4th NJ Congressional District: Schmid Challenges Smith

MIDDLETOWN – Republican Congressman Chris Smith is one of only two Republicans from New Jersey serving in Congress. And once again, he finds himself in a potentially tight race, running for re-election this Nov. 3 and is being challenged by Democrat Stephanie Schmid.

Smith, 67, has represented New Jersey's fourth congressional district since 1981 — if re-elected, this will be his 21st term in Congress.

The Fourth Congressional District covers nearly all of Monmouth County, and reaches into Jackson, Manchester and Lakewood in Ocean County, and Hamilton and Robbinsville in Mercer County.

Schmid, however, will have an uphill climb. Democrats have been trying to win the Fourth District seat for years, without success. The district has voted for a Republican in the past four presidential elections by comfortable margins: Trump, Romney, McCain and Bush.

In his 40+ years in Congress, Smith has been active fighting human trafficking, obtaining funding and federal research for Lyme disease and autism. He is also well known for promoting a pro-life, anti-abortion agenda across the world; Smith supports the "global gag rule," which prevents international non-profits from receiving U.S. aid if they discuss or perform abortions.

One of the biggest criticisms many have of Smith is that he's been in public office for too long and that it's time for a fresh face to represent NJ 4.

"It's time for Chris Smith to be sent into retirement," Schmid, 40, has said. "He no longer represents the values of New Jersey. This district has gone over 27 years without a town hall from him and because of that I have committed to hosting 39 town halls in my first term."

Schmid actually has the unique position of actually being Smith's former intern: She interned for him as a high school student first getting her feet wet in national politics. Students were placed with Congress reps in their home state; she grew up in Bergen County.

After graduating from Yale and obtaining her law degree from U.C. Berkeley, she worked as a white-collar criminal defense lawyer for Fox Rothschild, according to her LinkedIn profile. There, she represented several mid-level executives at Transocean, the oil rig that exploded in the 2010 British Petroleum oil spill, where 11 workers died.

After that, she worked for seven years as a U.S. diplomat, spending part of that time stationed in Haiti.

Schmid moved to Little Silver before deciding to run for the Fourth District Congressional seat.

"I am going to stand up for everyone, whether they are an undocumented immigrant housekeeper in the fourth district or a wealthy millionaire living in the fourth district," Schmid told Patch in this article first introducing her candidacy last year.

On the issues:

President Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic:

"The federal government's response has been a dereliction of duty," said Schmid in this Oct. 19 Facebook debate hosted by the Asbury Park Press. "There's been a complete lack of leadership especially at the federal level; everything has been punted to the states."

Schmid called for national contact tracing, more efforts to deploy rapid COVID testing and also blasted President Trump for "ripping up" the national pandemic playbook.

“If I’m elected along with Vice President Biden and Senator Harris will put the pandemic response plan back into place that was handed down from the Bush administration and the Obama administration," said Schmid. "That plan could have done a lot of good but this administration literally tore it up and defunded it. And Congressman Smith is the senior Republican on the subcommittee tasked with global public health and international organizations. I could think of nobody better situated to lead and build bipartisan support for tackling this pandemic both here in New Jersey and globally. And instead, he wrote an op-ed in the Asbury Park Press attacking the World Health Organization."

But Smith defended Trump's COVID response, saying in the debate: "I think it is so wrong to say what has been done at the federal level is a dereliction of duty. I have never seen such a coming together, whether it's about finding drugs or coming up with a vaccine, it's at warp speed."

"In fact, the New Jersey Health Commissioner (Judy Persichilli) said just the other day that she's grateful to what the Trump administration has done to come up with a vaccine," Smith continued. "And when it comes to testing, I have never seen such a mobilization of testing for a virus as this one. It's been unprecedented. And talk about the WHO. They made mistakes; the Chinese government made serious mistakes, especially in the early part of this. And that is unconscionable. And it was Trump who put a ban on people coming into this country from China."

Obamacare/the Affordable Care Act: Schmid got into some hot water this week when her team distributed a campaign flyer that falsely stated Smith voted to end protections of pre-existing conditions under the Affordable Care Act.

Smith did not vote that way; he actually voted with the majority of Democrats and against Trump to preserve coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Schmid apologized for the mistake on the flier, but said her point still remains that Smith, like many Republicans, has voted to dismantle the Affordable Care Act in the past.

Smith has been critical of the ACA, warning that it would increase healthcare costs, among other reasons, and has often called for Congress to come up with a replacement.

