Star-Ledger endorses Roy Cho for Congress in the fifth district [View all]

No matter how you feel about Scott Garrett, this is undeniable: After serving 12 monotonous years in Congress, he isn’t what you call a Tough Read.

Essentially, the Republican from New Jersey’s Fifth District was an ideologue from the rattletrap Far Right long before the Tea Party was ever conceived; he is a retrograde culture warrior who wants to eliminate a woman’s right to choose and not enforce anti-gay hate crimes; and he is a pint-sized government monomaniac who regards all cuts not merely as cost savings but as shimmering moral triumphs.

It’s hard to imagine such a person being elected six times from this state, because his voting record is something you’d see from another place or time -- unless the denizens of Bergen, Passaic, Warren and Sussex are deliberately trying to befuddle the pollsters.