josh gottheimer. | danielle parhizkaran /the record via ap, file by matt friedman 10/31/16 02:20 pm edt the tone of the congressional race between republican incumbent scott garrett and josh gottheimer has been ugly. and when the two finally met for their lone debate this morning <u+2014> broadcast on a local radio station in northwest new jersey <u+2014> listeners got little reprieve. story continued below garrett, a 14-year incumbent, and gottheimer, a former microsoft executive and bill clinton speechwriter, debated substantial policy issues like tax codes and foreign policy. but they also repeatedly called each other a <u+201c>liar<u+201d> while lobbing charges of bigotry and property tax delinquency. <u+201c>i understand that your back<u+2019>s against the wall and you<u+2019>re desperate and you<u+2019>re trying to throw out lies because you<u+2019>re losing," gottheimer told garrett. "i understand that. but please don<u+2019>t lie to voters.<u+201d> <u+201c>you<u+2019>re not doing anything more than fundraising and attacking,<u+201d> garrett told gottheimer, calling him <u+201c>another tax-and-spend liberal<u+201d> who<u+2019>s <u+201c>bought and paid for by special interests.<u+201d> in a year when new jersey has few competitive races, the contest in the state's 5th district is the one to watch. garrett has long been new jersey<u+2019>s most conservative member of congress, and he has easily fended off several attempts by democrats to oust him. but gottheimer has raised more money than garrett, whose perch atop a financial service subcommittee had until recently been a fundraising boon. that was until politico reported last year that garrett told a closed-door meeting of republicans that he would not support the house republicans<u+2019> fundraising arm because it supported gay candidates. garrett<u+2019>s fundraising dried up, while gottheimer<u+2019>s surged. <u+201c>how we treat gay people and how we treat women and how we treat everyone is actually an issue,<u+201d> gottheimer said. <u+201c>i think people have a right to know if their congressman is a bigot.<u+201d> garrett has long denied politico<u+2019>s account, saying that he actually said he supports candidates that support the republican platform, which opposes same-sex marriage. <u+201c>i believe everyone has the right to run for office <u+2014> congress or any other office,<u+201d> garrett said. <u+201c>i support the republican platform and i support republican values. and those values are traditional marriage values, those are fiscal responsibility values.<u+201d> garrett noted that one of the debate<u+2019>s questioners, new jersey herald reporter rob jennings, had written a story not long after the politico story in which garrett clarified his remarks. but that story came after garrett ducked questions for three weeks, during which then-bergen county republican chairman bob yudin said he spoke with garrett and confirmed that garrett<u+2019>s opposition to gay candidates was one of several reasons he decided not to support the committee. gottheimer, who has run as a fiscal conservative, touted his own plan that he said would <u+201c>cut taxes.<u+201d> gottheimer<u+2019>s proposal, laid out on his website, would reduce corporate tax rates by about 10 percent. <u+201c>right now, our taxes are just too high, which is why i put a tax-cut plan out there,<u+201d> gottheimer said. garrett noted that gottheimer<u+2019>s plan does not address personal income taxes, which garrett said would be reduced under the plan put forward by house republicans. then garrett accused gottheimer of skipping property tax payments on a condominium he owns in washington, d.c. <u+201c>over six years in a row, my opponent doesn<u+2019>t pay his property taxes on his luxury d.c. condo,<u+201d> garrett said. <u+201c>so pay your taxes, josh.<u+201d> records show that gottheimer in january 2016 paid $2,433 in taxes, penalties and fees for six payment periods over the course of three <u+2014> not six <u+2014> years. but the records do not show gottheimer skipping payments altogether in those years. according to the gottheimer campaign, a review by the washington d.c. office of tax and revenue found that gottheimer<u+2019>s mortgage company had <u+201c>failed to properly adjust<u+201d> tax payments and underpaid them from 2013 to 2015. <u+201c>both josh and the mortgage company received a notice and corrected bill in december 2015, and the outstanding balance was paid immediately on january 6, 2016,<u+201d> the campaign said. gottheimer responded by calling garrett a <u+201c>skilled liar<u+201d> and noting that the congressman receives a farmland tax break on the 10 acres he owns in wantage that gottheimer claimed saves him $18,000 a year <u+2014> an issue that has come up in garrett<u+2019>s previous races. <u+201c>you have some audacity to bring up taxes,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>he grows a couple trees a year and then actually takes all these deductions while he<u+2019>s a member of congress. it<u+2019>s costing everybody else a fortune.<u+201d> gottheimer said his plan would address personal taxes because he would seek to win more federal money back for new jersey, which according to the nonprofit national priorities project receives just 68 cents for each $1 state residents pay in federal taxes, ranking it among the lowest in the nation for return. gottheimer said the well-heeled fifth congressional district has an even worse rate of return, in part because garrett doesn<u+2019>t work hard enough to recoup money for the district, citing one instance of a broken down fire-truck that garrett refused to help seek a grant. <u+201c>the mayor of vernon is a republican who just endorsed me. i sat with him, he said his fire truck is broken and he needs help,<u+201d> gottheimer said. <u+201c>he asked scott garrett to write a letter for him. scott garrett refused. he said <u+2018>i don<u+2019>t write letters.<u+2019> he did the same thing to the mayors of paramus and oradell.<u+201d> garrett said gottheimer is merely supporting the <u+201c>status quo<u+201d> and that he has never voted for a tax increase in congress. <u+201c>so what you just heard is a continuation of the status quo. the status quo is not working,<u+201d> garrett said. <u+201c>the solution is not sending money there in the first place.<u+201d> gottheimer criticized garrett for not voting in favor of the zadroga act to fund health care for 9/11 first-responders <u+2014> a bill which garrett co-sponsored but voted against because it was part of a larger $1.1 trillion spending package. <u+201c>we need to stand by our first-responders,<u+201d> gottheimer said. <u+201c>and when i<u+2019>m in congress, that<u+2019>s what i<u+2019>m going to do.<u+201d> when gottheimer claimed that garrett said the zadroga act gave him "heartburn," garrett angrily denied the suggestion, and accused him of lying. (garrett did use the word at a town hall meeting to describe provisions added to the legislation, video of which the gottheimer campaign posted on youtube in july.) garrett accused gottheimer of being disingenuous by claiming to oppose the iran nuclear deal. <u+201c>you said you were against it early on. early on? no, you weren<u+2019>t,<u+201d> garrett said. <u+201c>you came out with an op-ed, finally, one month after the bill passed and became law.<u+201d> the candidates did share at least one thing in common: neither was eager to be associated with their party<u+2019>s standard-bearer. gottheimer <u+2014> who has hosted fundraisers with guests bill and chelsea clinton <u+2014> said he supports hillary clinton but that he<u+2019>s <u+201c>focused on is what we<u+2019>re going to do hear in the fifth congressional district.<u+201d> garrett, who once called for donald trump to step aside and let his running mate lead the ticket, said he <u+201c>supports donald trump and our republican candidates from the top of the ticket all the way down to the bottom.<u+201d> the race is widely considered a <u+201c>toss up," and the debate seems unlikely to tilt the campaign <u+2014> especially considering its small audience. the range of the hackettstown-based radio station that hosted it, wrnj, covers parts of warren and sussex county. that<u+2019>s where garrett<u+2019>s rural, conservative base resides, but it does not reach the more competitive eastern part of the district, where most of its voters live. matt friedman's must-read briefing on the garden state's important news of the day our morning email about new jersey health care policy and politics a morning email with must-read analysis and breaking news on new jersey politics and policy. matt friedman's must-read briefing on the garden state's important news of the day
in lone debate, garrett and gottheimer call each other liars
matt friedman