John Bennett Takes Oceanport Job

photo credit: Rhoda Chodosh

Monmouth County Republican Chairman was appointed Acting Administrator of the Borough of Oceanport last week, replacing Phil Huhn, a former Neptune Township administrator, who had been holding the post since June when Kimberly Jungfer resigned as Borough Administrator and Clerk to take the same job in neighboring Little Silver.

Mayor Michael J. Mahon confirmed Bennett’s temporary appointment and declined to comment further.

Bennett, who also serves as the borough’s attorney, said he was in conversations with the governing body to become a full time employee as a attorney and administrator in January.

“It would be a win-win for everybody,” Bennett said, noting that the borough would save money in legal fees if he held both posts. He said he is not seeking pension credits or health benefits in the proposed position.

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Freeholders never took illegal contributions

John Bennett

By John Bennett, Monmouth County Republican Chairman

I am writing in response to the July 13 oped written by Monmouth County Democratic freeholder candidate Brian Froelich, “County purchasing still murky, post-Birdsall.”

From the first sentence to the last, I am disappointed that Froelich has chosen to take an opportunity as a political candidate to make not only misstatements but outright false statements concerning the actions being conducted in Monmouth County.

As to his first statement, that each Monmouth County freeholder received campaign contributions donated illegally by Birdsall Engineering Group, Froelich fully knows and understands that none of the contributions which he sets forth were illegal when they were received by either the Republican freeholders or the former Democratic freeholders who received similar contributions.

In fact, none of the Republican or Democratic freeholders (to our knowledge) received any illegal campaign contributions from any vendor in this county. Many of the Republican and Democratic councilmen and mayors throughout the county also received contributions that were not illegal to those who were receiving them.

There may have been inappropriate actions conducted internally within their office by those giving the money, but that knowledge could not have been made available to any person receiving the money, whether they were Democrat or Republican.

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Wake up call

Dirty Trick Alleged in LD 13

A robo call went out to Republican primary voters in the 13th Legislative District at 4am this morning urging people to vote for Senator Joe Kyrillos and Assembly Members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon.

“You have four hours to get out and vote…” the call said.  The obvious impression was that the call was supposed to go out at 4PM.

The Monmouth GOP did not order the call.  Kyrillos, Handlin and O’Scanlon did not order the call. Both campaigns say they had no calls scheduled for 4PM.

The caller ID was a secondary number of Monmouth GOP’s, yet the call did not mention the county candidates, Sheriff Shaun Golden or Freeholders Tom Arnone and Serena DiMaso.

O’Scanlon said the call looks to be a dirty trick.

Monmouth GOP Chairman John Bennett is furious. He said the call was a crime. He’s gathering data and plans to file a complaint with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office this afternoon.

“We’ve never had this from the Democrats and they have not had it from us,” Bennett said, “I’m not accusing anyone, but we will get to the bottom of it and file a criminal complaint. This was a dirty trick and attempted voter suppression, pure and simple.”

Both Bennett and O’Scanlon said they became aware of the call before 4:30 this morning when they received phone calls from friends who had been woken up by the call.

MMM left a voice mail and a text with Bayshore Tea Party Group cofounder Barbara Gonzalez asking if she knows anything about the 4am robocall.  Gonzalez has yet to respond. The Bayshore Tea Party Group is supporting the slate of challengers running against the LD13 and Monmouth County Republican incumbents.

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‘A-Team’ hires Monmouth GOP Chairman To Challenge Asbury Park Election Results

John Bennett

The A-Team slate of candidates in the Asbury Park election has hired Monmouth County Republican Chairman John Bennett as their attorney to challenge today’s election results.

Bennett told MMM’s Tommy DeSeno that he will be verifying what votes were not counted and why. He said he would also be looking at how many votes of the thrown out absentees may have voted provisionally and still need to be counted.

An A-Team campaign worker told DeSeno that the team believes they can pick up three of the five seats on the City Council. The didn’t win any seats in the unofficial count of machine and vote by mail (absentee) ballots.

The A-Team is comprised of former Councilman James Keady,  former board of education member Redmond Palmer, Duanne Small, Nora Hyland and Daniel Harris.  The top three A-Team candidates, Keady, Small and Harris,  would need to pick up approximately 200 votes that have been rejected in order to over come the leads of the bottom three “unofficial” winners, Myra Campbell, Sue Henderson and John Loffredo.

Keady received 409 votes in the unofficial tally; Small 405 and Harris 388.  Unofficial winners Loffredo received 640 votes, Henderson 608 and Campbell 598.

Four candidates of the 22 who ran, lost “unofficially” with more votes than the A-Team’s top three.  Incumbent Kevin Sanders, a former mayor and former Republican of the Forward Asbury slate received 574 votes, Joe Woerner of the One Asbury slate received 566 votes, Talesha Crank of One Asbury received 441 votes, William Potter of the Forward Asbury slate received 431 votes, and Gregory Hopson received 428 votes.

The top “unofficial” winners, John Moor with 699 votes and Amy Quinn with 693, both of One Asbury, appear to be safe in what appears to be an inevitable recounted elected.

UPDATE 11:42 PM  AsburyParkSun  reports that A-Team candidate Jim Keady claims that 332 mail-in ballots have not been counted.  Keady said 80 of the ballots were discarded because they were not filled in properly.

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Bennett: Tea Party Primary Challenge Is “Ludicrous”

Monmouth County Republican Chairman John Bennett said that “it is ludicrous to me that these individuals are being challenged” in the primary.  Bennett was speaking to MoreMonmoutMusings about the primary challenges to his 13th legislative team of Senator Joe Kyrillos, Assembly members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon, as well as Sheriff Shaun Golden and Freeholders Tom Arnone and Serena DiMaso.

