Sabrin seeks Senate seat as conservative GOP
By:Jennifer Potash
While the race for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate has been characterized as a battle among moderate Republicans, Murray Sabrin, a conservative, believes he can walk away with the win.
The former talk show host and professor of finance at Ramapo College recently sat down with the editorial board of The Packet to discuss his views and reasons for running for the U.S. Senate.
Mr. Sabrin’s last attempt at higher office was the 1997 gubernatorial race, in which he ran as a Libertarian and garnered 5 percent of the vote.
He said he hopes to return the Republican Party to its roots as the party of “freedom, limited government and free enterprise.”
He sees very few similarities between himself and his GOP challengers — U.S. Rep. Bob Franks (R-7), state Sen. Bill Gormley (R-Margate), and Essex County Executive Jim Treffinger — on the key issues in the race.
Mr. Sabrin opposes the campaign finance-reform legislation in the U.S. Congress — Shays-Meehan in the House and McCain-Feingold in the Senate — which he says his opponents support.
“I think it’s a dagger at the First Amendment,” Mr. Sabrin said.
Unlike his opponents, Mr. Sabrin said he would not allow “liberal justices” to be appointed to the Supreme Court if he is elected.
“We cannot afford to have more David Souters on the Supreme Court,” he said.
He is a staunch supporter of rights of citizens to bear arms, declaring himself a defender of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
While the other Republican candidates oppose so-called partial-birth abortions, but generally support a woman’s right to choose an abortion, Mr. Sabrin said he would allow abortion only if the mother’s life is at risk.
“To me, it’s not the issue of a woman’s body but the right of the unborn, because the woman I view as the guardian of the unborn,” he said.
Mr. Sabrin also claims to be the only candidate in the race who is talking about “specific policies to cut back the size of government.”
He would eliminate the federal departments of education, commerce and energy because, he says, those agencies are holding back the economy.
“As great as the economy is, it’s being held back, believe it or not, by these agencies which are wasting tens and tens of millions of dollars that could be better employed in the private sector,” he said.
Similarly, he favors tax cuts, which he claims would encourage citizens to contribute more to nonprofit organizations that are better suited than the government to deal with homelessness, illiteracy and other social ills, Mr. Sabrin said.
When asked about what role the federal government has in cleaning up environmental disasters like dioxin inNewark Bay and asbestos in Manville, or providing flood relief in Bound Brook, Mr. Sabrin said he favors “the government that is closest to the people” or relying on nongovernmental organizations like the American Red Cross.
“Now here’s the problem we’re seeing in America. There’s this whole theme in the country that we’re going away from personal responsibility to community responsibility and collective responsibility” Mr. Sabrin said. “Once you start doing that, then any problem could be considered a community problem or a federal problem.”
On the issue of reforming Social Security, Mr. Sabrin proposes to allow workers to invest the money now taken out of wages as Social Security taxes and placing it directly into the stock or equities markets.
To keep the benefits flowing to those Americans who have already paid into the systems and are nearing retirement age, Mr. Sabrin suggests privatizing federal government assets.
While Mr. Sabrin says he doesn’t engage in name-calling, he does fire a few shots at his opponents, Republican and Democratic. When asked if he had followed the Democratic candidates and their debates, Mr. Sabrin responded no, and launched into a critique of Jon Corzine, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs Co.
“Jon is a lovely guy and when I read his Web site I thought this is awfully familiar, I’m reading and reading and I said, ‘This comes right out of the Communist Manifesto’,” Mr. Sabrin said. “I’m not accusing Jon of being a communist, I’m saying … his policies would turn America into Cuba with government controls and mandates over every aspect of the American economy and society from health care, education.”
Mr. Sabrin said his candidacy has been “underestimated” thus far. He already has the support of the anti-abortion groups and the pro-gun groups in the state, he said.
“People are making statements that I’m unelectable. The truth in the matter is I’m the most electable Republican because I have the support of the two most loyal groups of the Republican Party,” he said.
With the crowed field for the Republican nomination, all he needs is 26 percent of the vote, Mr. Sabrin said.
“Everyone’s been underestimating me, and yet here I am two weeks before the primary in a statistical dead heat with three opponents who outraised me 15 to 1,” Mr. Sabrin said.