Hopefully he gets bodied by some machine apparichnik in the primary and is out of the House as well (oh wait…). Far and away the worst house Dem with Cuellar behind him.
Why? He doesn't seem all that conservative compared to Cuellar.
He ultimately fits his district well, and much of North Jersey. It's almost like when you have to pay higher property taxes to bail out West Virginia a politician who is a dead-ender on that issue is suddenly extremely appealing. Gottheimer knows what he does plays well among many people in New Jersey, and while I wouldn't have gone as far as him (because I wanted the climate stuff in BBB), if the climate stuff had gotten scrapped, I'd have had a similar position. Anyways, I don't think I'll vote for him because he's more effective in Congress, if we can get him in support of nuking the filibuster, then I'd love to see him in the Senate.
Yeah, Gottheimer is a good fit for his district. Representatives should be able to differ from the party in meaningful ways. Gottheimer barely does that and he gets a ton of criticism. Centrist Dems and Leftist Dems are both critical of the opposite end of the party but it seems like the general trend towards party unity (if that's what you want to call it) is harmful to both ends. I'd wager if even 2000s levels of ideological diversity were allowed in the Democratic Party, you'd see a larger and more influential left wing, even if it came with more people like Gottheimer or Dan Lipinski. It would certainly be helpful if moderate Republicans weren't all rooted out in the same manner.
