By Richard Lee

Been there. Done that.

That’s New Jersey’s reaction to President Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race just a few months before the election.

Well not exactly, but the Garden State does have some experience with a candidate dropping out of a campaign close to Election Day.

It happened in 2002 when Democrat Bob Torricelli was seeking re-election to his U.S. Senate seat.

With New Jersey being a blue state, Torricelli was expected to win the race easily, but when legal and ethical questions arose, his poll numbers started to drop. Suddenly, Republican Doug Forrester looked like he might be able to pull off an upset and swing the seat to GOP, which would have national implications.

So Torricelli ended his campaign on Sept. 30, and Democrats replaced him with former Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who had retired but was more than happy to enter the race.

The deadline for replacing a candidate had passed, but New Jersey Democrats appealed to the state Supreme Court, which ruled that Lautenberg could be placed on the ballot because the law establishing the deadline did not address a situation in which a candidate withdraws.

Lautenberg, who had already served three terms in the Senate, was among the state’s most popular politicians, and he quickly built a large lead over Forrester. On Election Day, he emerged victorious, winning by 10 percentage points, 54% to 44%.

Although Forrester lost the race, Republicans did produce a memorable campaign commercial called “The Lesson.”

The ad uses humor to argue that Democrats replaced Torricelli with Lautenberg when they realized they might lose the race.

In the spot, a young boy having trouble with his homework asks his teacher, “If I fail this test, can I have Frank Lautenberg take it for me?” Later, when the has a tough time playing basketball, he quits and says, “Let Frank Lautenberg play for me.”

Click here to watch the ad. And then hang on to your seats because the next few months are shaping up as one of the wildest rides in U,S, political history.

Richard Lee, executive director of the Jandoli Institute, covered politics and government as a reporter and later served as Deputy Director of Communication for two New Jersey governors.

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