Republican Thomas H. Kean Jr. loves inflation because it is giving his haphazard and chaotic campaign for Congress a fledgling chance of success in a district designed to give any GOP contender a distinct advantage.
Kean is a multi-millionaire trust fund beneficiary who voted against cutting middle-class taxes to keep taxes on wealthy people low, according to a research report created by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).
A 672-page book details facts about the GOP lawmaker that could convince New Jersey voters to once again reject the three-time loser in Congressional elections.
Among its findings, “Kean sold stock in tobacco companies and took contributions from the tobacco company PACs, all while he voted with tobacco companies’ interests against cigarette tax increases and raising the minimum age for tobacco purchases.”
It also said “Kean introduced a bill to cut down on ‘pay-to-play’ for state contracts but exempted himself and other legislators from its provisions” but it failed to point out that the legislation has utterly failed to prevent patronage in exchange for political payoffs in any of the state’s school districts, municipalities or counties.
The report also said Military Families Speak Out—a group representing families that have a loved one who has served in the military since 9-11—”called Kean disrespectful” after he refused to answer all their questions about the Iraq War.
If the Republican wins in November, it will be his first successful effort to achieve public office in an election. Kean was twice appointed to position in the state Legislation, but New Jersey voters rejected him as a candidate for federal office three times.
Kean lost a primary to Mike Ferguson for the Republican nomination in New Jersey’s 7th congressional district in 2000. In 2006, Kean was the unsuccessful Republican nominee running for a United States Senate seat.
In 2020, Kean came up short again in New Jersey’s 7th congressional district, losing to first-term Democratic incumbent Tom Malinowski, whose campaign has $4.25 million cash on hand compared to just $1.3 million for Kean, despite his past financial support from Hillary Clinton donors.
Kean’s estimated net worth is between $10.5 million and $30.5 million, while his $474,300 unearned income dwarfs the annual salary from the New Jersey State Senate that he gave up to run full-time. Senators in New Jersey’s part-time Legislature are paid $49,000 a year.
Kean’s private-sector resume includes only a four-month internship in Greece working for British Petroleum. The former state senator supports his wife and two children largely on money from a family trust fund.
Kean supported privatizing Social Security from 2000-05, but he claims that he abandoned that stance following the stock market crash that led to the Great Recession.
Kean’s disclosure filings listed stocks in companies such as Circuit City, Conoco Phillips, Exxon Mobil Corp., General Electric, Hewlett-Packard Co., Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., IBM and Sara Lee.
Kean Jr. voted against legislation to allow domestic partnerships for same-sex couples but he is among the very few pro-abortion Republicans.
Although then-Vice President Dick Cheney traveled to New Jersey to praise Kean when he ran against US Senator Bob Menendez, the perennial Republican candidate has remained silent about questions of vote integrity, the attack on the Capitol, and the rise of fascism.
Although mail to voters paid for by New Jersey Republican State Committee proclaimed that, “Tom Kean, Jr. supports the Trump agenda,” the candidate himself has not unequivocally established himself as a Trump loyalist or as an American patriot dedicated to protecting democracy from the vote-stealing scoundrels who incited a failed coup d’etat.
Kean’s cowardice stands in stark contrast to the former Vice President’s daughter, Liz Cheney, who said, “I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible. ‘There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”