NJ has not seen Republican Senator in nearly 30 years

Jeff Bell could be the first Republican elected to the Senate from New Jersey in more than 30 years. 

But first he must overcome several obstacles, including facing an incumbent opponent who is leading by roughly 15 percentage points, according to Real Clear Politics. 

Bell first appeared in New Jersey politics in 1978 when he challenged well-respected Republican incumbent Clifford Case, said John Weingart, associate director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics. In an upset, he won the primary vote but lost to a Democrat in the general election. 

New Jersey has elected Democrats to the national Senate ever since. 

“The conventional wisdom is that New Jersey will not elect a conservative Republican, and they need a more moderate nominee,” Weingart said. 

Bell does not fit that description — he tends to lean more toward conservative on many issues.

---

Social Issues

Bell is pro-life, meaning he believes that a fetus should be legally recognized as a person, Weingart said. 

According to his website, Bell supports the House-passed bill that would make abortion illegal after 20 weeks. He also supports a bill that would give a fetus constitutional protection under the 14th Amendment. 

Concerning same-sex marriage, Bell believes marriage is a religious concept that the government should not make decisions about.

Bell opposes the relaxation of drug laws, such as the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, Weingart said. He believes the administration and federal agencies should intervene.

Those states’ voters have made changes that are in opposition to federal laws, but the administration has not enforced that.

“The Obama administration has said other criminal justice issues are more important.” Weingart said. “Bell says it is wrong to do that.” 

Education

Bell supports education savings accounts and believes that society should emphasize saving for college as an important goal for parents, according to nj.com. 

To help this, he advocates the expansion of the state’s 529 savings plan and prepaid tuition plans.

The college loan system is a “cash cow” for colleges that gives them an automatic incentive to raise tuition, he said in a video for NJ Advance Media. Colleges rarely use the money to hire more professors, instead creating more administrative positions. 

The government has to revamp the entire system to keep tuition “real” rather than “fiction,” he said in the video. 

“We have to liberate the market and set up a situation where the level of tuition is a factor, which it hardly is right now, in terms of how many students apply and how many attend,” Bell said in the video.

Economy

Bell’s primary agenda on economic issues is to put America back on the gold standard, an issue that many voters are not familiar with. 

According to the Library of Economics and Liberty, the gold standard is when countries fix the prices of their domestic currencies in terms of a specified amount of gold. 

Most economists believe this would not be a good idea, Weingart said, as do many voters.

Most politicians test their positions via poll before deciding, but Bell has not followed that rule. 

“He supports something that he believes in,” Weingart said. 

Health Care

Bell supports repealing the Affordable Care Act and making some changes to the health care system, re-focusing it to a refundable tax credit system for “catastrophic” insurance that covers emergencies. 

He believes the government should offer an insurance plan for people with pre-existing conditions that would normally prevent them from getting insurance, he told nj.com. 

This would create a more private-sector system than we have now, Weingart said. 

Bell also supports creating an Ebola travel ban from West African countries where the virus is most prevalent, according to Asbury Park Press. It would prevent foreigners with visas from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from entering the country. 

“We can’t kid ourselves we’ve got a handle on it. We don’t have it under control,” Bell said in the article. “I can’t believe (a travel ban) would not have some impact.”

On his website, Bell said he agrees with Gov. Chris Christie’s decision to quarantine health workers coming from West Africa.