photo credit: Rhoda Chodosh. Click on photo for larger view. Sen Joe Kyrillos is NOT wearing mouse ears.
He’s finally saying it.
Yesterday afternoon at Bachstadt’s Tavern in North Middletown Governor Chris Christie urged the enthusiastic crowd of several hundred to “vote Republican from the top of the ballot to the bottom. I don’t want to serve another day with a Democratic legislature.”
“He finally said it,” I quipped to Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, JR who was present at the rally along with Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnik. “He’s been saying it everywhere,” Kean replied.
SaveJersey reports that Christie made a similar appeal in South Jersey’s 2nd legislative district.
“I need Frank Balles in Trenton,” Christie told supporters as he worked the enthusiastic crowd. This trip constituted his second and final announced foray into Southern New Jersey before Election Day. The Governor also had a few harsh words for Balles’s opponent, incumbent state Sen. Jim Whelan, whom Christie rebranded “Grandfather Whelan” and an “animal” simultaneously, implying that the veteran Democrat behaves different back in his district than he does in Trenton.
And PolitickerNJ reports that the Governor declared that the GOP can “turn this blue state red” in Bergen County on Friday.
“We’re driving home for the biggest margin we can get,” Christie said. “We want to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation opportunity to turn this blue state red.”
The GOP needs to win five seats in the Senate and nine seats in the Assembly in order to take control of both chambers.
Posted: November 3rd, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2013 Election, 2013 Gubernatorial Politics | Tags: 2013 Elections, Chris Chrisite, Joe Kyrillos | 6 Comments »
There’s little hope for Republicans anyway if they don’t win a legislative chamber this year.
Vin Gopal’s ambitions are bigger than winning Democratic control of Monmouth’s county and municipal governments. He wants to make sure New Jersey never again has another Republican governor or U.S. senator.
“Once we turn Monmouth County blue, a Republican will never win statewide,” Gopal said last night at the annual Monmouth County Democrats Annual Chairman’s Ball, according to a report on PolitickerNJ.
State Senate President Steve Sweeney was on hand to boost Gopal’s plan of taking over Monmouth County from the bottom up.
“Build the party, bring as many people as you can to strengthen this organization, … and then once you create it you can win, there’s no reason why not,” said Senate President Steve Sweeney, who was invited to speak at the Monmouth County Democrats Annual Chairman Ball.
“It’s the effort that you put in and you’ve got to build from the foundation up,” he said, explaining first it’s the councils and then the freeholder boards.
“No Republican can win statewide if we can win this county,” Sweeney said. “It’s just a matter of attitude, energy and focus, and that’s what I’m seeing out of this county.”
Unless New Jersey Republicans win at least one chamber of the legislature on November 5, it is unlikely that a post Chris Christie Republican will be elected statewide for the foreseeable future anyway or that Republicans will ever control the legislature again.
If Republicans can’t pick up seats this year when they have a hugely popular governor cruising to a 30 point win on the top of the ticket, when will they? Not until there is another Jim Florio or Jon Corzine in Drumthwacket, or a Democratic version of Richard Nixon or George W. Bush in the White House, if even then.
Christie is going to be reelected by huge margins.
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Posted: October 23rd, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2013 Election, Monmouth Democrats, Monmouth GOP, NJ State Legislature, Vin Gopal | Tags: #NJGov, 2013 Elections, Chris Christie, Monmout, Monmouth Democrats, NJ State Legislature, republicans, Steve Sweeney, Trenton Democrats, Vin Gopal | 14 Comments »
