify. "Garrett's position has been consistent from the beginning," she said. "He has always believed that Hillary Clinton is not the candidate whose leadership and policies are right for America."
Garrett subsequently told The Record that he supports Trump because of their common support for the Financial Choice Act, which essentially neuters banking reform measures. So apparently all it takes to run for reelection under the Trump Party banner is a mutual distaste of Wall Street regulations.
Eleven days from Waterloo, the Trump candidacy is a test of character that all but LoBiondo have failed. This is the man they've chosen to calibrate their values, set priorities, and, when necessary, offer dating tips.
Maybe during the primaries they deluded themselves into believing this was somebody else's candidate, somebody else's train wreck. But these leaders from New Jersey have chosen to stay with a tribe that subjugates their constituent interests - both parochial and national - and their denunciation of his moral defects rings hollow.
Supporting Trump is not political courage, it's political calculation: They need his fringe supporters to win their respective races. The polls say 80 percent of Republicans are going to vote for Trump.
Let these men who claim to represent New Jersey reap the whirlwind. Even if they make it out of this election cycle, this one's going to leave a mark. Their voters will always know their Congressman was tethered to a guy who was endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan.
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