But in the most recent ACA vote on May 4, 2017, Smith voted — against the majority of his party — to preserve the Affordable Care Act. He did not like a replacement plan backed by Trump had provisions that would cut people from Medicaid, added an age tax and hurt people with preexisting conditions.

New Jersey property taxes: Both candidates say they want to help New Jersey homeowners pay less in property taxes.

Schmid often criticizes Smith for voting against the HEROES Act (he's voted against it twice), which would have repealed the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap. Trump's tax reform law put the cap in place; it limits how much New Jersey homeowners could deduct in property taxes.

"Congressman Smith voted against that in May, and he voted again against it in August. So he can say all he wants about his commitment to repeal, but he’s had the chance to do it twice and failed,” Schmid said.

Smith's campaign has said he voted against the HEROES Act because included in that bill was a provision that would have cut funding for private and parochial schools. The HEROES Act also included federal funding for illegal aliens, something Smith opposes.

Smith was also one of 12 Republicans who originally voted against Trump's tax reform bill specifically because it would have increased property taxes for New Jersey homeowners.

Oil drilling off the New Jersey coast and climate change: For years, Smith has fought against attempts by the Bush, Obama and now Trump administrations to drill for oil in the Atlantic Ocean.

Schmid also opposes Atlantic Ocean oil drilling, but also thinks it was a mistake for the U.S. to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord.

"When you talk about the Paris Accord, it has no enforcement, it's aspirational," countered Smith. "Whether we're in or or not, China can pollute more than any country on this earth."

Abortion: Schmid and Smith disagree most poignantly on abortion.

Before Schmid decided to run for Congress, she worked as the legal counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which promotes access to abortion and birth control. She helped write the Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights Act of 2019, which Smith opposes.

"Rep. Smith has always been clear that he does not believe in a woman's right to choose, and he does not believe women get to make their own healthcare decisions. I've known from a very young age that this is a right that is absolutely essential to women," she previously told Patch. "Unless women can control their reproductive decision-making they will continue to remain second-class citizens in the U.S. and around the world."

Meanwhile Smith is one of Congress' staunchest abortion opponents, and he has said his strong Catholic faith is the reason he is against it. He is a regular speaker at the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. Every year he votes in support of the Hyde amendment, which prohibits federal taxpayer dollars from being used for abortion.

In 2017, Smith voted in favor of a national ban on late-term abortions after five months in utero, at which point a fetus has been found to experience pain. Also that year Smith sponsored legislation that permanently banned federal funding for abortion for women except in cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother.

"I do believe in the sanctity of human life," Smith said in Monday's Asbury Park Press debate. "With the advents of ultrasounds, women and their husbands and boyfriends are getting to see the baby inside the womb, moving, sucking its thumb. Birth is not the beginning of life."

Smith also pointed to life-saving surgeries that are now done on babies in utero and cited a former abortion doctor, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, the co-founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) who came to regret his actions, saying "I've come to the agonizing conclusion that I caused 63,000 deaths."

"No one is pro-abortion; we are pro-choice," countered Schmid. "We need to make sure a dangerous, right-wing Supreme Court does not take away our constitutional liberties. And I am a person of faith. I grew up in the Episcopal church and I'm a Sunday school teacher. I do not believe the federal government should be involved in getting rid of a woman's wife to choose."

Schmid said she also takes issue with Smith's support of the "global gag rule," which prevents international non-profits from receiving U.S. aid if they discuss or perform abortions. She also criticized him for his vote against the Violence Against Women Act, after it was expanded in 2013 to included protections from domestic violence for LGBTQ victims.

"He believes it is overly broad," said Schmid last year. "I want to be clear because a lot of the other media have made this just about abortion and it's not: It's about a world view. In his view, he sees women and LBGTQ people as second-class citizens, and not deserving of the same protections as white heterosexual men. And that's how he votes."

But at the time, Smith said on the House floor that he voted against the Violence Against Women Act because it took $5 million in funding away from his Trafficking Victims' Act.

Smith has often said his pro-life views are guided by his Catholic faith.

"Voters in the district — regardless of party — know that Chris Smith is pro-life. They have always respected Smith for his honesty, his courage and the compassion he shows toward both women and children, regardless of their own position on abortion," a Smith spokeswoman, Mary Noonan, told Patch in 2018, back when Democrat Josh Welle tried — without success — to unseat Smith.

Related: Chris Smith's Former Intern Is Now Running Against Him

Planned Parenthood Action Fund Endorses Stephanie Schmid For NJ 4

This article originally appeared on the Middletown Patch