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An Out Of The Box Thought For Tea Parties To Consider

Clinton Mayor Janice Kovach’s failure to submit sufficient petition signatures to get on the ballot in CD-7 Democratic primary brought to mind a question I’ve been kicking around for a while.  What would be possible of Tea Parties competed in Democratic primaries?

Nationally, there is no question that the Tea Party movement has made a difference in restraining the growth of government since 2010 when the Republican Party took back the House of Representatives.   On the plus side, the Tea Party Caucus has restrained the Obama/Pelosi/Reed agenda.  On the down side, an argument could be made that if not for 2012 Tea Party victories in the senatorial primaries in Missouri and Indiana the GOP would be two seats closer to controlling the Senate. There would have been less “war on women” fodder for the liberal media and Democratic machine to use in defeating Mitt Romney in the presidential election.

Tea Parties boast that they stayed home in 2012 rather than voting for Romney, thereby assuring Obama’s reelection.  There are some Tea Parties campaigning for conservatives to withhold their votes in 2016 if the GOP does not nominate a candidate that meets their approval.

Tea Parties have had some success in Republican primaries that have resulted in losses of “safe” Republican seats in general elections.  Delaware in 2010, and Missouri and Indiana in 2012.  If Tea Party conservatives really don’t vote in general elections rather than choosing between “the lesser of two evils,” the are assuring the the greater of two evils wins.

Why not take the battle to the Democrats?  Why fight only with “RINOs” and then surrender the general elections to the Democrats?

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Curley to run for Monmouth GOP Chairman

Freeholder John Curley

Freehold, April 1 –Monmouth County Freeholder John P. Curley announced this morning that he will seek the Chairmanship of the Monmouth County Republican Organization when the GOP County Committee convenes to reorganize on June 10.  Curley urged current Chairman John O. Bennett, III to not seek a second term.

“Throughout my public service I have promised to bring my experience in career proven business practices to place in making Monmouth County an affordable place to live and do business.  We have made great strides and are in better shape that most counties in the country, but we can do better,” Curley said.

“We must measure our success not against the mediocrity of other government entities or other political organizations, but against the requirements of the people we serve.   We must stamp out the remnants of the culture of cronyism from our party and make service our sole focus.

“When I was elected Freeholder in 2009 I brought forth a 23 point plan to create greater efficiency and reduce the size of government.  This has been a work in progress slowed by bureaucratic inertia and political cronyism.  We can do better and we can do better faster.  I will provide the leadership to bring the Monmouth GOP and Monmouth’s county and municipal governments into the 21st century.”

“We know the Democrats are going to attack us this year based upon the Lucas and Brookdale/Burnham scandals.  I am the Republican who brought those scandals to the prosecutors and ultimately, the perpetrators to justice.  If I am leading the Monmouth GOP, the Democrats attacks will ring hollow.  The attacks will be laughable.”

” Chairman Bennett has had a distinguished career as an Assemblyman, Senator, Senate President and Acting Governor. When John ran for Chairman two years ago, he said he promised to remove perceived and real conflicts from County politics and said serving as Chairman would be a nice way for him to cap off his career.

“I thank Chairman Bennett for his service and urge him to go out on top.”

Curley sent his first mailer to members of the County Committee this week.  He promises a passionate and relentless campaign.

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Red Bank GOP Won’t Challenge Menna For Mayor

Red Bank Mayor Pat Menna

Barring an Independent candidate entering the fray in June, Red Bank Mayor Pasquale “Pat” Menna will be reelected to a third term leading the borough in November unopposed. The Red Bank Republicans have not nominated a candidate to oppose Menna.

But that doesn’t mean the Red Bank GOP has given up on the strides they made last fall when Cindy Burham broke the Democratic grip on the governing body of 6 council members and the mayor and Sean DiSomma came within 1o2 votes of winning a second seat for the GOP.

DiSomma was subject to a malicious smear campaign, over a traffic ticket, by Monmouth Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal in the final week of the 2013 campaign.

DiSomma is running again this year.  He is joined on the ticket by Brian Hanlon, a former member of the borough’s park and recreation commission.

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Middletown Democratic TC Candidate Lives in Rumson?

One of the Middltetown Democrats candidates for Township Committee says he lives in Rumson.

