N.J. Senate Candidate: Frank Gannett (He Died in 1957) Backs My Candidacy

By: E&P Staff Murray Sabrin, who is running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator from New Jersey, announced Thursday that Gannett Co. Inc. founder Frank Gannett endorses his candidacy.

That is, Gannett would endorse Sabrin -- if he were still alive. Frank Gannett died in 1957.

"The Founder of Gannett, Frank Gannett, would whole-heartedly endorse my campaign to Legalize Freedom," Sabrin said in a statement. "Frank was one of the Founders of 'The National Committee to Uphold Constitutional Government' and ran for President on the same platform as The Sabrin Solution."

The endorsement claim is the latest salvo in Sabrin's fight with New Jersey's Gannett-owned papers.

At a recent candidates debate, Sabrin took issue with a poll in the Gannett-owned Asbury Park Press that showed him trailing Dick Zimmer by 20 percentage points.

Sabrin maintained the poll was flawed, and Thursday his campaign released an e-mail from Press Managing Editor Gary Schoening defending the soundness of the survey.

"Sabrin was 20 points behind Zimmer in the poll, and even if we were at the edges of that margin, that makes the claim that he is the front-runner (which to any reasonable person's interpretation means he's winning the race) specious," Schoening wrote.

But Sabrin, a conservative who refers to himself as "Maverick Murray," responded that he is the front-runner, and that it was Schoening's comments that were "specious."

"Anyone reading this email would expect more from a first-year journalism student," Sabrin said. "Any high school student studying statistics could clearly see the poll Mr. Schoening was trying to defend was incomplete and irrelevant towards the Republican Primary on June 3rd."

As for Frank Gannett, who briefly ran for president in 1940 on a platform opposing Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan to "pack" the Supreme Court, Sabrin said he shared Gannett's political philosophy.

"My recommendation would be for the editorial staff to return to the roots of its Founder instead of an expansive liberal philosophy." Sabrin continued, "Frank Gannett would be extremely disappointed in the direction its editorial pages have taken over the years."

Added Sabrin: "If the editorial pages of the Gannett newspapers follow their Founder's lead, I fully expect the endorsement of the papers too."