By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Edward B. “Bruce” DiDonato was at a fundraiser for then-U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in New York some years ago, when he talked to Donald Trump and suggested he run for president.
Fast forward more than a decade later, Dr. Dionato will have the chance next week, as a delegate to the Republican National Convention, to put the real estate mogul turned presidential candidate one step closer to the White House.
Dr. DiDonato, a Lawrence resident who is president of Campus Eye Group Surgery Center in Hamilton, will be among the 51 New Jersey delegates in Cleveland seeking to make Mr. Trump the GOP nominee to run against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in November.
It is an opportunity that came his way when, a few months ago, Gov. Chris Christie asked Dr. DiDonato, an active donor to politicians of both parties, to be a delegate. Originally, he had been supporting Gov. Christie for president, only to see the governor drop out and endorse Mr. Trump.
“And I guess he was looking to make sure that the delegation supported Trump, so he asked me if I was a supporter of Trump now that he was out … and I said, ‘Yes I would.’ ”
His selection as a delegate became official during voting in the June 7 primary. So why is he backing Mr. Trump?
“Because I can’t think of anything that he said that I disagree with, except for a few minor issues,” Dr. DiDonato said. “He understands the macro-economics of the problems.”
In the campaign, Mr. Trump has talked of his wanting to make better trade deals, and criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement. That talk has appealed to voters, including Dr. DiDonato.
“He poses a major change to the thinking of both parties,” Dr. DiDonato said of Mr. Trump. “Both parties believe in NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. And they call it free trade, but it’s not. It’s free trade for other countries, but not free trade for us.”
His first brush with “The Donald” was in Trump Tower at a fundraiser for Sen. Specter, the now late senator from Pennsylvania, in September 2004.
“I was invited and I went and had a nice chat with him and told him he ought to run for president,” Dr. DiDonato recalled.
Mr. Trump finally took that advice by entering the race last year, although some Republicans don’t want him to be their candidate. At a time when some want to block Mr. Trump from getting the nomination, Dr. DiDonato said he thought it is “100 percent impossible” for the party to chose someone else at the convention.
As for who the vice presidential choice should be, Dr. DiDonato said he had thought a lot on the subject. Gov. Christie should be Mr. Trump’s running mate, Dr. DiDonato said, because he needs “someone that can articulate the issues and debate whoever (the Democrats’) VP is.”
This will not be the first political convention Dr. DiDonato will be attending, however.
When he was 8 in 1964, his now late father, Henry, an activist in Democratic Party politics in Mercer County, took him to the Democratic Convention in Atlantic City. Twelve years ago, a friend had a pass to the GOP convention in New York City, so he went to Madison Square Garden on the night Vice President Dick Cheney spoke.
Like Mr. Trump, Dr. DiDonato has backed candidates — Democrat and Republican — for political office. Campaign finance records show he has given to a host of politicians including state Sen. Shirley Turner (D-16), current U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, former New York Mayor and erstwhile presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani and Gov. Christie.
His views on some hot-button issues — abortion and gay marriage — would put Dr. DiDonato to the left of some of the more conservative members of the GOP. Yet on gun rights, he said he thinks the “Second Amendment is what it says.”
Dr. DiDonato, married with two children, was a pre-med major at Rider before deciding to become an eye doctor.
“Biology was my favorite subject in high school. And the study of the eye was the one that piqued my interest the most because it was the most complicated,” he said.
Predicting presidential elections can be complicated, too. He said that if he were a betting man, Mr. Trump would win 40 states and become the 45th president of the United States. To him, this is the most important election of his lifetime.
“I think if Hillary wins, the America of the last 240 years will cease to exist, if it hasn’t already,” he said. “And if Trump wins, he has a chance of bringing it back to a society of innovation.”