Criminal defense attorney George Mardinly’s facebook page lists his home as Rumson.

More interesting that Mardinly’s address exaggeration (he actually lives in the graceful Locust section of Middletown, on the north side of the Navesink) is his history of political giving.  Mardinly contributed $2700 to Republican Senator Jennifer Beck’s 2013 reelection campaign and $2000 to Senator Joe Kyrillos’s 2012 U.S. Senate race against Democratic U.S.Senator Bob Menendez.

Maybe Mardinly is angling to be a Judge. Kyrillos and Beck are both members of the New Jersey Senate Judiciary committee and have senatorial courtesy in the

Patrick Short knows he lives in Middletown

appointment of Superior Court Judges in Monmouth County.  Or maybe he just likes Republican legislators.

Neither Middletown Democratic Chairman Don Watson or Monmouth Democratic County Vin Gopal were available to comment of Mardinly’s political giving.

Former Township Committeeman Patrick Short is the Democrats other candidate. Short was elected in 2006 in the wake of Operation Bid rig, and was defeated by Steve Massell in 2009 in the first Christie landslide.  Short ran for Assembly in 2011, losing to Declan O’Scanlon and Amy Handlin.

Short and Mardinly will face off against Republican incumbents Mayor Stephanie Murray and Committeeman Tony Fiore in November.

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Jacobson has his eye on Beck’s Senate seat

Dan Jacobson

Former Assemlyman Dan Jacobson, publisher of the triCityNews weekly newspaper and AsburyParkSun hyper-local news website, launched his campaign to return to the legislature last week with his tCN column urging Senate Jennifer Beck to run for governor.

Jacobson served one term in the General Assembly, 1990-1991.  He was swept out of office, along with the Democratic majority in the 1991 election over Governor Florio’s $2 billion tax increase, including sales taxes on toilet paper and food.  In 2011 Jacobson registered as a Republican in order to challenge then Senator Sean Kean for the 11th district Senate nomination in the GOP primary.  But the legislative redistricting commission foiled Jacobson’s plans by moving Kean’s hometown of Wall out of the 11th district into the 30th, and moving Red Bank, Beck’s hometown into the 11th.

Jacobson didn’t want to run against Beck.  They’re friends and agree on most issues. And Beck’s political stardom is one of Jacobson’s major journalistic accomplishments. Just ask him.  Jen Beck never even would have been elected to the Red Bank Borough Council if not for Dan Jacobson pumping her up in the triCityNews.

So Jacobson ran a pax-on-both houses Independent race for Assembly in 2011 to make a point.  2304 voters, 3%, got the point and have long since forgotten it.  Obviously his heart wasn’t in the Assembly race.  He really wants to be in the Senate, but he doesn’t want to run against Beck.

The obvious solution is for Beck to step up and run for governor.  Jacobson rightly argues that the NJ GOP doesn’t have a viable alternative for a post-Christie candidate.   The NJGOP is actually weaker now than it was before Christie was elected in 2009.

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Fiore and Murray Seek Reelection in Middletown

Middletown Mayor Stephanie Murray and Committeeman Tony Fiore tour North Middletown with Congressman Frank Pallone and U.S. Senator Bob Menendez last week. photo via facebook

Middletown Mayor Stephanie Murray and Committeeman Tony Fiore, a former mayor, will be the Republican candidates for Township Committee this fall, according to an announcement on the Middletown Township Republican Organization’s facebook page this weekend.  If reelected, Murray will serve her second term; Fiore his third.

The Middletown Democrats have yet to announce their candidates.  On Sunday, Party Chairman Don Watson told MMM that he would be filing candidates petitions today, the deadline for candidates seeking a partisan nomination, but declined to name the candidates.  Watson indicated it was possible he could change candidates overnight.

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GWB panel co-chairs spar on Sunday TV with report’s author, Giuliani

GWB panel co-chairs spar on Sunday TV with report’s author, Giuliani (via NJ.com)

Democrats’ battle to challenge a report commissioned by Gov. Chris Christie on September’s George Washington Bridge lane closures took to the airwaves Sunday, when the co-chairs of a legislative panel looking into the matter squared off against…

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Cory Booker Advises Vin Gopal to shave his head…

….and other interesting rhetoric at the Monmouth County Democratic Convention

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Play by play coverage of the California earthquake

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