Bennett’s Victory
Former Senate President John Bennett is the Chairman of the Monmouth County Republican Organization.
Besting State Committeewoman Christine Hanlon by only 3 votes of the 615 cast an elated and magnanimous Bennett congratulated Hanlon on a hard fought race and announced that she was welcome to fill whatever role she liked on his team.
Bennett profusely thanked the Western Monmouth committee members and invited Manalapan Municipal Chairman Steve McEnry to nominate Mayor Susan Cohen as Vice Chair. Cohen was elected by acclamation.
In what was described as a record turn out, over 700 Republicans, including guests, crowded into the Colts Neck High School auditorium.
Freeholder Lillian Burry placed Bennett’s name into nomination and launched into the theme of the evening’s speeches by attacking the Hanlon campaign for negative campaigning. A more conciliatory Senator Jennifer Beck nominated Hanlon with an acknowledgment of negative campaigning on both sides and an impassioned called to build on the successes of the last four years by voting for Christine.
A handful of members of the Bayshore Tea Party Group attempted to nominate one of their own for Chair. Outgoing Chairman Joe Oxley shut them down as they continued to shout from their seats.
Bennett, who gave his speech without a microphone, continued the theme of attacking the negative campaigning and attacked Hanlon for refusing to give up county legal work. During her speech, Hanlon called the negatives and two way street and was booed by Bennett supporters when she called the conflict of interest charge unfair.
If there was an undecided vote in the auditorium prior to the speeches, Bennett probably won them over with a better delivery than Hanlon’s.
More from my site
Negative Campaigning: The Monmouth County GOP Chair’s race, Part 5
State Committee Seats To Be Contested At Monmouth GOP Convention
Party Unity
Bennett responds to the Soprano State anonymous mailer
Monmouth GOP Unity on display in Tampa
Manalapan Elected Officials Stand With Bennett
Monmouth Dems Outraise Monmouth GOP
Clifton will endorse Hanlon for Monmouth County GOP Chair
“An Amazing Moment” 
Who is Christine Hanlon? The Monmouth County GOP Chair’s Race, Part 4
I beg to differ on the delivery. I thought Christine was more inspiring.
That said, Bennett continues to be a POS and I am done supporting the Good Old Boys network, no $$ and no help. I just can’t reward the kind of campaign Bennett ran.
Sweet Justice would be Bennett having his conventions and someone steps up to challenge Burry; throwing the same kind of crap at her that she threw out tonight.
I’d even vote for a nutso Tea Party person in that circumstance.
And, since the sheep are heading off the cliff AGAIN in my town with the same old failed leadership, maybe tonight was just enough to cause me to pull a Jim Hogan and “slip out the back, Jack.”
Ya ready to retire with me Jim?
Agreed. I decided on who to vote for tonight, during the nominations and speeches. I was looking for substance, not delivery. In any case, a 309 – 306 win for Christine would still yield the same results? 306 unhappy Bennett supporters. It is time to unite and move on.
Unite with that piece of crap Bennett? Never! And I refuse to vote for Anna Little, too!
@Freespeaker
I have agreed 100% with everything you have said over the past several years.
Thanks for your wisdom.
I hope to meet you someday for a cup of coffee.
I fear now that we will be watching
the Republican Candidates lose elections one by one with a split party.
Our winning streak has now ended and its the end of an ERA.
[…] just THREE votes! 309 to 306. MMM is attributing Bennett’s victory, at least in part, to what Art describes as a superior speech that won over undecideds. Who knows. I wasn’t there, although there were certainly plenty of currents and […]
Hanlon’s own town did her in. The large number of unfilled committee seats in Ocean Township was the major factor in her downfall.
RepublicanRed, If the vote was 309-306 the other way, it still would be a split party, duh?!?
@ Do the Math…..
I was not talking about math per se.
If Christine won, she would have not
thanked a particular part of the county.
Bennett pitted Western Monmouth County against The Eastern Part. Its a geological split.
Get it?
I got what you are saying, but not all of those 309 votes came from the West…
Bennett delivered an impassioned, logical appeal for the nomination: invoking Ronald Reagan’s 11 Commandmant; 30-plus years of government service; a multi-point platform for the Monmouth County Republican Committee. His delivery really was very impressive. It felt like he was rallying votes on the Senate floor.
I don’t quite understand what happened with Hanlon. While it’s true she does not have Bennett’s legislative background, she really has done an incredible amount of work for the Republican Party in a very short period of time. Nothing can take away her “boots on the ground”, motivational style for getting people and groups involved for the party. She is known for always helping out anyone in the party from committees of 1 to 100.
Her delivery, however fell short — which again, was surprising considering her legal background. She could have easily bypassed the talk about negative campaigning and ran on her record of rallying the party and getting out the vote — but she did not, and some very vocal people in the audience turned against her.
It is very logical to assume that there were four people sitting on the fence. When that tipping point came regarding negative campaigns, the election went to Bennett.
