RIDGEWOOD, N.J. - One fact led President Bush to choose New Jersey, a Democratic presidential stronghold, as the backdrop for a homeland security campaign speech today: terror and the Sept. 11 attacks are as crucial for New Jersey voters as they are for Bush's re-election campaign.
That day is more than a sad anniversary in this picturesque northern New Jersey town, which lost a dozen residents to the attack on the World Trade Center. The solace townspeople sought then in a religious gift shop three years ago remains elusive today.
"People were coming in, looking for anything they could give to friends and family who lost loved ones," said Mary Banyra, who still works behind the counter at McLaughlin & Sons.
"Everybody was crying. I still feel the pain."
She is not alone. Nearly 700 New Jersey people died in the attack, after New York the highest toll paid by any state from Sept. 11, 2001. New Jerseyans' lingering angst - state polls indicate Sept. 11 is a major factor in the presidential race - is the main reason Bush and Democratic Sen. John Kerry are in a tight race for the 15 electoral votes from the state that last voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 1988.
Four years ago, neither Bush nor Al Gore stumped the state, and the Democrat easily won by 16 percentage points.
Bush makes a return visit Monday to deliver what aides describe as a major terrorism address in Marlton. Unlike Ridgewood, that southern New Jersey town is beyond sight of the Twin Towers-less Manhattan skyline but is close enough to Pennsylvania, another contested state, to earn ample coverage by news crews from Philadelphia television stations.
Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, told reporters Saturday that terrorism, an issue at the heart of Bush's campaign for a second term, also goes to the heart of the vote in New Jersey.
"It may be that voters' concerns with terrorism are causing them to cut the president some slack on other issues," said Bruce Larson, a political scientist and analyst for the PublicMind Poll of Fairleigh Dickinson University-Madison.
Ross Baker, a Rutgers University political science professor, said New Jersey has moved in such a markedly Democratic direction over the years that it would seem improbable that Bush could win. The fallout from Sept. 11, however, has made the race much closer than it otherwise would have been, he said.
Bush's campaign is taking advantage of the situation. Vice President Dick Cheney visited last week, and first lady Laura Bush, who campaigned for her husband last month, was headlining another fundraiser in the state Monday.
Kerry has yet to visit, but running mate Sen. John Edwards made appearances twice in the past month.
Advertisers punish broadcasting group for Kerry documentary
Sen. John Kerry could find his presidential hopes damaged this week when the 62 television stations owned or managed by the Sinclair Broadcasting Group carry a documentary about his antiwar activities 30 years ago.
But the Democratic nominee may not be the only one adversely affected.
Sinclair, the nation's largest owner of television stations, is itself running a significant financial and political risk by telling its stations to pre-empt regular programming for the film. Already, Sinclair's decision has alienated some advertisers and enraged consumer and media watchdog groups.
Representatives of Sinclair did not return phone calls seeking comment. But the company, whose executives have been among the largest media contributors to President George W. Bush, has claimed the documentary is news, and as such does not fall under federally mandated equal-time provisions for political candidates. In the film, Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal , former prisoners of war in Vietnam call Kerry's 1971 Senate testimony, in which he quoted veterans talking about U.S. atrocities, a betrayal that prolonged their captivity. The Kerry campaign has called the film an inaccurate and politically motivated attack.
Last week, Kerry's campaign asked Sinclair for equal time to respond to the film, a move that could lead the Federal Communications Commission to consider whether to order the station to allow the response.
As a result of the furor over Stolen Honor , advertisers like car dealers, furnituremakers, supermarkets and restaurants in cities like Portland, Maine; Madison, Wis.; Minneapolis; and Springfield, Ill., have pulled commercials from the company's stations.
"It's a public trust. It seems they're abusing it," said Adam Lee, the president of Lee Auto Malls in Portland, who has ordered his company's advertising off the CBS affiliate, WGME. "If it were a news show and they were really trying to do a fair and balanced story on both sides, that would be a different matter. I don't think they are."
A host of consumer and media watchdog groups, including Common Cause, the Alliance for Better Campaigns, Media Access Project, Media for Democracy and the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, are putting together a database that will name all Sinclair advertisers and will try to persuade others to withdraw their commercials. Among those on the list are chains like Applebee's, Best Buy, Chili's, Circuit City, Domino's Pizza, Lowe's, Papa John's, Subway, Taco Bell and Wal-Mart.
Last year Sinclair posted net income of $24-million on revenues of $739-million.
Jeb Bush uses national TV to quash talk of presidential run
MIAMI - Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida on Sunday publicly ruled out running for president in 2008, quashing - for now - talk of a third Bush in the White House.
The governor, who is President Bush's younger brother, said on ABC's This Week that he would return to Miami when his second term ended in 2006. Jeb Bush was a real estate developer here before he entered politics.
"I'm not going to run for president in 2008," Bush, who rarely grants interviews to the national news media, told George Stephanopoulos, the host of This Week . "That's not my interest. I'm governor of this state. It's the best job in the world I have."
The governor is often asked if he will seek the presidency, but typically waves off the question with a roll of the eyes.
