Answers from Zimmer Campaign

Ken Kurson from the Zimmer campaign called with answers to the questions I submitted.

1) Where does Zimmer stand now on partial birth abortion? Tell me how he came to his current position.

Zimmer is adamantly opposed to partial birth abortion, as he wrote in his 1997 OpEd piece. He came to this conclusion because the American Medical Association said such a procedure is never medically necessary.

2) If a Democrat is elected President and Zimmer is a minority Senator, where would he stand if the Democratic President nominated a Supreme Court Justice with a similar philosophy as Ruth Bader Ginsberg? Would he work with conservative Senators to block such an appointment?

Zimmer believes that it is up to the President to nominate justices and for the Senate to advise and consent. Consent should not be withheld on ideological grounds, but rather the Judge's fitness for the position.

3) Which current Republican Senator is closer to Zimmer's overall philosophy? Lindsay Graham or Arlen Spector?

Lindsay Graham, based on Graham's strong support of National Defense and anti-crimes stands.

4) How much revenue did Zimmer's farm generate last year?

$2,000.00 Ken went on to emphasise that Zimmer's place is not a "McMansion" but really is a farm. It has been a farm for over 100 years.

Ken went on to address some of the attacks the Pennacchio campaign has made.

He acknowledged that Zimmer did "unfortunately" vote to raise the sales tax. He said it was a dollar for dollar trade off for lowering another tax that he did not specify.

Ken denied that Zimmer ever voted to raise the income tax, but stumbled when asked if Zimmer had voted to eliminate the property tax deduction from state income tax.

He went on to attack Pennacchio for voting to raise taxes as Morris County Freeholder, which Pennacchio has denied. He was adamant that Pennacchio voted to raise rates and not a "Laffer curve" situation where lower rates raise more revenue. He even offered to send me the article Zimmer referred to in the ABC debate. Upon reading the article reading the article together, he conceded that the Daily Record had not said that Pennacchio raised rates, and changed the subject to Pennacchio increasing spending.

Ken should have stopped at my questions.