Laden...
It's gone now, but here's what presumed state Senator-elect Edward Durr's Twitter page looked like early Friday morning. By 9 a.m., the account -- and all those problematic past Tweets -- disappeared. (screenshot)
Happy Saturday, New Jersey!
The talk this week down here in South Jersey is about Edward Durr, the truck drivin' grandpa whose "surprise" win against powerful State Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney has the political world reeling. How does some nobody from Swedesboro with a broken-down Mustang in the front yard knock off one of the state's most powerful politicians?
The path to Durr's victory was laid out in his Tweets. The dumb memes with Gov. Murphy as clown or king, Sweeney as a lackey for the governor, many retweets of Jack Ciattarelli, and an endless cascade of hashtags and mentions that spread out like buckshot just trying to hit any available GOP-friendly eye.
Keep looking. Peep the shots of Durr schmoozing in Clayton, shaking hands in Woodbury Heights, visiting a diner in Cumberland County, taking selfies with the good folks of National Park. This guy's going door-to-door handing out palm cards like he's running for a local office, all the while reinforcing a "vote all the Democrats out" message.
While it was there, Durr's Twitter feed was revelatory. For one thing, despite his recent declaration that he's a diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan, his Tweets expose his love of (Dear God!) the Dallas frickin' Cowboys.
And oh yeah! There was also the racism, antisemitism, vaccine paranoia, conspiracy theories and QAnon stuff. Our Matt Stanmyre dug into some of that here -- the sexist jab at Vice President Harris, the sick use of the Holocaust to try to make a point about COVID restrictions, the jibber-jabber about Islam and pedophilia.
Thursday night, asked about the Tweets by a reporter at a local event, Durr fell back on the "passionate guy" defense. "I say things in the heat of the moment. And if I said anything in the past that hurt anybody's feelings, I sincerely apologize,” he told WHYY.
Friday morning, Durr started deleting.
As I was writing this Letter a little before 9 a.m., Durr's entire account disappeared, apparently deleted-- an amateurish panic move that only will make it worse, since archived versions of the account are super easy to find.
As a kid reporter, I did lots of profiles of local, no-chance candidates seeking seats, from the town fire district to Congress. That was another century, though. I want to believe I would have found Durr's past Tweets and written about them before the election, but who's to say? He was a no-name guy with little funding, running against one of the most powerful guys in the Senate. It feels too easy, and just wrong, for big-time journalists to pin the blame on local reporters.
Sweeney's Twitter feed is all info about how to vote, service-y stuff like community listings, that kind of thing. There is no indication he was running for anything. And I get it, incumbents need to run partly on the fact that they're doing the job, not that they want the job.
But come on, dude. Maybe a little less about Halloween events in North Jersey and hanging with big-name Democrats, and something about your district? In my town, there's a major highway bypass that bears Sweeney's name, a reward for the deal-making that got the project done.
It's not actually in his Senate district, though.
Also this week, St. Mary's is saved, a crooked place, how the public questions went, the darkness is approaching, and I can't drive stick, either: AVE MARIA: After many months of controversy and local concern, the landmark Saint Mary by the Sea in Cape May Point will live on. The 1889 building, originally a seaside hotel, was set to be demolished in line with wishes by the Sisters of Saint Joseph to return the land to a natural state. The building will stay and become a nature center, instead.
CROOKED PLACE: Is Orange the most corrupt town in New Jersey? Dive into Ted Sherman's look at a five-year FBI investigation of the town and decide for yourself. That's some subscription-worthy journalism, folks.
B-I-N-G-O: Did you vote on those two public questions? The one about letting more nonprofit organizations do bingo and 50-50s passed. College sports betting did not. Results here.
LEAN BACK: It happens tonight, friends. When you wake up Sunday morning, it'll be an hour earlier than this time today. Get ready for afternoon dog walks in the twilight and dinnertime in the dark. IT'S FUNNY, BUT NOT FUNNY: It sounds funny to think a bunch of kids trying to steal a guy's car couldn't get away because none of the teens knew how to drive stick. Very much not funny that they beat up the driver instead.
Finally, about that breast-beating mea culpa piece by Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray. It's a professionally brave and personally honorable thing to say "I blew it." But I think the part about how maybe we should get rid of pre-election polls is more important. It's the process we can't trust, not the pollsters, because whatever the current way isn't good enough.
The polls predicted a Murphy win, and they got that right. As of this writing Ciattarelli hasn't conceded, though. That's his right -- the more we rely on mail-in voting, the longer it will take to count every ballot. On one hand, Ciattarelli is echoing Trumpy phrases like "legal votes" and saying things about the campaign being far from over.
At the same time, he's cautioning his supporters against "falling victim to wild conspiracy theories or online rumors" about the vote count. So that's something. We haven't heard the last of Jack.
P.S.: I will never get enough of seeing kids, at long last, get their COVID vaccinations. What a relief.
Amy Z. Quinn Audience Editor
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Laden...
Laden...
