Winners and Losers of 2013, Part 3
Monmouth County’s Biggest Losers
Vin Gopal. When you’re twenty-eight years old and the most popular governor in the nation singles you out as a practitioner of the “politics of yesterday,” twice in four months, you’re having a bad year.
Worse for the Monmouth County Democratic Chairman, he doesn’t have the juice to enforce the retribution he promised to Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long and Long Branch Mayor Adam Schneider, two Monmouth County Democrats who endorsed Governor Chris Christie’s reelection.
When you’re a twenty-eight year old County Chairman and the elite statewide power players of your party convene for dinner in your county, twice, and you’re not invited, you’re having a bad year.
When, after a devastating county-wide electoral loss, a member of your party leaks your declaration of victory taking credit for wins in races you lost and for a victory in a non-partisan election you weren’t involved in, you’re having a bad year.
But none of those things are what landed Vin Gopal on MMM’s biggest loser list.
Gopal in on this list because of his reckless, mean-spirited and false attempted character assassination of a Republican candidate for Red Bank Borough Council.
Gopal launched his inaccurate attack against Sean DiSomma in a press release late on a Friday afternoon in October. He encouraged reporters to print his allegations on over the weekend and do their fact checking on Monday, after the story had legs. Some did, to their own detriment.
In his desperate zeal to win in a Democratic town where he was losing, Gopal ruined his credibility with members of the media who had come to rely upon him as a reliable source.
The Bayshore Tea Party Group. Once respected as a powerful and principled political force, Barbara Gonzalez , Bob Gordon and their shrunken band of zealots traded their welcome at Republican power tables where they could have made a difference for the road less taken of self-righteous irrelevancy.
‘Queen’ Barbara Gonzalez of The Bayshore Tea Party Group via facebook. Click for larger view
By waging a primary campaign against the highly respected 13th District Legislative Team; Senator Joe Kyrillos and Assembly Members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon, and the accomplished and popular Monmouth County Republican Team of Sheriff Shaun Golden and Freeholders Tom Arnone and Serena DiMaso with a slate of ill-prepared and poorly vetted amateurs, BTPG betrayed their mission and reason for existence. By failing to support Steve Lonegan’s U.S. Senate candidacy against Cory Booker they revealed themselves to be driven more by petty personal concerns than by principle.
Andrew Lucas. The former Manalapan Committeeman finally, after three years trying, sold the development rights to his farm for Open Space, for the tidy sum of $1.152 million. But he lost the Republican Party’s support to continue his political career and resigned his seat on the Manalapan Township Committee abruptly without explanation after federal investigators visited the Hall of Records asking questions about the land deal. EIEIO. 2014 is not looking too good for Lucas.
Susan O’Neal , Linda Baum and the Middletown Democrats. Former Middletown Township Library Director Susan O’Neal did not like the policies her bosses, the Board of Trustees of the Library, were implementing, so she turned to Democratic Township Committee Candidate Linda Baum for political support and used library resources for her insubordination and political purposes.
O’Neal lost her six figure job. Baum lost another election and Gopal is looking for new leadership for the Middletown Democrats.
The Asbury Park Press has become so irrelevant that we hardly make fun of them anymore.
In 2013, they put their headquarters up for sale, laid off their most senior reporters and announced that the paper will soon be a local version of USA Today.
Their worst moment of 2013 was their ignorant editorial blasting Middletown Township Committeeman Tony Fiore and Judge Lawrence Lawson for doing their jobs appropriately regarding the Middletown Library/Linda Baum controversy. They took an editorial position that contradicted the facts as accurately reported by their own staff writer.
MONMOUTH COUNTY’S BIGGEST LOSER IS A WINNER!
Freeholder Gary Rich, Chairman John Bennett, Freeholder Tom Arnone, Freeholder John Curley and Sheriff Shaun Golden. photo via facebook. Click for larger view
Monmouth County Republican Chairman John Bennett is our biggest loser of 2013 for all the weight he has shed.
Bennett had a very good year, in the face of some significant challenges. He fought off the Bayshore Tea Party’s primary challenge of his 13th District and County teams, reestablishing the power of “the line” by not taking it for granted. The Monmouth GOP increased Chris Christie’s margin of victory in 2013 over the Christie’s lofty plurality in 2009 and in a great move not seen in many years, the Chairman reached down to the municipal level to support candidates in competitive races with financial and logistical support.
