NJ’s Most Veteran GOP Congressman Faces Dual Challenge From the Right

May 12, 2022 | njspotlightnews.org

Rep. Chris Smith has been in office since Jan. 3, 1981, in the last days of Jimmy Carter’s presidency. That he has spent 41 years in Congress is reason enough for voters to replace him, argue opponents Mike Crispi and Steve Gray. Both challengers also espouse positions that put them much further to the right than Smith. While the incumbent is still considered a conservative, given the party’s overall shift, he’s now ranked as among the most moderate Republicans in the House by govtrack, an independent Congressional monitoring website.

NJ SEED: Chris Smith has been in Congress so long that most of today’s political activists can’t remember a time when he wasn’t. His 40 plus years in the House understandably make him vulnerable to challenges within his own party. Smith survives as a rather lonely Republican in one of the most far left states in the union. Though challenged for not being conservative enough, his long survival in the 4th District is not likely based on him being a far-right conservative.