Anne Estabrook

While dozens of candidates were making last minute appeals on primary day, Republican

Senate candidate Joe Pennacchio spent the afternoon working on dental fillings and root canals.  The next day, about 12 hours after congratulating rival Dick Zimmer on his victory, Pennacchio was at his Mount Arlington dental practice again, engaging in his pre and post-election routine: going to work. 

“I make a habit of working my regular job on election day and the next morning,” he said.  “It grounds me.  It tells me who I am, gets me back with the people and in the mix.”

Pennacchio, a conservative, lost to the more moderate Zimmer, 46% to 40%, with Murray Sabrin, a finance professor at Ramapo College, taking 14% of the vote.  But despite a respectable showing, Pennacchio was true to the persona he cultivated during the campaign, exemplified by his “Jersey Joe” moniker and the slogan that accompanied it: “He’s one of us!”

Former Rep. Dick Zimmer, right, won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, defeating Joe Pennachio and Murray Sabrin: Politicker PhotoPRINCETON - Former Congressman Dick Zimmer secured the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate tonight, defeating opponents state Sen. Joe Pennacchio and college professor Murray Sabrin.

"Two months ago, I never thought I'd be running for U.S. Senate let alone anything else," Zimmer said, flanked by party officials including state Sen. Bill Baroni and former U.S. Senate candidate Anne Estabrook, who dropped out of the primary contest due to health reasons.

Taking aim at his fall opponent, current U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, Zimmmer said, "You cannot expect someone elected 26 years ago to be the agent of change that we need."

In New Jersey, John Ensign is settling for his third choice in the race for U.S. Senate
Add New Jersey to the list of states where John Ensign has meddled and lost. The National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman made a brief foray into Garden State politics last week when he sought to clear the field for John Crowley, a biotech millionaire with an incredibly compelling life story, to enter the race for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination.

After Crowley’s first announcement last Monday that he wasn’t running, Ensign engineered a full-court press to get him in the race. He had John McCain and five other Republican U.S. Senators call him. He promised him money and pledged to make 84-year-old incumbent Frank Lautenberg an NRSC target. And for a while, it looked like Crowley would run.

But by the weekend, Crowley decided -- for business, family and military (he’s a Navy reservist) reasons – that he could not transition his life into politics by today’s New Jersey filing deadline. On Sunday, a spokesman announced Crowley’s second withdrawal in seven days.