Reply #5: Dem likes chances in House race

[Kire]

Dem likes chances in House race
GOP incumbent Scott Garrett faces Bergen County-based opponent.

Sunday, June 13, 2004

By KATHERINE BLOK
The Express-Times

After winning the Democratic nomination for Congress in a landslide, Anne Wolfe has her sight set on the big prize: defeating incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett in November.

Wolfe, the former chairwoman of the Bergen County Improvement Authority, won 83 percent of the primary against Sussex County businessman Frank Fracasso.

Garrett emerged the winner of a five-way Republican primary in 2002 and then took 60 percent of the general election vote in what some have called an upset over Democrat Anne Sumers.

Though Democratic Party officials from Washington and Trenton once thought Garrett was unbeatable, poll date shows that he is vulnerable, Wolfe said.

"The world is a different place than it was two years ago," Wolfe said. "Anne's race was an open seat. It also was not a presidential election. The war in Afghanistan was very different from the war in Iraq now. The economy is in a different place, drastically so, and people's concerns are in a different place."

While Sumers spent money on television and campaign advertisements, Wolfe said she will be "on the ground" and going door-to-door throughout the summer.

"We learned from all of the races two years ago, a lot of direct mail didn't address (voters') issues, it addressed what the people doing the direct mail thought the issues were," Wolfe said. "We're going to ask what people need. We'll be doing that this summer, then going back to people and responding to their issues."

So far, voters have highlighted property taxes, the cost of public education, the cost of health care, social security, drug costs for seniors and veterans benefits, Wolfe said.

More....
http://www.nj.com/news/expresstimes/nj/index.ssf?/base/news-5/108711751664000.xml