Jay Webber has been doing his best to cast Democrat Mikie Sherrill, his opponent for the 11th district seat in Congress, as the dark, fire-breathing radical in this race. But in reality, he is the fringe candidate.

This is not just because of her sterling background as a Navy veteran, helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor, or sensible defense of our health care coverage or gun safety, a good fit for the northern suburbs of our state.

It's also Webber's bear hug of President Trump and a Republican party that's careened to the far right, along with Webber's alarming record in New Jersey, where he's been a strict ideologue in the state legislature, that show he's far too extreme for this district.

Let's look at the facts. To start, the relatively moderate Republican retiring from this seat, Rodney Frelinghuysen, and Rep. Leonard Lance (R-7th dist.), both voted against their own party's giant tax cuts that primarily benefitted the wealthiest and corporations, and particularly hurt New Jersey, by curtailing our ability to deduct state and local taxes from our federal tax bill.

Sherrill is against that too. Webber is the outlier in defending it. He does so with the implausible caveat that he wants to reinstate our tax deduction, when the rest of his party doesn't. In fact, Republicans just passed a bill to make it permanent.

They have exploded our federal deficit, and to "solve" this, Republicans like Speaker Paul Ryan - who just campaigned for Webber - are now threatening to cut Medicare and Social Security. They are also still vowing to repeal Obamacare.

Their last effort, which failed by a single vote, would have kicked 23 million off health insurance and gutted protections for people with conditions like cancer or diabetes. Unlike Sherrill, Webber supports a repeal, which could come up for a vote next year again if Republicans keep control.

Webber claims he wants to protect people with pre-existing conditions, but it's just not true. All the Republican plans to do that have been debunked as bogus. They would require insurers to sell you a policy, but at whatever outrageous price they want.

More informative is Webber's actual voting record in our state. The lawyer and Assemblyman has repeatedly refused to defend coverage for various pre-existing conditions. He was the only legislator to vote against requiring coverage for the treatment of opioid addictions, and one of just three to oppose coverage for hearing aids for children. Really?

His other votes are just as extreme. Webber voted against paid leave for new parents. He opposed gay marriage in 2012, and before that, civil unions. Rather than debate the best way to stop the cruel and discredited practice of gay conversion therapy, he refuses to denounce it at all.

Mikie Sherrill, Democratic candidate for New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, chats with The Star-Ledger’s Tom Moran during an editorial board meeting in Newark. Posted by NJ.com Opinion on Thursday, October 18, 2018

And unlike Sherrill, a former target shooter whose father is a hunter, Webber is also fanatical on guns, opposing even reasonable safety laws. He refused to ban firearms for suspected terrorists, and repeatedly voted against universal background checks - until this year, after announcing his run for Congress.

He opposes abortion rights, arguing that Roe v. Wade sinks the U.S. into "a culture of death," and campaigned with Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who would deny millions health coverage, restrict the rights of women and LGBTQ people, and in Cotton's case, even refused our state federal aid after Hurricane Sandy.

Webber's been trying to distract from all this by lighting other brushfires. He blatantly lied when he accused Sherrill of saying she wants to abolish the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. She does not, and never has. She's worked closely with Homeland Security, and agrees that we must enforce our laws, but humanely.

Yet Webber still won't concede this. Instead, he points to a speaker at a June rally against family separations who took the podium after Sherrill left, and a few "radical" protestors carrying signs. Please.

Sherrill is a centrist who knows her district is neither blue nor red. She's vowed to fight for money to replace the crumbling rail tunnels into Manhattan, for a better tax deal for the middle class, and against any effort to weaken protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

Judge Sherrill by the people she runs around with, Webber demands. Well, judge him by that measure too - and above all, his own record, which proves that he's far too extreme for the people of this district. The better choice is Mikie Sherrill.

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