C3 seal

The Certified Constitutional Candidate (C3) program wrapped up its evaluations of Congressional candidates (plus two candidates for county offices) last night, and issued its list of candidates in each District or county that in their opinion had the greatest respect for the Constitution.

The standards for the evaluation were deliberately set high, and in several districts the decision was "No award."

That no Democrats appear on this list, is because no Democrat ever applied. In fact, two Democratic challengers are attacking their respective incumbents from the right: Mark A. Falzon against Frank Pallone in the 6th District, and Omar Dyer against Albio Sires in the 13th. Falzon, in fact, is running with the slogan of "Democratic Tea-Party Approved," a slogan that several Tea Party sources have corroborated. Either man could have applied to the C3 program, but neither did.

Anna C. Little

The chosen candidates, and their respective districts or other races, are listed below:

Alonzo "Lon" Hosford

Israel Teitelbaum, director of the C3 program, said to his advisers, in an e-mail copied to this Examiner, that Scott Garrett, the Republican incumbent in District 5, would probably be eligible to run in the general election as a C3 candidate.

Decisions in some of these races, especially Districts 2 and 7, came down to the willingness of the candidates to respond to questions. The C3 advisers subscribed to this Examiner page and took note of this Examiner's questions for the applicants, and the answers that the candidates gave. In District 2, the decisive criterion was the answer to one question:

Will you introduce, sponsor, or otherwise support the proposal of [an Amendment] to the Constitution...[t]o limit the aggregate terms of service of Members of Congress[?]

Linda Biamonte answered yes; Donna Ward answered no.

Rich Luzzi recently took a leave of absence from his position as President of the Morristown Tea Party in order to campaign full-tinme. Luzzi is also co-counsel and chief legal spokesman for the Committee to Recall Robert Menendez from the Office of United States Senator.

Richard T. Luzzi

Roland Straten, who last ran in District 8 in 2008 against incumbent Democrat Bill Pascrell, wants a rematch. He has won the support of the original New Jersey Tea Party Coalition, which operates in Bergen County.

Certification carries the privilege of using the C3 seal on all campaign literature, lawn signs, bumper stickers, and the like, in addition to word-of-mouth promotion.

This article is part of the C3 series.

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