Reduced government GOP hopeful's mantra
By JONATHAN TAMARI
GANNETT STATE BUREAU
In a year when lapel pins have become fodder for political debate, the gold adornment that Republican U.S. Senate candidate Murray Sabrin wears on his suit jacket wraps up his campaign platform in two words: Live Free.
Sabrin, a onetime Libertarian, touts himself as a true conservative who would push the government to the margins of everyday life.
"We have to begin the process of returning decision-making and people's money to the people," said Sabrin, 61, an economics professor at Ramapo College who is most at home talking fiscal policy.To him, the marketplace — whether of business or ideas — should be free from government interference. That means tax cuts and limited government intervention in the economy. It means pulling troops out of Iraq by 2010 and reining in the Patriot Act. It means getting the government out of health care, and it means that while Sabrin personally opposes abortion, he believes that issue and other social concerns, such as gay marriage, the drinking age and legalizing marijuana, should be left up to states to decide.
Sabrin fires off his positions with almost none of the squishy wiggle-room language of a typical candidate. Then again, he runs a far-from-typical campaign, cultivating a madman image as "Maverick Murray," who attacks his own party's presidential nominee and pulls political stunts such as trying to raise campaign funds by betting $1,050 of donations on long-shot Cowboy Cal in the Kentucky Derby. (The horse finished ninth.)
In person Sabrin, a Bergen County resident, is restrained. Wearing a navy blue suit, white shirt, red tie and the gold pin, he fits his positions into a principled view of limited government.
He would cut taxes on inheritances, dividends and waiters' tips and provide tax credits for parents who send their children to private schools. He also rails against "corporate welfare" and government interventions to bail out Wall Street firms and would pull back on government programs that began with "very good intentions but financially are unsustainable."
Medicare, Medicaid foe
These include Medicaid and Medicare, the health programs for the poor and people over 65. Sabrin believes these programs should be phased out over decades, saying they are financially "unsustainable." Nonprofits and the private sector would fill the void, he says.
"Health care is not a natural right, it's a service like everything else," Sabrin said.
The war in Iraq, he says, "was not in our national security interests. Saddam Hussein was not a threat to the American people. He was not a threat to the territorial integrity of the United States."
Sabrin, whose Polish parents were the only members of their families to survive the Holocaust, comes to his views through family history. In the rise of the Nazis, Sabrin's parents saw an aggressive government taken to the extreme. When Sabrin was 2, the family moved to New York, where his mother held a job as a supermarket cashier. His father worked with sheet metal and drove a cab.
"He didn't go to the government to get a program for his family," Sabrin said. "We went to the Catskills every summer because they saved money to provide us with a nice place for the summer."
Sabrin first ran for office in 1997, and New Jersey Republicans have been trying to wave him away as a fringe candidate ever since. That year, Sabrin ran as a Libertarian and garnered enough support to win state campaign matching funds and the right to appear in public debates alongside Republican Christie Whitman and Democrat James E. McGreevey. Sabrin won 114,000 votes, 5 percent of the total.
He returned as a Republican in 2000, seeking the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate but finishing far behind the two leading candidates in a four-way primary.
Along the way, Sabrin has rankled the GOP establishment with attacks that swing wildly at Democrats and Republicans alike. He demonstrated against John McCain when the presumptive Republican presidential nominee campaigned in New Jersey and has called on the party's state chairman, Tom Wilson, to step down.
Sabrin's tactics turned off an ally within the party, outspoken conservative Steve Lonegan, who is not shy about hard-nosed politics. Lonegan calls Sabrin a "great intellectual" but backed out of an appearance at a fundraiser earlier this year, citing the candidate's methods.
"It's one thing to be a brilliant economist and thinker, but you also have to be a good politician and be a leader and pull a party together with cohesiveness," Lonegan said. "The helpful thing for conservatives is to win and to govern, so that's the ultimate measure."
He sees a sea change
Sabrin has never held elected office and doesn't register high in public-opinion polls.
But Sabrin argues that the nation's financial malaise will turn voters to his economic expertise this year. He says no other candidates are addressing issues such as fluctuating interest rates and Wall Street rescues such as the steps that helped J.P. Morgan buy Bear Stearns."When we lose money in the stock market, we don't get bailed out," Sabrin said.
Despite New Jersey's history of backing Democrats, Sabrin says most voters are looking for a fiscal conservative. He says he wants to rebuild the Republican Party with the limited government values that attracted him to the GOP in 1969.
His message still resonates with Libertarian leaders.
Lou Jasikoff, the party's New Jersey chairman, said the party would consider withdrawing its own Senate candidate if Sabrin wins the Republican nod."I'm not looking to see whether there's an "L" or "D" or "R" next to their name," Jasikoff said. "It's more important to advance the cause of liberty, and I believe that's what Murray is doing."