It would be a tremendous loss to the Republican Party if Hanlon and her supporters lose the motivation to get 0ut the vote over this race and did not unite with the Bennett supporters.
Both “sides” have an incredible amount of talent, experience and ideas that, when combined, will lay waste to any attempts by Democrats to regain Monmouth County. That was proven when Monmouth County got out the vote for Chris Christie and swept out the Democrats at the county level.
It would serve in the best interests of the Republican Party to heed to Lillian Burry’s advice to unite.
The Democrats are coming…and they don’t negotiate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum!
Bennetts speech was better and the image of him speaking without a mike made him larger than life. Christine’s speech was not as well organized, she mentioned in the middle how she became a Republican after 9-11. It was basically thrown in as she was talking how she was involved in the 2008 campaigns. That said I have a different take on the booing. I thought the rude treatment would have actually helped her, but in the ned it seems the Bennett people were more enthused and they were victorious. Now the rubber meets the road to see if these were real 10 point principles or just campaign palaver.
Will Lillian Burry Have The Cojones To Chastise Jeb Bush For Attacking Other Republicans?
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/jeb-bush-democrats-twitter/2012/06/12/id/442082
Of Course NOT. Lillian, you’re full of bull crap I wanted you to retire after the last term. I now have lost all respect for you.
Oh, and Observer; I thought that bit about 9-11 was inspiring in that she made a decision to get involved. Wish enough county committee people would do the same.
Remember when you tried to screw the Verga family? You did much the same to Monmouth County last night
It takes nothing more than reading the nasty comments above to know who ran a trashy campaign.
The same nasty thread runs from the Monmouth Rastaman Blog from years ago through the negative treatment of Anna Little, John Curley, Mike Halfacre, John Bennet and many others.
Guess what all those folks had in common?
They weren’t the “chosen ones” of Middletown.
Congrats, JB.
Yes it was inspiring and should have been her lead in her speech not in the middle.
Hanlon , Bennett, Gordon all three had positives and negatives but it is time to put that to bed and work to get some solid conservative candidates elected. We need a good base of municipal folks who can feed into the county, assembly, senate and eventually on to DC. Working together we can do that but if everyone who did not get what they wanted last night decides to take their ball and go home we’ll end up back where we were before Sheriff Oxley came to town.
First Christines speech was flawed. She should have ignored the Bennet crowd jabs about negative campaigning. In fact she should have come out a against negative campaigning instead of saying they did it to. I could write a phamphlet on how this could have been turned on them … maybe later. Not to say the Bennett crowd did not treat her unfairly . The jerks did. Anyway… the speech cost her votes.
Second mistake made. Joe should have let the Tea Party Morons do their little write in campaign. I understand once in the booths you could not do a write in. I think Joes actions might even have been illegal and a basis for challenging the election (not that I am suggesting that, it would be counter productive) In any event those write in’s would have taken votes away from Bennet and Christine would have won. I would also say from comments I heard, the TP morons unfairly blamed Christine for Oxely’s actions. ( btw I support most of what the Tea Party stands for that does not change the fact that their leaders are clueless)
I will say this it was (with some admitted exceptions from the penisular) the young leaders of the party and the responsible leaders who backed Christine. It was the Bomb throwers and old time politicos who suppoerted Bennett. The speech by Lillian was particularly odius.
I suspect some people will regret their choice down the line. Conservatives who backed Bennet will be sorely dissapointed. they elected a liberal when they could have had a true conservative patriot. Some people (those who thought trhey would get power) will be suprised and alarmed at who the new power brokers will be as evidenced by the elevation of Susan Cohen to vice Chair.
I could continue with a screed about the ironys and hypocrisy in this whole process but at this point it would serve no purpose other then to vent my spleen and that is not what is best for the party.
In going forward those of us who supported Christine should now accept our bitter defeat and work as best we can w/ Bennet for the good of the party. We should also be thankfull that we have sane responsible leaders in the party like ,by way of example, Tom, Rich and Serena on the Board of Freeholders. These people and others like them and Christine are ultimately the future of our Party here in Monmouth County.
As 101.5’s Jim Gearhart use to affectionatly refer to him as, “Oink Bennett” has returned.
Gordon who? Is that the girl who was screaming and carrying on like a spoiled child in a candy store? Embarrassing.
Oxley did a great job of shutting that loudmouth down, good. Bennett controlled the room with his passion and voice. Hanlon allowed the room to control her and throw her off of her game.
The otherside has noone and nothing. Lace your boots and keep it that way. We have great incumbents in every office and they have nothing. The one successfull d-run town, Marlboro, lost to a corrupt Joe Vas supporter. All is well here, move along.
The “victory party” looks cute from the photos… Bennett (with the Little family, Popkin, Costigan, Walsh) getting sworn in somewhere in a bar…
Lets see how many of the committee members that voted in favor of JB actually come out to help and volunteer. Those you don’t have to pay, that is.
