Isola considering jumping into the U.S. Senate race

Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore told MMM that he is actively encouraging Chris Isola, a declared candidate for the CD-3 GOP nomination, to seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate instead.

Isola, of Malton in Burlington County, is close to making a decision, according to Gilmore.

The Ocean County GOP’s screening committee endorsed former Randolph Mayor Tom MacArthur to replace Congressman Jon Runyan in the House of Representatives last weekend.  Gilmore’s committee interviewed Murray Sabrin and Jeff Bell for the Senate nomination on Saturday but did not select a candidate. “There are two other candidates we want to interview and a fifth who I want to get in, Chris Isola,” Gilmore said after Governor Chris Christie’s Town Hall meeting in Toms River.

Isola’s LinkedIn profile lists his profession as “Candidate at 113th United States Congress.”   A U.S. Marine Corp veteran, Isola served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon his honorable discharge in 2005 Isola entered the financial services industry.

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Lonegan Should Challenge Pallone

Steve Lonegan is not going to win the GOP nomination to replace the retiring Congressman Jon Runyan in New Jersey’s third congressional district.

The party bosses in Ocean and Burlington Counties that comprise the district have settled on endorsing former Randolph Mayor Tom MacArthur.  Ocean County Republicans with the stones to defy Chairman George Gilmore are lining up behind Toms  River Councilman Maurice Hill, a retired Navy rear admiral.  If Lonegan continues to compete for the nomination in the party conventions, he’s likely to come in third in Ocean and second in Burlington.  Lonegan does not have an organization to compete with the Ocean and Burlington Republican organization should he run a primary race against MacArthur.

Lonegan should stop fighting fellow Republicans in Ocean and Burlington and come north to Monmouth and Middlesex where we need his considerable talent.  If Monmouth GOP Chairman John Bennett and Middlesex GOP Chairman Sam Thompson have not been on the phone pleading with Lonegan to take on ObamaCare author Frank Pallone in the 6th Congressional district, they are missing an opportunity.

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Cullari will not challenge Pallone

He had pledges for the $30,ooo he wanted to raise in thirty days and said Monmouth GOP Chairman John Bennett reacted enthusiastically to his potential candidacy, but at the moment of choice his heart was not in it.  Ernesto Cullari, a GOP primary candidate for the CD-6 nomination in 2012 told MMM he will not seek the nomination to challenge Frank Pallone this year.

Cullari said he recently signed a deal to author a series of novellas, the first of which will be released later this year, and that his commitment to that project and his partners was the major stumbling block to mounting his second campaign for public office.

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Romney was right on Russia

Recorded March 26, 2012

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Top Birdsall Services Group officials agree to forfeit $3.95M

Top Birdsall Services Group officials agree to forfeit $3.95M (via NJ.com)

TRENTON — Former top officials of Birdsall Services Group, a bankrupt engineering firm at the center of the most expansive pay-to-play scandal in recent New Jersey history, have agreed to forfeit $3.95 million to those stiffed by the company when…

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Scharfenberger ‘officially’ welcomes “The Situation” to Middletown

Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino of MTV’s Jersey Shore fame, and his family opened a tanning salon in Middletown yesterday.

MMM is not in the habit of giving free advertising to people who drive Lamborghinis, and the company did not respond to our ad pitch, so we did not cover the ribbon cutting.

But NJ.com and USA Today-Monmouth/Ocean edition couldn’t resist the spectacle.

Gerry Scharfenberger is the only member of Middletown’s Township Committee of non-Italian American descent.  Gerry did the honors at the ribbon cutting and said the right things.

“The goal is always to fill vacant storefronts, so whenever that happens it is a positive thing,” he said. “And if the star power they have is able to help them and the other businesses here, that’s even better.”

But the expressions on Gerry’s face in the pictures at NJ.com tell another story, which prompted MMM to look further into the situation.

Why wasn’t Mayor Stephanie Murray presiding on the high profile ribbon cutting?  She finds the situation offensive.

“While I wish the business  success for the sake of the existing businesses in the shopping center, I don’t personally support Mr. Sorrentino as his insensitivity and disrespect toward women (calling women “grenades” for example), is appalling and offensive, Murray said, “Additionally, as an Italian-American who loves and lives at the Jersey shore, the image Mr. Sorrentino projects is equally offensive.”

Committeeman Tony Fiore is also not happy with the situation.

