HAMILTON >> GOP Councilwoman Ileana Schirmer received Sunshine State vigor to her New Jersey State Senate campaign this week as Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida endorsed her candidacy.
“My friend Ileana Schirmer has my full support in her campaign to take Trenton in a new direction,” Rubio said in a campaign statement. “She is an independent-minded leader with a proven track record of fighting for affordability in her community. I know that Ileana will be a fierce advocate for her constituents and will not stop until a serious dent is put in New Jersey’s affordability crisis.”
Schirmer, a Hamilton councilwoman, is hoping to unseat Democratic State Sen. Linda Greenstein in the Nov. 7 election.
Since December 2010, Greenstein has served New Jersey’s 14th Legislative District, a swing district that covers parts of Mercer and Middlesex counties. She previously served in the State Assembly for six terms and has championed progressive causes during her entire political career.
Rubio and Schirmer both have Cuban-American heritage, and she supported his unsuccessful 2016 presidential campaign followed by his successful 2016 re-election to the U.S. Senate.
“I went to New Hampshire when he ran for president and then to Orlando when he was running for his Senate re-election,” Schirmer said Friday in an email about Rubio. “I was an early supporter of him in the presidential race.”
The Florida lawmaker is now returning the favor, and Schirmer fully accepts and embraces Rubio’s support, calling his endorsement “huge” and saying “it is an honor to be endorsed by a U.S. senator, especially one that I respect.”
Receiving Rubio’s endorsement “shows that our campaign has excitement and support behind it,” Schirmer said. “What you are seeing is that people realize New Jersey is in serious trouble and the representatives in Trenton, Linda Greenstein being one of them, have helped create the problems that we have and she has done nothing to fix them. Taxpayers are fed up and need real change and it’s not going to happen with those who currently sit in Trenton.”
Greenstein, who has the support of various labor unions, suggested she would have never accepted an endorsement from Rubio. She described him as “hyper conservative” and said Schirmer “showed her true colors” by linking up with Rubio and accepting his endorsement.
“When you get an endorsement from somebody, it should be somebody who feels the way you do on the issues,” Greenstein said. “I am almost glad that she got Marco Rubio to do this. Rubio is a man who is opposed to raising the minimum wage; he opposes gay marriage; he opposes equal pay for women; he voted no on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act; he calls public schools disastrous, so he doesn’t support them; he says that addressing global warming will destroy our economy, and he says new gun laws are ineffective so we shouldn’t pass them.”
The National Rifle Association endorsed Rubio’s 2016 Senate re-election and described him as “a strong advocate for the rights of law-abiding gun owners and sportsmen.” Rubio last year introduced legislation that would have made it harder for suspected terrorists to purchase firearms if the bill had been enacted into federal law.
Greenstein, who supports traditional Democratic causes, said she has received 2017 re-election campaign endorsements from the AFL-CIO, the New Jersey Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the Sierra Club, the Health Professionals and Allied Employees nurses’ union, and Planned Parenthood and that she expects to receive additional endorsements from other organizations between now and Election Day.
“The groups I’m getting endorsed by are groups I agree with,” the senator said.
Editor’s Note: This story has been corrected to remove a statement saying Greenstein is the first female state senator in the 14th district, but that is in fact Anne Clark Martindell.