Little Opening A U.S. Senate Campaign Account. Shakeup In Her Army
By Art Gallagher
Anna Little, the former Mayor of Highlands, former Freeholder and the 2010 GOP nominee in the 6th Congressional district is one step closer to challenging Monmouth County State Senator Joe Kyrillos for the GOP 2012 U.S. Senate nomination.
Little told Politickernj that she would be filing with the FEC today to open a campaign account for her U.S. Senate bid.
An embarrasing Little For Senate fundraising letter dated November 28, arrived in former donors’ mail boxes this week.
Atlantic Highlands Municipal Chairwoman Jane Frotten has resigned as Little’s campaign treasurer. Atlantic Highlands Mayor Fred Rast has resigned as president of Anna’s Army Foundation, “a non-profit educational foundation created in the image of Anna Little and her campaign for Congress in the 6th Congressional District of NJ.”
Until recently, the race for the Republican nomination to challenge Senator Robert Menendez was seen as battle between Kyrillos and fellow State Senator Michael Doherty. Kyrillos has a Senate Exploritory Committee. Doherty has been traveling the state touting his Fair School Funding plan. MMM has learned from very reliable sources that Doherty is leaning against entering the Senate primary. If Doherty does stay out of the race, a head to head match up between Kyrillos and Little could be in the making.
Little should take a reality check and reconsider before her dreams of a political future are irreparably shattered.
Little made a name for herself with the stunning upset victory over Diane Gooch in the primary for the 6th congressional district nomination in 2010. Little’s margin of victory was 84 votes out of roughly 14,000 cast.
What Little has failed to realize, and she stops talking to anyone who tells her the truth, is that she didn’t win that primary so much as Gooch lost it.
Not that her victory was an accident. The strategy of the Little primary campaign was to sneak up from behind. I know because I, then still a close confidant of Little, helped design the strategy. None of the “experts” took Little’s challenge of the county party lines and the uber funded Gooch seriously going into the primary. That was the key to victory. Build a ground game to bring out new voters and count on the fact that the “experts” don’t see the Tea Party wave coming. Even the Tea Parties were shocked by the depth of the 2010 tsunami. David Corsi’s inexplicable primary victory over Scott Sipprelle in the Monmouth County portion of the 12th congressional district proves that the party establishment was caught with their pants around their ankles.
They won’t be caught off guard again.
The Gooch campaign’s primary strategy was to ignore Little and run against incumbent Congressman Frank Pallone. It was a good strategy for a conventional time. Conventional times ended in 2010 before the establishment realized it.
It wasn’t until the final weekend of the 2010 primary campaign when Little managed to get onto TV, that the Gooch campaign realized that they might have a problem. They tried legal maneuvers, that failed, to get Little’s ads pulled. It was too late to respond. Little had successfully used the “surprise them” and “get the last word” strategies that we had successfully used in Highlands campaigns many times.
The problem with a “don’t let them see you coming” playbook is that it only works once.
A key political operative with close ties to both Gooch and Kyrillos has been keeping a close eye on Little since she declared her rematch with Pallone on election night 2010.
“She won’t get a free ride next time,” said the operative on the condition of anonymity, “we had a thick opposition research file on her in 2010 but didn’t use it because we weren’t taking her seriously and didn’t want to hurt her needlessly. The file has gotten a lot thicker in the last year.”
With their discharge from Anna’s Army, Frotten and Rast join the growing brigade of Monmouth County politicos who will no longer go to battle for Little.
Roughly a year ago, this blog compared Little to Jon Corzine over a policy position she took in one of her final acts as the mayor of Highlands. Unfortunately, it is becoming apparent that Little also shares a personality trait with the former governor. She surrounds herself with people who tell her what she wants to hear and burns bridges with those who tell her what she needs to hear.
Little had a bright political future ahead of her on election night in 2010. Then she started talking.
She declared her rematch with Pallone, announced the formation of Anna’s Army and challenged Gooch, who had funded independent anti-Pallone ads, to a rematch. She failed to thank her supporters, Tea Party and establishment, who were caught off guard by her lack of humility.
She’s on the verge of crossing a line from which there will be no return. She should reconsider and start mending fences. Many of her old friends are forgiving.
More from my site
Anna Little, David Corsi won’t be Tea Party candidates in GOP Primary
Look who is covering Little and Pallone!
Could Pallone Be A Redistricting Target?
Adam Geller: Menendez is Corzine like vulnerable
Little mentioned as U.S. Senate candidate- Little Backing Off Senate Bid
Menendez raises over $10 million
2012 Predictions
CD-6 Primary: It will all come down to turnout
Kryillos Will Make Senate Bid Official Today
Looks like Anna’s spell checker also resigned.
And is that why Anna’s Army was evicted from the free office she never paid for and also never actually used?
“Little should take a reality check and reconsider before her dreams of a political future are irreparably shattered.”
Art, she’s already crossed the Rubicon and has shattered those dreams all by herself.
Apparently she still feels she doesn’t need anybody since she wasn’t at the Affiliated Party last night.
Nor was Dianne Gooch. That surprised me.
Art –
See that part you wrote about the operative who says they have a thick file on Anna and will use it?
It’s bullshit. I’ve heard that same story sung since Anna first ran for Freeholder. It’s always promised and nothing appears.
Who was your source Art – Monmouth Rastaman?
