Jon Bramnick, the Republican Assembly leader and part-time stand up comic, often cracks self-deprecating jokes about his career as a personal injury lawyer.

In one bit, Bramnick extolled the virtues of advertising for his Westfield-based firm. "What I did was come up with a rap song,'' he told an audience at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark in 2018.

And with no prompting, the sandpaper-voiced Bramnick slipped into a slow, rhyming cadence. "Fell in a bathroom, fell at home? Call attorney Bramnick, from any phone," he began.

The crowd lapped it up. But Bramnick's most recent foray into advertising is no laughing matter. For the onetime shoo-in, the controversy that erupted last week has imperiled his chances of survival in next month's Assembly contests.

And a defeat of a veteran, moderate voice figure like Bramnick would certainly add to the woes of a state GOP struggling to regain its relevance in the shadow of President Donald J. Trump.

Bramnick, a 17-year veteran from the 21st Legislative District, a historically Republican redoubt in central Jersey, found himself at the center of a political firestorm last week when a political website, the New Jersey Globe, revealed that a section of his law firm's website offered to discredit "accusers" in sexual assault cases.

"We know, unfortunately, people accuse others of these types of crimes because of hurt feelings, or in anger over breaking up or even confusion over what actually happened," said the page on jonbramnick.com, the website for his law firm, Bramnick, Rodriguez, Grabas, Arnold & Mangan.

"We will investigate your case and seek to discredit your accuser,'' it read. The entry has since been removed.

In the era of heightened #MeToo sensitivities — in which victims are summoning the courage to publicly discuss their long-suppressed trauma and reveal the names of their abusers — Bramnick's law firm sounded as if it were taking sides with the abusers by promising a suite of hard-nosed, slut-shaming tactics.

Women's advocacy groups pounced, assailing the language as tone-deaf and fostering the impression that the victims should not be believed. Bramnick found himself in full damage control mode: He took a buck-stops-here responsibility for the flap, although he said he hadn't reviewed the entry before it went online and is not involved in the firm's criminal defense work.

Bramnick also took pains not to criticize his law firm staff and explained that the web appeal to prospective clients was a poorly written attempt to offer a fundamental legal defense to people who feel that they have been wrongly accused.

"I take responsibility as the senior partner in the firm,'' Bramnick said last week while refusing to name the lawyers who signed off on the language or the outside contractor that was hired to write it. "I'm not throwing them under the bus,'' he said.

It was an unusual place for Bramnick, who was first elected in 2002 and won reelection with hefty margins and with little buzz or controversy. He was chosen as the Assembly minority leader in 2012, an act that made him the chief fundraiser, spokesman and strategist for the Assembly Republicans.

But like the rest of the state, the 21st District, which includes parts of Union, Somerset and Morris counties, has become increasingly Democratic. In 2017, Bramnick bested the leading Democratic challenger by 2,600 votes — a dramatic change of fortune from two years earlier, when he won by 6,200 votes, and by 17,000 in 2015.

The once-safe haven for Republicans is now morphing into a swing district. In 2017, the Democratic voter registration in the district surpassed the Republicans by 1,600. It has now grown to a 5,200-vote advantage.

The district is also, as one veteran GOP operative described it, "ground zero" for the suburban, moderate-voter anti-Trump backlash that propelled the Democrats' midterm surge in congressional races in New Jersey.

The backlash, now turbo-charged by growing support for Trump's impeachment, helped mobilize a veritable army of women voters appalled at Trump's policies and his litany of crude and chauvinistic episodes involving women — the "Hollywood Access" tape boasting of sexual assault, his hush-money payments to a porn star, the stream of women accusing him of improper conduct.

That is why Bramnick's website flap is potentially so damaging. It reinforces the Republican brand as indifferent or hostile to female voters, an impression only deepened by the non-stop news cycle presence of Trump.

"It's an accelerant,'' one worried GOP insider said of the controversy.

Bramnick acknowledged that he was going to face a tough fight, given the growing Democratic registration and Trump's unpopularity. But he downplayed the potential fallout from the website.

"I can tell you nothing has changed in terms of the plan to defend myself or my seat or help others,'' he said.

The 66-year-old Plainfield native has been a fixture in the central Jersey suburbs and New Jersey political life for decades as an amiable, Chamber of Commerce moderate from the central Jersey GOP heartland that produced establishment Republican names like Kean and Whitman.

"The people who have been in this state a long time — the people who know me, who work with me in the law firm, the media — I don’t think they think I’m a guy who lacks integrity,'' he said last week. "I can make mistakes, and I’ll take responsibility for that."

He is also a Jersey Republican who had to navigate life under Trump. While the majority of voters loath Trump in New Jersey, he is still popular with GOP base. That has led Bramnick to criticize Trump's behavior and rhetoric while embracing some of his policies, like tax cuts.

"I am not a member of a cult," Bramnick said last week. "I am a member of a political party."

Bramnick's Democratic challengers, Lisa Mandelblatt from Westfield and Stacey Gunderman of New Providence, who have already made women's issues a focal point of their campaign, are likely to use the website dust-up as attack ad fodder in the final weeks of the race.

"As a legislator and attorney, Jon Bramnick should know better than anyone that when something goes out in your name, you should read it,'' said Alex Koren, a spokesman for the Democratic slate. "Jon's latest excuse means he's lying or negligent — neither of which are things you want from your elected officials."

Yet Bramnick still has considerable advantages. He has mustered a considerable cash supply for the fight. Bramnick has already spent $439,000 on the race, more than $140,000 higher than his Democratic opponents, according to the latest reports with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. He also hits the homestretch with $138,000 in available cash, compared with the Democrats' $40,000.

Still, Bramnick is facing other headaches. Also on the 21st District ballot are two independent conservatives, Martin Marks and Harris Pappas, who threaten to siphon votes away from Bramnick's right. And the website incident could also force Bramnick to steer more resources away from other Assembly Republican races to defend his seat, although he denied it.

During his show at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Bramnick said that when he began his personal injury firm in the 1980s, he started to advertise. "Advertising for personal injury lawyers works,'' he said.

That may be true for his business. But it may prove to be far more of a problem for his career on the political stage.

Charlie Stile is a veteran New Jersey political columnist. For unlimited access to his unique insights into New Jersey’s political power structure and his powerful watchdog work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: stile@northjersey.com Twitter: @politicalstile

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