Difference between revisions of "Anna C. Little"

Latest revision as of 13:20, September 26, 2018

Anna C. Little
Republican nominee for U.S. Representative for New Jersey, 6th District
Election date November 2, 2010
Opponent(s)	Frank Pallone (D)
Incumbent	Frank Pallone
Born	Red Bank, New Jersey
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Robert Little
Residence	Highlands, New Jersey
Alma mater	Seton Hall University (BA) Seton Hall Law School (JD) Sophia University, Tokyo
Occupation	Lawyer, Politician
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	Anna C. Little for Congress

Biography

Anna Campbell was born in Red Bank, New Jersey and raised in the nearby town of Middletown, New Jersey. She is married to lawyer Robert Little^[1] and has three teen-aged children.^[2]

Education

• Bachelor of Arts (modern languages), Seton Hall University, West Orange, New Jersey. Fluent in Spanish and French, and has a working knowledge of Japanese and Russian.^[3]
• Doctor of Jurisprudence, Seton Hall School of Law^[2][3]
• Additional education, Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan

Organizations

• Trustee, Frielinghaus Memorial Scholarship Fund^[2][3]
• Member, Historical Society of the Highlands^[2][3]

Profession

Mayor Little is an attorney specializing in immigration law. She is a member of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Bars and is admitted to practice before United States District Courts.

Political experience

Anna C. Little was elected to the Highlands Borough Council in 2002 and re-elected in 2005.

On February 25, 2006, she was placed on the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders, to fill out an unexpired term of another officeholder who had been elected to the State Assembly. She resigned her position on the Highlands Borough Council to devote full-time to the Freeholder office. She was elected in November 2006 to serve out the unexpired term.

In 2007, after Highlands Mayor Richard O'Neill declined to run for another term of office, Little was placed on the ballot and elected Mayor in November of that year. In 2008 she resigned her Freeholder position after she had taken office as Mayor.

Congressional campaign

On March 19, 2010, Little announced her intention to seek the nomination for the House seat for New Jersey's 6th District. Her opponent, Diane Gooch, publisher of the Twin River Times, out-raised and out-spent her twenty-to-one,^[4] a result that Little expected. She made immediate overtures to various Tea Party Movement groups, including the Bayshore Tea Party (which continues to supply the bulk of her volunteer corps) and the Morristown Tea Party. She also applied for certification to the Certified Constitutional Candidate program in May 2010, when that program started.^[5][6]

On June 8, 2010, the primary took place. Little finished first, by a margin that varied during the night from 63 to 61^[7] and then to 77 votes.^[8] Subsequent counts of absentee ballots widened that margin by a small degree, to 83 votes. Gooch's staff made repeated declarations that they would seek a formal recount.^[9] Then, for reasons that Gooch has never explained, Gooch abruptly conceded defeat one week after the primary and gave her verbal endorsement to Little.^[10]

Not having the resources of a well-financed campaign (like Gooch's), or such perquisites of office as the franking privilege and the privilege of hosting large-scale events at taxpayer expense and in government buildings (like Pallone), Little has resorted to an old-fashioned strategy—door-to-door campaigning. Little has amassed an "army" of volunteers, 125 strong at last report,^[11] which will drive into a town and conduct door-to-door visits at saturation level.^[12] This technique allowed her to narrow the gap between her and Pallone to a mere six points—and more remarkably still, Pallone had no more than 40 percent of the vote in his district within seventy days of the election.^[13]

However, that turned out to be insufficient. Pallone defeated Little, 55 percent to 44 percent. The most likely reasons for this outcome are:

1. Pallone bought advertising on all then-available radio and television slots in the last weekend before the election and roused his liberal base with the advertising.
2. Registered Democrats outnumbered registered Republicans in the district by two to one.
3. Pallone opened a satellite office in Plainfield, NJ, the only city in Union County that the 6th District includes. That city, plus New Brunswick and Piscataway in Middlesex County, overcame Little's advantage in Monmouth County.

On the day following the election, Little formed a foundation and two political action committees (PACs) and announced her intention to challenge Pallone again in two years. This assumes that Highlands and Long Branch, the respective home towns of Little and Pallone, will actually be in the same congressional district. The New Jersey Congressional Redistricting Commission will sit beginning 20 August 2011 and redraw all congressional districts in New Jersey for 2012. These districts will be one fewer in number (12, down from 13) than the present number. However, the 6th District is severely indented and dispersed, and in fact is the worst district in the country in terms of violation of geographical integrity, the hallmark of gerrymandering. New Jersey's Tea Party Movement organizations have pledged to agitate for the drawing of more-compact (and more-competitive) districts, even to drawing up a redistricting plan of their own.^[14]

Endorsements

• Mitt Romney
• Newt Gingrich
• NJ Right to Life
• National Right To Life
• Republican National Coalition for Life
• Family Research Council
• Eagle Forum
• A half-dozen Tea Party Organizations ^[15]

Gallery

The following photographs were taken on September 4, 2010, at the Red Oak Diner and Lounge, Hazlet Township, New Jersey. This venue served as the staging area for a saturation door-to-door campaign.^[16]

• 

  Anna Little addresses the crowd

• 

  Anna Little's volunteers gather around to hear her speak

• 

  "Anna's Army" poses for a group portrait

• 

  Anna's volunteers pick up their assignments and prepare to move out

References

External links

• Anna Little for Congress website
• Anna Little for Congress photo album
• Facebook page
• Small Business 4 Anna Little Fan page
• Twitter page
• YouTube channel