I don’t know John Bennett but if Anna Little is endorsing him or celebrating any victory with him then I know Monmouth County is in trouble. Or like many of us John will realize what Anna is really like and run as fast as he can from her…. unless he is like Anna.
Through the years I have seen Christine Hanlon in action and do believe that the best will come to her in time. She has too many gifts including talent, beauty and professionalism that will benefit the Republican Party either locally or nationally. This position just wasn’t where she was suppose to be right now.
Christine – All the best to you, from everything I have read it seems that you have a lot of people who feel a great loss today. There are bigger and better things coming your way.
Anna sold her soul for a $10.00 pancake breakfast fundraiser. I can not express the depth of my dissappointment in her. She endorsed the most pro abortion Senator ever elected in Monmouth County over a pro-life woman. It is rank hypocrisy. If she thinks she made a new friend she is wrong.
How pro-life is Christine Hanlon if she chose to campaign for pro-abortion U.S. Senate candidate Joe Kyrillos over the pro-life Bader Qarmout?
John supported Anna on her merits as a known,past elected, vote-getting official, and Anna supported John because she thinks he is best-suited to move the county org. forward: why over-generalize and extrapolate out, in that way?.. for basically one-issue people, they will always look for examples of what they perceive to be the worst performance on their issue, of a candidate.. when running for school boards or local council seats, candidates get questioned on gun control, abortion, greenie-stuff, most issues those running for that office will likely never have any votes on!.. Bennett answered some concerned pro-life people this week that he was presented two bills he voted on in his legis. career: on one, he voted “yes” for parental-notification, and on the other, he voted “no” on partial-birth abortion.. how does that make him so “pro-choice”?..some have said Mrs. H is pro-choice, which conflicts with how conservative some here, think she is.. though I’m pro-life, I really, on that point, cared less, since this was for county chair, not Congress, where votes in that realm do come up.. guys, like it or not, Anna’s again the 6th dist. Cong. candidate, by a large margin, for Nov..so,let’s stop the nit-picking and grousing and move on, there’s old and new Dems to beat, soon..
Speaking of Bader Qarmout, when are all of those lawn signs on Harmony Road in Middletown (near Shop Rite) going to be picked up? He may have had more signs than votes!!
To all of you sore losers:
Anna Little won the Primary. Decisively. The majority of registered Republicans who cared enough to vote voted for Anna Little. That means that she is the G. O. P. candidate. If you don’t like that you can, A: Set aside your differences with her and support her over Frank Pallone, or, B: Put your knees in the breeze, cowboy up, and like Jeff Cantor, become Democrats and endorse Pallone.
Same goes for the Chairman’s election. Although much closer, the majority of County Committee members who cared enough to show up and vote voted for John Bennett.
That means that he is the G. O. P. County Chairman. If you don’t like that you can, A: Set aside your differences with him and, realizing that our great Party is bigger than any one man or woman, continue to promote the concept of our Party and its candidates, then in 2014 elect someone else as chair, or, B: Put your knees in the breeze, cowboy up, and like Jeff Cantor, become Democrats and endorse Pallone and the rest of the Wisniewski – Norcross cabal.
But let’s not destroy our Party from within!
Of course I am supporting Anna over Palone. Just as I will now support my new Chairman. That does not change the fact that I am disappointed that she sold her principles.
Being Pro- life is a huge part of how Anna defines herself so I do not think my dissapointment is out of line. Christine is unequivically pro lif (and cheaply I might add). As to Johns credentials on this issue I would refer you to http://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/20/news/the-1992-campaign-new-york-region-area-delegates-press-abortion-rights-cause.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
But as you have said it is done now and we need to move forward.
that should read
“That does not change the fact that I am disappointed that she sold her principles.(and cheaply I might add).
Being Pro- life is a huge part of how Anna defines herself so I do not think my dissapointment is out of line. Christine is unequivically pro life”
a common ground is now reached: now maybe we can get over 2010’s primary and 6/12/12’s results and move the hell on, and start working together with the one goal of beating all Dems in Nov… whether 1 basket, point, goal or vote, 1,000, or 1 million,a win’s a win-accept it….all of that election was done in an open, fair, legal and proper manner.. while insults, grousing, and the armchair quarterbacking continue, we can instead be re-upping our e-mails onto the new HQ list, which seems to have been purged,compromised, or maybe mismanaged, and volunteering to do something positive, to elect Republicans at all levels..for once and for all, now,let’s move ON!
You know what? It’s up to Bennett to bust his butt to unify the party. He is the one who saddled Monmouth County with a Chair who has a lot of baggage and the stigma of having “tacked” his way to a big fat government pension. He is the one who gave a divisive speech, even after he won. He is the one who lied when he said he would never run for elected office again. And if you look at his most vocal supporters, they are all part of the Larrison “old boys” network who owes him for some past favor. None of them, and several have admitted to me, voted for him because he is a hard worker or superb fundraiser – the two things we need to keep the sleazeballs from getting a toehold.