NJ-4: Bad News for Chris Smith (R): Good News for Josh Zeitz (D)

Cross-posted at Blue Jersey

According to a new report at NJ Politicker.com, Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ-4) rarely visits his district. This bit of information is not widely known, but it soon will be, and provides another opening for Democrat Josh Zeitz to make his case.

The article speaks for itself:

When Rep. Chris Smith was first elected to the House, he was brand new to the Washington scene. But after 27 years of representing New Jersey in Congress, Smith has spent almost half of his life living in Virginia. [snip]

In 2000, Smith spent 73 days and 41 nights in his district, according to Congressional spending reports. That’s 20% of his days (including travel days) and 11.23% of his nights. Since then, records show the number of days Smith spent in New Jersey has decreased almost every year.

More details after the jump.  

Here are the raw numbers of Smith’s time in his home district:

2001- 59 days, 31 nights

2002 -56 days, 26 nights

2003- 47 days, 23 nights

2004 -43 days, 19 nights

2005 – 40 days, 15 nights

2006 – 29 days, 7 nights

2007 – 48 days, 22 nights

Over the last eight years, Smith has spent a total of 395 days and 184 nights in New Jersey while on official business.

Smith was interviewed for the piece and does not dispute the numbers. I’ll leave it to you all to decide what you think of this, but I don’t doubt that the residents of NJ-4 will be interested and that it can’t make them think more positively of their veteran Congressman.

On the more humorous side, the reporter interviewed Smith’s ‘neighbors’ (he has a small rental in Hamilton Township and is the only member of the NJ congressional delegation who does not own a home in New Jersey), and found the following:

Most of Smith’s neighbors in the quaint, middle-class townhouse complex that he lists as his New Jersey residence were surprised – and sometimes elated — to hear that their Congressman was also neighbor. PolitickerNJ.com knocked on all of the doors of the units that adjoin Smith’s apartment, and of the six neighbors who answered, only one had ever seen Smith. Only two had any idea that he lived there.

Chris Smith is ripe for defeat, and Josh Zeitz needs your help to make that happen. Smith, the House ‘pro-life’ caucus chair, is a radical on reproductive rights (and not in a good way) who, for example, sponsored a constitutional amendment to criminalize the birth control pill. Furthermore, he has stood with George Bush on Iraq down the line as a senior Republican on the House International Relations Committee.

Josh is a common sense progressive who will represent the values of Central Jersey. Furthermore, his victory will strengthen the Democratic majority in Congress. Please help him out check out his website and do what you can to support him. If you can volunteer, please email me at:

ian_at_joshzeitz_dot_com

I am a volunteer and Josh’s Netroots Outreach Coordinator