Bayshore Tea Party co-founder Bob Gordon told MoreMonmouthMusings that he would recommend that the groups’s candidates for the Legislature from the 13th district, sheriff and freeholder not file as candidates in the June 4 Republican primary if GOP Chairman John Bennett would allow the candidates onto the March 23 County Convention ballot without having to submit the signatures required under the new by-laws to challenge incumbents. He would not guarantee that the so far unnamed challengers would abide by the results of the convention and not file for the primary if they lose in Colts Neck on the 23rd. “That would be up to the candidates,” he said.
Gordan said that county committee members inclined to support the Tea Party challengers are reluctant to sign convention petitions for fear that they will be challenged in the next committee election in 2014.
The deadline to submit petitions for the convention ballot passed last week. Primary petitions are due on April 1.
Neither Gordon nor fellow co-founder Barbara Gonzalez would name the potential challengers. Gordon said that there is a full slate of candidates to take on Senator Joe Kyrillos and Assembly Members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon in the 13th district. On the county level, Sheriff Shaun Golden faces a challenge while Freeholder Director Tom Arnone and Deputy Director Serena DiMaso may only have one challenger, if the candidates file.
Save Jersey is reporting that East Brunswick Mayor David Stahl is endorsing Governor Chris Christie for reelection, leaving the Democratic Party and will run for the State Senate seat being vacated by Barbara Buono. Buono will be the Democratic nominee for governor, unless Carl Bergmanson or Willie Arajuo beat her in the June 4 primary.
Stahl is the third Democratic mayor to endorse Christie’s reelection. He is the first to join the GOP and become a Christie running mate.
Middlesex County Republican Chairman, Senator Sam Thompson told MMM that Stahl has his “100% support.” “I can’t think of anyone better to win Buono’s seat,” said Thompson, “Stahl was reelected in East Brunswick last year by a wider margin that Obama won the town.”
Christie narrowly won the normally Democratic Middlesex County in 2009. Thompson said the GOP will field its strongest legislative ticket in memory in an effort to sweep the 7 districts that represent his county.
Stahl will make his formal announcement tomorrow morning, 10:30 am, at the Colonial Diner on Route 18, according to SaveJersey.
Senate President Steve Sweeney has been waging a little noticed campaign over the last few weeks to get Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr to commit not to accept campaign contributions from Ashbritt and other contractors who cleaned up New Jersey after Superstorm Sandy.
This morning, Sweeney ramped up the campaign with a video parody of the viral Harlem Shake.
Harlem Shake is owned by songwriter Harry Bauer Rodrigues, who records under the name “Baauer”and the record label Mad Decent.
The song’s viral popularity in recents weeks has spurred claims of copyright infringement on the part of artists whose voices are in the song who have not been credited or compensated by Baauer or Mad Decent, according to the New York Times On the flip side, Mad Decent and Baauer stand to collect millions of dollars from people, like Sweeney, who “steal” their song, according to Hollywood Reporter. YouTube and a company called INDMusic have created a program, ContentID, to track copyright piracy and collect from the offenders.
MMM wondered if Sweeney’s video was funded by New Jersey taxpayers and if the Senate President had obtained a license from Mad Decent for the use of the song. The YouTube channel that hosts the song is called NJSenDemsMajority, a similar name to the state funded website, njsendems.com.
MMM called Sweeney’s West Deptford and Trenton offices to find out. Within a half hour, a well known political hired gun who asked not to be named in this story called back.
Trenton Democrats’ continuing quest to turn Governor Christie’s strongest issue against him suffered a set back yesterday when AshBritt CEO Randall Perkins won over Democratic members of a Joint Legislative Oversight Committee and flummoxed presumed gubernatorial nominee Barbara Buono by calling her on the political motivation of her questioning.
Facing four hours of questioning by the bi-partisan committee chaired by Senator Bob Gordon (D-Bergen), Perkins frequently praised the legislators for exercising their oversight duties, while combatively swatting back Democratic allegations of impropriety disguised as questions.
RedBankGreen is reporting that the Borough of Sea Bright has ended its participation of a federal pilot program set up to get residents displaced by Superstorm Sandy back into their homes quickly, because..surprise surprise, the Sheltering and Temporary Electric and Power (STEP) program was holding residents back.
In this remarkable video, Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris) questions Assemblywoman Linda Stender on her bill, A3687, which would prohibit citizens on the federal terrorist watch list from receiving permits to purchase firearms in New Jersey
The bill passed the General Assembly 63-3, with 3 legislators not voting and 10 abstaining.
Click here to view the Assembly Roll Call on the bill.
Monmouth County Republican Chairman John Bennett announced this morning that Governor Chris Christie will be on hand to accept the party’s nomination for reelection when the Committee convenes at Colts Neck High School on Saturday, March 23.
In an email to County Committee members, Bennett said that he was hopeful that all members would be able to join him in nomination Christie, Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno and all incumbent legislative and county candidates.
“Rick” Ambrosia, center, with Vin Gopal, left and Ray Santiago, right, during a 2011 campaign event. Gopal and Santiago were candidates for legislature in LD 11 at the time. facebook photo.
Colts Neck Democrat Patrick “Rick” Ambrosia, Jr has been fined $250 by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission for failure to file primary election reports for his 2011 campaign to become a member of the Township’s governing body.
Ambrosia, who is best known as a frequent antagonist on center-right blogs, lost his 2011 bid in the predominantly Republican Colts Neck Township.
Colonial American Bank and the Monmouth Museum are exhibiting the work of Monmouth County’s emerging artists, Gary Dates, photographer and Jane Dell, mixed media painter, at the bank’s Middletown branch, 1405 Rt 35 (Middletown Plaza) starting tomorrow, March 7 through May.
The exhibition kicks off with an opening reception tomorrow from 5-7. The reception is free and open to the public.
The Bayshore Tea Party Group is preparing a primary slate to challenge 13th district legislators, Senator Joe Kyrillos and Assembly Members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon, and county office holders, Sheriff Shaun Golden and Freeholders Tom Arnone and Serena DiMaso, according to the group’s co-founder Barbara Gonzalez.
Gonzalez told MoreMonmouthMusings that the group has six candidates who are clearing their potential candidacies with their families and employers. She wouldn’t name any of the candidates but expects to make a formal announcement next week. If the slate declares, they will bypass the Monmouth GOP convention on March 23 and file to run in the June 4 Republican primary.
Gonzalez said that former Highlands Mayor Anna Little, who twice ran and won in Congressional primaries with the group’s backing, is not one of the candidates.
