Facing a Tough Midterm, Lance Searches for Middle Ground on Kavanaugh

Members of the House of Representatives don't have a vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, but the outcome of the partisan battle will certainly have an impact on the midterm congressional elections in November.

That's especially true in New Jersey's swing districts, where Republican incumbents and candidates are facing much-tougher-than-usual races. 

Leonard Lance, the Republican in New Jersey's 7th district,  is in a neck-and-neck battle to hold onto his seat. This week, Democrats seized on a recording of Lance speaking to Rutgers students in which he said he "tended not to be believe the accuser." But the recording was from Sept. 18, in the midst of questions about whether Christine Blasey Ford would testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

On the recording, Lance says the accusation is serious and she should appear before the committee. He says the use of the tape by Democrats is unfair. Now that he has heard her speak, Lance says he wants more information.

"I believe that the testimony of Dr. Ford was credible. I also believe the testimony of Judge Kavanaugh was credible," Lance told WNYC on Friday. "I think there might be a pause for a week or so for further investigation — but not too long of one — and perhaps there can be corroborating information."

Lance needs to navigate a middle ground to survive what has become an extraordinary midterm election, in which every incumbent Republican in New Jersey is facing a tough challenger.

Lance has the support of former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who is arguably the dean of the Republican Party's moderate wing. She told WNYC she was outraged by the president's tweet about Ford, where he said, "I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents."

"No," Whitman said. "Anybody who knows anyone who has ever been sexually assaulted, or if they themselves have been sexually assaulted, know perfectly well how traumatic that is and how often you bury it and you don't come forward."

Whitman says Republicans are facing an enormous gender gap in the midterm elections, and the Kavanaugh nomination is making it worse.

Large numbers of women are volunteering for Lance's Democratic challenger, Tom Malinowski. This weekend, the group SOMA Action will inflate a giant Baby Trump balloon outside its meeting in Maplewood as a call to arms. They'll be training volunteers to canvas, phone bank, and write postcards.