State Sen. Jeff Van Drew has a new opponent in his bid to take over the U.S. House seat in his district. You won't see David Hogg's name on any local election ballot in June or November, but some engaged voters know he's around.
Hogg is an outspoken young survivor of the Parkland (Fla.) High School mass shooting in February, in which 17 people, most of them Hogg's classmates, were killed. How Van Drew caught the attention of a South Florida student activist is unclear, but the reason is not: the conservative Democrat state senator's high marks from the National Rifle Association.
Hogg recently tweeted: "Remember both Democrats and Republicans take #NRABloodMoney. Just look at New Jersey state senator @JeffVanDrew, he's a Democrat with An A rating for the NRA."
Van Drew is widely considered the front-runner for the 2nd District U.S. House seat that longtime Republican incumbent Frank LoBiondo will give up at year's end. In truth, the state senator from Cape May would likely be more amenable to sensible federal gun reforms than LoBiondo, whose initial foray into Congress was heavily financed by the NRA.
Yet, if Van Drew no longer stands with the NRA, he hasn't run away too hard or too fast. He says he last took NRA contributions 10 years ago, and he'll refuse them now. His problem is that standing with the NRA today is taken to mean opposing no-loophole-whatsoever background checks, supporting virtually unlimited access to rapid-fire weapons, and allowing people on "no-fly" lists to keep buying guns. In the age of Parkland, that's a view that's out of step with what most Americans want.
Van Drew seems to want it both ways. It's widely believed that the state Senate held up voting on any substantial new gun measures until after the June primary, so that Van Drew's votes on them won't be recorded while he's facing a trio of more progressive Democrats for the congressional nomination.
Van Drew has also portrayed himself as a Capitol dealmaker, stating "As a supporter of the Second Amendment, I feel that I'm uniquely the right voice we need in Congress to find common sense agreement combatting gun violence and break the dysfunction in Washington."
That's smart positioning, but don't label Van Drew as the best hope for real reform before studying U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin III, the West Virginia Democrat who rode into office with a gun-toting 2010 commercial that effectively separated him from President Barack Obama.
When, in 2013, Manchin backed some limited background check controls with Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., the NRA treated the Democrat as a traitor. The legislation failed famously. The pair briefly revived it this year, post-Parkland. It went nowhere again, this time partly because of on-and-off support from President Donald Trump.
Given huge Democratic organization support, his financially challenged primary rivals, and an all-but-invisible GOP campaign, odds are high that Van Drew will be going to Washington in January. Influencers like David Hogg, as well as active young people who live within the district, and anyone else who wants to see gun violence curbed, need to keep flushing Van Drew out of his too-comfortable corner.
When the full electorate votes on Nov. 6, Van Drew should have been coaxed into saying exactly what he will, and what he won't, vote for in Washington. Does he have unique ideas of his own? A strategy to succeed where Manchin and Toomey failed?
Keep those tweets coming, folks.
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