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Meeting Vin Gopal

By Tommy DeSeno

Everyone has certain ideas that they’d like to be remembered for.  When you write a weekly column, you end up with a few of them.

One of mine is this:  “Politics is 1% of who we are.  Never let that stop you from getting to know the other 99% of a person.”

Last night I went to a party in Asbury Park to honor this year’s Independence Day Parade Grand Marshal, Hazel Samuels.

As I was handshaking and hugging old friends I hadn’t seen for some time, from the other side of a large round table someone introduced me to Vin Gopal. 

Since candidates become captive audiences during campaign season to anyone who wants to talk to them, I figured I’d go over and get a sense of the 11th District Assembly candidate for the Democrats.

I ended up meeting a very likable fellow.  Vin’s physical demeanor is comfortable.  He sat in his chair sort of laid back and to the side rather than stiffly composed.  He wasn’t trying to dominate the people around him. His conversational tone was just that.  There were no contrived candidate sound bites. No “handlers” trying keep our conversation brief.  Although I’m sure he was “working the room” as candidates do, he did so in a way that made it seem he belonged in the room – that he was one of the gang.  A real natural.

 I did want to get into some issues, so I did the right thing and let Vin know that I am a journalist and asked him if I could go on the record with him so I wouldn’t sandbag him.  That’s the right way to handle that by the way.  There is a wrong way to do that, for instance if I were a member of the Highlands Republican Club, I wouldn’t go to a meeting as a club member, secretly decide everyone was on the record without telling them, and report what I heard, like you know who did. 

Anyway, Vin made some interesting points that conservatives might like. Let me share one in particular:

Something that irks Vin Gopal is unemployment insurance in New Jersey.  Vin is a small business owner.  He thinks unemployment is too easy to get, too easy to stay on and too easy to take unfair advantage of against employers.  He wants the system revised to be friendlier to business.

Very interesting!  I would have expected an answer like that from a Republican at a Chamber of Commerce meeting.

One last point:  None of the Republican candidates were at the Asbury Park dinner, nor was Dan Jacobson.  I’ll note that when Sean Kean was the assemblyman and senator here, even though Asbury Park never voted for him, Sean supported and attended every Asbury Park function.  Thanks for being there, Vin Gopal.

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Posted: June 10th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: NJ State Legislature, Tommy DeSeno, Vin Gopal | Tags: , , | 5 Comments »

5 Comments on “Meeting Vin Gopal”

  1. Abe said at 9:48 am on June 10th, 2011:

    So, Vin’s getting his ideas from Governor Christie? The Governor’s been talking about this unemployment insurance idea for awhile now.

  2. Rick Ambrosia said at 11:16 am on June 10th, 2011:

    No Abe…Vin is a small business owner and knows what it takes…Christie has never owned a small business, so he really doesn’t know. He just talks that way because its in the talking points book. I would bet that he’s like DeCroce and thinks that all people on unemployment are just lazy and that the benefits are “just too good for these people”, since he really only cares about giving his friends a tax break. Vin, at least, employs people and knows first hand what it takes. Christie certainly does not.

  3. lois said at 11:37 am on June 10th, 2011:

    –haven’t we all!! 2 yeeaarrs of payments?? —that’s welfare—no longer U.I. (!)

    We just haven’t heard this coming out of the mouths of Democrats.

    Nice article Tommy–loved your poke at you-know-who….

  4. NomasjoeVas said at 5:37 pm on June 10th, 2011:

    The same Vin Gopal who was campaign manager for Joe Vas for Congress? Wasnt that the infamous campaign that put Vas and some of his cronies behind bars for campaign fraud?

    This guy is as dirty as the water behind Monmouth Park.

  5. Paradise Jim said at 1:56 am on June 11th, 2011:

    NomasJoevas aka. Vinny S – don’t worry that will be the republicans attack pieces because they have nothing else to go on.