John Bennett

“I have no idea what their agenda is,” Bennett said of the Bayshore Tea Party Group and their slate of candidates who filed to challenge the incumbents today,” our candidates are doing great jobs and are conservatives.”

“We will treat this challenge like any other election against our good, strong incumbents and return these good people to office with every resource at our disposal.”

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Christie Accepts The Monmouth GOP Endorsement

Photo credit: Rhoda Chodosh

There was little talk of bi-partisanship in Colts Neck yesterday morning at the Monmouth Republican Nominating Convention. The Republican nominee for Governor showed up at the Monmouth County Republican Nominating Convention.

Governor Chris Christie brought the crowd of some 400 county committee members and guests to their feet several times as he declared that it is he, and the Republicans who have stood with him “along with some right thinking Democrats,” who have turned Trenton upside down since he was elected in 2009.

Christie acknowledged the impact that the Monmouth GOP had in his 2009 victory over Jon Corzine.  “When most people didn’t know me, you gave me a chance. When nobody thought I could win, you did,” Christie told the crowd as he thanked Monmouth for the 64,000 vote pluarity he won in the county in ’09 general election and the first GOP county endorsement he received in the ’09 primary.   He specifically thanked former Monmouth Republican Chairman Joe Oxley who is now out of politics after being sworn in as a Superior Court Judge on Friday.  “I will miss Joe’s political partnership,” said the governor, “but I know New Jersey will be well served by Joe in his new position, which I had something to do with him getting.”

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State Committee Seats To Be Contested At Monmouth GOP Convention

Incumbent Christine Hanlon is being challenged by Eileen Kean of Neptune Township for a two year term on the New Jersey Republican State Committee.

The Committee is comprised on one male and one female from each New Jersey county.  The members are elected by Republican voters in the June primary.  Primary challenges are rare with the members typically being chosen by the County Committee.

Hanlon and her fellow State Committee Member John Bennett squared off in the race to replace Joe Oxley as Monmouth Republican Chairman last June.  Bennett prevailed by 3 votes out of 615 cast.  Since then, Hanlon has been the consummate team player.  She is an attorney with Archer & Greiner’s Shrewsbury office, serves as the Deputy Municipal Attorney of Tinton Falls, the Atlantic Highlands Prosecutor and a Commissioner of the Monmouth County Board of Elections.

Kean, the sister of Assemblyman Sean Kean, is a lobbyist with Komjathy and Stewart. She is president of the Neptune Township Republican Club.

Bennett, who is treasurer of the State Committee, is not seeking a new term.

Middletown Municipal GOP Chairman Peter Carton and Howell Municipal Republican Chairman John Costigan are facing off to fill Bennett’s seat.

The nominations will be decided by ballot during the Monmouth Republican Convention, Saturday morning March 23 at Colts Neck High School.

Bayshore Tea Party Group co-founder Bob Gordon told MoreMonmouthMusings he is considering a run for the committeeman seat in the June 4 primary.

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Bayshore Tea Party Wants Bennett To Change The By-Laws

Still won’t reveal their primary candidates names

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.

Posted: March 12th, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2013 Election, Amy Handlin, Barbara Gonzalez, Bayshore Tea Party Group, Declan O'Scanlon, Joe Kyrillos, John Bennett, Monmouth County Republican Committee, Monmouth GOP, Shaun Golden | Tags: Amy Handlin, Barbara Gonzalez, Bayshore Tea Party Group, Bob Gordon, Declan O'Scanlon, Joe Kyrillos, John Bennett, Monmouth GOP, Monmouth Republicans, Serena DiMaso, Shaun Golden, Tom Arnone | 14 Comments »

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Christie to attend Monmouth GOP Convention

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.

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Gilmore’s Cleaning Up

Ocean County GOP Chairman Geroge Gilmore is among a handful of connected lobbyists hired by AshBrit, the Florida company that won the sole state contract for Superstorm Sandy clean up, who was making sales calls to municipal officials looking for lucrative non-bid clean up work after then storm, according to an article in The Star Ledger this morning.

MMM was the first to report that former Corzine staffer Maggie Moran and her firm, M Public Affairs, was selling AshBrit’s premium priced services to Sandy ravaged municipalities.  The Ledger report expands the list of lobbyists working for AshBrit in New Jersey to Gilmore, former Corzine cabinet member Kris Kullari, and former Assembly Republican director Jon Bombardieri.

AshBrit has been widely praised for the quality of the clean up work it hired subcontractors to perform.  Their no-bid pricing is the issue.  AshBrit charged $100 per ton for debris removal. Towns that didn’t hire AshBrit got the work done for $26 per ton.

“If this isn’t a classic example of how everything is connected in New Jersey politics, I don’t know what is,” said state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), who was Corzine’s running mate in 2009 when Moran managed his re-election campaign.

MMM is generally not a fan of Weinberg, but we are with her on this issue. Excess profits paid to AshBrit for making phone calls and signing contracts could have been used to rebuild infrastructure, house the displaced, etc, or not borrowed from China in the first place.

Gilmore got another new job last month. Just as MMM predicted last June during the Monmouth GOP Chairman’s race, Gilmore’s firm was appointed Assistant Monmouth County Counsel by the Board of Freeholders during their reorganization meeting.

Despite his threats to due so, John Bennett has not sued MMM for making that prediction.

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