“While Mr. Sorrentino has the right to open a business anywhere he chooses, Mr. Sorrentino has done nothing to help promote a positive image of the Jersey shore or Italians who live or visit the Jersey shore,” Fiore said,  “In my view no self respecting Italian who grew up in NJ, lives at or loves the Jersey shore would help promote his business. While I wish him like any other business in Middletown success, he shouldn’t expect Middletown to embrace the circus that he is bringing to the Middletown.”

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The race for Senate: Republican assemblyman declines to run

The race for Senate: Republican assemblyman declines to run (via NJ.com)

TRENTON — State Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli said today that he has decided not to run for U.S. Senate, leaving the Republican Party with no elected officials who want to challenge the Democratic incumbent, Cory Booker. Ciattarelli, who briefly considered…

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Pelosi endorses Pallone’s opponent for leadership spot

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has passed over Congressman Frank Pallone and thrown her support to Congresswoman Anna Eshoo of California in the internal Democratic caucus campaign to select the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, according to a report at TheHill.com.

Eshoo, who has served two terms in the House less than Pallone, is currently the fifth ranking Democrat on the committee.  Pallone is the third ranking Democrat, behind Chairman Henry Waxman and John Dingell.  Both Waxman and Dingell are retiring at the end of the 113th Congress.

In a letter to House Democrats, Pelosi said she’d intended to steer clear of making a public endorsement, “but since so many of you have asked, I am writing to let you know why I support Anna.”

“Anna’s leadership is marked by integrity, inclusiveness and bipartisanship, critical qualities in a committee leader,” Pelosi wrote. “She advocates in the committee and in the House for healthcare, consumer protections, the environment and access to technology and issues related to women and children.

“Anna’s leadership, vision, values and progressive commitment to the future gives us the opportunity to newly invigorate the debate,” Pelosi added.

Since being sworn into Congress in 1987, six bills that Pallone has sponsored have become law. One of the bills was to name the post office on Route 35 in Middletown. Does anyone know the name of that post office?

Eshoo has sponsored 234 bills that have become law.

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Bob Walsh: “The Monmouth GOP’s Brand Is Tarnished”

Howell Councilman Bob Walsh, second from left, and Freeholder Gary Rich, right, are set to compete for a 2014 GOP nomination. Andrew Lucas, left, then a Manalapan Committeeman and Wall Township Committeeman George Newberry, between Walsh and Rich. Photo from 2011 Freeholder nomination race.

Howell Councilman Bob Walsh, a candidate for one of two available nominations for freeholder at the Monmouth Republican Convention on March 22, said that the Monmouth Republican Party’s brand has been tarnished by the Burke Farm deal with Andrew Lucas and by the Brookdale Community College scandal that resulted in former Brookdale President’s Peter Burnham’s conviction for official misconduct and theft.

Incumbent freeholders, Director Lillian Burry and Deputy Director Gary Rich are seeking to be nominated for reelection at the convention.

Speaking on the record, Walsh said that many “neutral people, people who know nothing” that he encounters think that the Lucas farm deal and the Brookdale scandal are examples of Republican corruption.  Walsh said that he talks to these people and tries to correct their perception, “but it is out there and a lot of people think that way, it’s a common thread.”

Walsh was very careful not to speak negatively about Burry and Rich specifically while discussing his own candidacy.  “I don’t consider that I am challenging them,” he said, “I am seeking an office according to the rules.  No one is elected forever.  People complain and complain about government, yet keep electing the same people.  That’s what’s wrong with this country.”

“People say that government should be run as a business.  I have a very good record in business, as a licensed banker,  and a very good record as mayor of Howell that I am proud of.  I think I am an asset and will be an asset to the freeholder board. I have energy, passion and the flexibility to do the job.”

While not specifically accusing anyone of complacency, Walsh said that his candidacy and his service, if elected, would be a battle against complacency in county government.

“Complacency has no place if public service,” he said, “I am very pleased with some of the things I see happening since I started running.” He declined to elaborate.

Walsh said he expected that this November’s election will be more contentious that usual.

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An attitude of status quo

Governor Chris Christie came charging into Trenton pledging to turn it upside down in 2010. He made a left turn onto the Boulevard of Compromise in 2011, cruised the boulevard through 2012 and rode the waves of Sandy through 2013.   Now he’s hit a dead end on the bridgegate to nowhere.

The message of the FY 2015 Budget Address is ‘No Change.”   Christie warned of the looming crisis we sent him to Trenton to fix and offered no solutions. No reductions in government.  An increase in spending. Christie lamented that he couldn’t spend more because of commitments made to people who are no longer working and to repay money that has already been spent.

Christie meekly suggested that more pension and benefit reforms are necessary in order to grow the state government. State Senate President Steve Sweeney said, “We’re not doing it.”

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