Corrections or additions?
This article by Richard K. Rein was prepared for the October 23, 2002 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Forrester’s War of the Words
What a strange political world we live in: At a time
when the country is reeking from the excesses of corporate greed,
we in New Jersey have a millionaire businessman running for Senate
— a man who some might argue has made his money off the backs
of sick people buying drugs at their neighborhood pharmacy.
Yet what does his opponent and the media — from the New York Times
to the Star-Ledger to the Associated Press — grab on to as an
issue? The candidate’s musings as an unpaid columnist for his community’s
weekly newspaper back in the early 1990s.
We are talking about Doug Forrester, of course, the CEO of Benecard
Services on Franklin Corner Road, a firm that has found a niche designing
prescription drug and vision care plans for small to mid-sized companies
and associations (typically 50 or so up to a few hundred people) and
that has created a reported $50 million in wealth for Forrester.
But instead of casting an eye on his present-day business life, Forrester’s
opponents have raised an eyebrow about the personal views expressed
in those newspaper columns. A newly minted television commercial by
newly minted Democratic opponent Frank Lautenberg depicts Forrester
as a trigger happy gun nut, and quotes from a column in the West Windsor-Plainsboro
Chronicle (no longer in business) in which Forrester opposed a ban
on assault weapons — a position that he no longer holds.
For the media the columns have been even more fun. The New York Times
quoted from a Forrester column on ice cream: “There is something
about ice cream which reduces all who partake to common ground. Even
as the ice cream melts, so do the artificial barriers of economics,
social status, age, sex, appearance, and other impediments to the
enjoyment of our simple humanity.”
Matthew Purdy of the Times raced through the writings of citizen Forrester
and concluded that he was “more libertarian than conservative.”
Here at 12 Roszel Road we also took a special interest in Doug Forrester
because of our sister newspaper, the West Windsor-Plainsboro News.
Bill Sanservino, senior editor of the News and formerly with both
the Chronicle and the subsequent News Eagle (also since closed down),
looked through his old newspapers. His take made Forrester more conservative
than libertarian. For example, commenting on John F. Kennedy and JFK
Jr., Forrester had this to write:
“I am pleased some temporal distance has now made it possible
for a more analytical assessment of Kennedy’s presidency . . . I think
there is now a chance that no more public schools or facilities will
be named after the 35th president.”
In referring to an article by JFK Jr. in George magazine defending
Kennedy cousins Joe and Michael, Forrester wrote that “the reason
JFK Jr., as a standard bearer for an enormously influential family,
needs to be called into account is because of his implicit defense
of behavior which victimizes trusting people . . . An essential part
of what a community should be is the mutual effort to acknowledge
the value of what is nice and respectable and challenge each other
to seek understanding of our true selves.”
What you read in the columns is what you might expect from a nearly
50-year-old Republican whose first career turn after Harvard (Class
of ’75) was the Princeton Theological Seminary. Deciding that he needed
a little more “seasoning” before he would be prepared to serve
as a minister, Forrester instead went to work for the state, serving
as director of the Division of Pensions under Governor Tom Kean (who
now lauds the candidate in a television commercial).
Along the way Forrester pursued some hobbies: serving as committeeman
and then mayor of West Windsor Township and writing those columns.
But what about Benecard and why isn’t anyone talking about the dilemma
of health care costs? Republican strategist Pete McDonough, helping
with PR on the Forrester campaign, notes that Robert Torricelli attempted
to make the prescription benefit management (PBM) industry a campaign
issue. “Torricelli raised some good questions about PBMs,”
says McDonough. “But what he found out was that Benecard is not
a PBM. In fact, Benecard is probably a good model for what a national
pharmaceutical benefits program should be. Doug knows the issue inside
and out. If I were his opponent, I wouldn’t want to raise it.”
As for why it’s out of the spotlight, just consider which is easier:
Discussing health care costs or pondering the melting of ice cream?
Back in his days as a West Windsor civic leader Forrester helped organize
a community festival to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the War
of the Worlds broadcast that used Grover’s Mill in West Windsor as
its locale. He’s gone from one strange media event to another. Call
it the War of the Words.
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