This is exactly why good people don’t run for office. Threats against families.
It’s also why I don’t run. If you wrote that in a story about me, I’d find you and choke you until you gave me the guy’s name, and I won’t share with you what I’d do to the “operative” when I caught him.
If nothing else, I can’t see her possibly raising the kind of money it would take to run a statewide primary campaign in the NY and Phili media markets.
The Affilaited Dinner? come on. Nobody cares. Same old old old old GOPers. Yawn. The Affiliated and its grand poobah are a joke.
Looks like she might have sent the rough draft of the fundraiser letter out by mistake!!
Little was at the Affiliated Dinner
@Freespeaker,
Seems like 200 people cared. Seems like they won all of their seats this year. They must be doing something right.
“She was there”
Was she there? Really? I didn’t see her.
If so, apologies, but she sure didn’t work the room for someone professing to be running for Congress or Senate, which ever is the fancy of the week. Nor did she seem to stay long.
Yes, she was at the dinner last night. Not as active as other times.
Her senate campaign website is very deceiving in my opinion. The Endorsements are from the past “only game left in town” candidate. I’d really like to know who is really endorsing her for a Senate run on that list. Not many I would bet. Let’s be honest now, seems like wishful thinking to me and should tick off many of those mentioned on her site
@ Her Website…
I had much the same feeling. I wondered how Mary Pat Angelini felt about using her name for even the hint of an endorsement for a Senate run. Seemed kinda low brow to me.
[…] noted in the comments of the Little Opening A U. S. Senate Campaign Account, Anna Little has a list of “endorsements of Anna Little’s work and previous runs for […]
now you clobber a 60-plus year old club, unique in this state, with anywhere from 400-1,000 members from all our towns, that has produced and supported MANY winning officials, over the years.. maybe you just don’t like people, but, beside the usual networking and “angling” for support, many folks,over the years, have formed lifelong friendships, and found an extended “family”, who care about them as a person, too..and, btw, there were people from the YR’s, and ages ran from the 20’s and up, there, last night.. can the county Dems even come close with any such organization?.. that would be “NO”!..
Gosh FS,
YOU TALKING TO ME?
If so, don’t know where you got the idea I clobbered them. I was there the other night supporting them, am a dues paying member and try to make as many functions as I can.
Notice it was a faux name of “@Freespeaker” attacking the Affiliated Club. Hope you noticed that 🙂
Save Jersey’s analysis of the Anna Little’s bid for the US Senate is thoughtful and balanced–not full of the insider gossip and petty back stabbing commentary that appears on this site.
Republicans must stop eating their own and start speaking positively of one another or risk losing otherwise winnable races.
(BTW, Little won Save Jersey’s 2012 Republican Senate Primary poll–capturing nearly half of the 500 votes cast in a hypothetical race against Senators Doherty and Kyrillos. Scientific–no. Relevant–yes.
Anna was able to mobilize her supporters.)
Little, as a Reagan Republican, brings many fine attributes and talents to the table.
As a candidate, she is principled, knowledgeable, articulate, and likable.
Her ability to speak fluent Spanish can potentially attract hispanics, not only to her own campaign, but also to the campaign of the eventual Republican presidential nominee–not to mention the New Jersey Republican party.
Little has the ability to unite the Reagan coalition of social, defense, and economic conservatives.
Little is a Republican–elected to office before the Tea Party–a movement whose economic principles of fiscal responsibility, lower taxes, and constitutional governance she embraced prior to its beginning.
And finally, Little is tenacious. She didn’t sit home licking her wounds because she lost an extremely difficult race (the handicap being almost insurmountable). She kept her chin up and graciously continued to promote her principles in public appearances around the state.
The Independence Hall Tea Party PAC was proud to endorse Anna Little in 2010 and we plan to be very active in her campaign to
unseat Bob Menendez in 2012.
Don,
With all due respect, Save Jersey didn’t say anything other that Anna kicked off her campaign, that Kyrillos and Doherty will now have to pick it up and that Little has been criticised as a career campaigner.
SJ said they will have more analysis later.
http://savejersey.com/2011/12/anna-little-officially-running-for-us-senate/
I would mark the Independence Hall Tea Party PAC as a YES on the “endorsements” post, but your name did not appear on Anna’s site.
I know you’ve been pushing Anna in this direction since at least July, http://www.moremonmouthmusings.net/2011/07/25/independence-hall-tea-party-pac-plugs-anna-little-for-us-senate/.
You didn’t do her, or New Jersey, any favors.
I hope you remember you admonition about Republicans speaking well of each other and support New Jersey’s nominee for U.S. Senate with a large check.
Stay in Philly with the 9 people that meet in the basement of an old hotel and stay out Of Jersey.
You want Anna Little? Pay her expenses to move to PA and I’m sure she will. We’ve had our fill of crazy here.
Rullo has the support of almost every elected official who he has been the prime operative responsible for defending the incumbency during even primaries in Ocean County. The same friends he keep with his loyalty in Ocean County delivered Christie I beleive 60,000 out of the 70,000 votes needed to be governor in a general. In a primary no matter what the elected officials out of respect will not go against Rullo, and I think this time he is going for the gold. If Rullo was smart he would just keep to the issues on his site he has the right idea for the people of NJ.
Winner!!!! http://www.rullo4senate.com
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