NJ GOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt and U.S. Senate candidate Rik Mehta. photo via Mehta’s facebook page, cropped by MMM
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rik Mehta’s campaign owes “a significant amount of money from the Primary with no plan to deal with it,” according to a leaked confidential email from Ron Gravino, the campaign’s former treasurer.
Signatures appear to be falsified. Ciattarelli’s Political Director Certified Signature She Did Not Witness
Bernie Dowd is an equine veterinarian and a candidate for freeholder, certified apparently false signatures supporting his candidacy. video screen grab
The nominating petitions filed by the Monmouth County Freeholder candidates aligned with Jack Ciattarelli for Governor appear to have fraudulent signatures and to have been falsely certified, according to a challenge filed by Monmouth County Republican Chairman Shaun Golden and an ongoing investigation by MMM.
In a letter to Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon obtained by MMM, Golden said that a review of the petitions filed by Bernard Dowd and Susan Ellen Metz revealed “a number of irregularities.” Golden wrote that several signatures appear to be in the same handwriting for multiple people, several signers are not registered to vote and/or are registered Democrats. Democrat voters are not eligible to vote in Republican primaries nor endorse candidates for those primaries.
Bernie Dowd is an equine veterinarian and a candidate for freeholder
Freeholder Director Lillian Burry and Holmdel Deputy Mayor Pat Impreveduto will face a primary challenge on June 6 for the Republican nominations for Monmouth County Freeholder.
The gubernatorial campaign of Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli recruited Dr. Bernard Dowd, DVM, a equine veterinarian who lives in Oceanport and Susan Ellen Metz of Middletown to run against the Monmouth GOP endorsed candidates.
Dowd has served on the Monmouth Park Task Force in Oceanport.
Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal just can’t help himself from practicing the “politics of yesterday,” as Governor Chris Christie said of him last year.
Friday evening on the Political Roundtable segment of the NJTV News with Mike Schneider, Gopal reacted to the news that the federal government had cleared Christie Administration of any errors or wrong doing with the AshBrit contract for cleaning up much of New Jersey after Superstorm Sandy by sticking to the Democratic/Star Ledger talking points. “The bigger issue is,” Gopal said, “why was so much money wasted in the process?” “Costs were higher,” he said, without saying higher than what. Certainly they were not higher than what the Army Corp of Engineers charged New York for their clean up.
What Gopal didn’t say is that he was busy helping AshBrit get business in the aftermath of Superstrom Sandy.
Click here to read an email Gopal sent me three weeks after Sandy hit asking for my help in introducing AshBrit’s agent, Laura Matos of M Public Affairs, a veteran of the Corzine administration, to Highlands Mayor Frank Nolan.
GOP political consultant Chris Russell joked on the segment that he was waiting for apologies from all the Democrats who criticized Christie over the AshBrit contract. Gopal should have apologized on the spot, especially since he was an active participant in recruiting municipalities to sign with the clean up company.
I don’t know if Gopal got paid for helping AshBrit get business but it is a safe bet that Matos and her fellow Corzine administration veterans at M Public Affairs did. Vin should ask Matos why the AshBrit contract cost so much.
I didn’t get paid. Nolan had Highlands almost entirely cleaned up without AshBrit before Vin reached out to me.
Two of New Jersey’s top political strategists, Republican Chris Russell and Democrat Steve Asycue sat down with NJTV’s Mike Schneider to recap the week’s political news. Their conversation was much like the rest of the week in Trenton politics….bi-partisan praise for Governor Chris Christie and ongoing animus over the legislative races and Senate President Steve Sweeney’s ongoing feud with Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr.
My takeaway….the Trenton Dems are already working on 2015 and 2017, and Russell and Asycue wouldn’t mind joining Christie 2016.