2014 won’t be without its challenges for Bennett, as his party by-laws are likely to result in freeholder incumbents Lillian Burry and Gary Rich being challenged at the GOP nominating convention. The Democrats, energized by Senator Cory Booker on the top of the ballot, are likely to be more competitive and better funded in their county campaign then they were this year.
Bennett is a lock to be reelected Chairman, probably unopposed. That hasn’t happened in 12 years.
More from my site
Thanks for a great month
Middletown Library Will Consider Part Time Executive Director
Monmouth Leaders Speak Out On Bridgegate, Christie’s Response.
Dina’s going Long for Christie
Why is the Bayshore Tea Party Group Challenging Monmouth County Incumbents?
Bayshore Tea Party Wants Bennett To Change The By-Laws
Walsh To Challenge Freeholder Incumbents
Middletown Library Director and Democratic Committee Candidate Worked Together To Undermine Oversight, Raise Funds For Democratic Campaign
Long Branch Mayor Adam Schneider To Endorse Christie
Asbury Park Press Gets Its Facts Wrong Again
I am still mystified about the conflicting circumstances surrounding DiSomma. Did he or did he not have an outstanding traffic warrant in Texas? If he did, what is Gopal guilty of? I believe it was Gopal and the Democrats running for office in Red Bank that broke the story.
It seems DiSomma claimed the outstanding warrant was taken care of then it was later declared to be false, then DiSomma kind of backtracked–what was the final outcome?
There was no outstanding warrant for DiSomma, as our reporting clearly indicated, at the time Gopal issued his press release.
While the matter was being cleared up, and several days after Gopal falsely alleged there was a warrant, the Dallas website briefly indicated there was a warrant. This after the proven fact that DiSomma had paid his fine.
The situation is understandably confusing.
Gopal is guilty of issuing a character attack with out checking his facts and for attempting to paint a political opponent as a fugitive from justice over a traffic ticket.
The same way you are guilty of character attacks on Vin Art.
“Now there you go again.”
Vin Gopals character attacks were self inflicted wounds. All we do is point out the obvious.
JCG
….now wait for it, wait for it….
based on previous experiences, Bill is the odds on favorite to make a personal attack on me
Way to go Vin! I only get computer internet time after months of good behavior, so I’m just catching this now. Congrats! It looks like I taught you well!
P.S. You still have those stuffed paper bags I have you, right??
I was meeting one of our elected officials at a Cafe in Freehold. Not having a chance to have lunch, I got there early and ordered some soup. Went to sit down at a table in the back and in a darkened corner at a table was good old Vin working his computer and phone.
I knew who he was, but I played along to make sure. I said to him, do I know you? To wit he responded I don’t think so;
I said, your name is Vin, right? To wit he responded yes and that he hoped that I didn’t know him in a bad way.
At that “bad way” comment, I nearly choked on my soup, and that is hard to do my friends.
So, spotting the people I was meeting with down at the lower counter, I went down and suggested we change our meeting location. We certainly did.
The question I close with, “is this all Vin’s got for an office as a County Chair, a back room table, a lap top and a cell phone?”
Gee Vin, just how much are you disrespected???
@Funny but true -Who are you why not use your name?.
@funny….Sounds like you need to get out of the house more. People are known to bring their laptops into a café…welcome to the 21st century.
People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Why do you use your full name?
Maybe I had reasons for people not knowing what I was doing and who I was speaking with in order to find a solution to something.
@Bob English. I get out of the house plenty. No need to worry about that. It just seemed a little bizarre to me and I was making a joke out of Vin. That’s easily done with him you know.
You sir, need to get your head out of the book of equivocations and excuses for the liberal nightmare we are living in.
Mea Culpa. I just figured out that the reason you did not respond to the question, was that you are intellectually challenged and could not figure out that I had made a mistake while LAUGHING MY ARSE off over your hypocritical comment.
I would have thought a person with at least a modicum of intelligence would be able to figure out the mistake.
So let me spell it out for you.
Why DON’T YOU use your full name, or is the last name assumed to be “Hypocrite?”
Or is it that you don’t have either an answer that won’t make us laugh or the cohones to post your full name.
Chicken Hawk that you are….
As I was watching NJTV News last night, I was reminded that Mr. Gopal is on the “week in politics segment” every Friday as the NJ Dem representative/spokesperson……so much for being disrespected!!!
Perhaps Vinny uses the ‘squeaky wheel” method to get on? Perhaps the PC correct, liberal news likes a minority on their shows.
Only winners are respected. Losers are relegated to the back room, the back room of a diner that is.