Two River Times Is Sold

Domenic DiPiero, the new owner of the Two River Times. photo via uhnj.org

RedBankGreen is reporting that the news weekly, The Two River Times‘s, ownership has changed hands.

Domenic DiPiero, founder and president of Newport Capital Group bought the paper from Mickey Gooch, founder and president of GFI Group under terms that have not been disclosed.

DiPiero is a lifelong Two Rivers area resident, according to an announcement of the paper’s sale posted on it’s website on Monday.

“I look forward to continuing the great tradition that The Two River Times has built. I want the newspaper to continue to be a source of pride and news in the community,” DiPiero said, according to the TRT announcement.

Gooch, and his now ex-wife Diane, bought the paper from Geraldo Rivera in 2004.

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Anna Little, David Corsi won’t be Tea Party candidates in GOP Primary

Photo credit: genehoyas.com

Since they formed in 2009, the Bayshore Tea Party Group has supported three campaigns that have defeated the Monmouth County Republican Organization in primaries.

Former Highlands Mayor Anna Little won the 6th Congressional District nomination twice.  In 2010 Little defeated the MCRO’s endorsed candidate Diane Gooch.  In 2012 Little defeated newcomer Ernesto Cullari.  Cullari had won the Monmouth Republican organization’s endorsement. Little won the Middlesex County Republican Organization’s endorsement and won the primary handily in both counties.  Little went on to lose twice to incumbent Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone.

Oceanport real estate executive David Corsi beat Princeton venture capitalist Scott Sipprelle in Monmouth County during the 2010 primary for the 12 Congressional District nomination.  Sipprelle prevailed on the strength of his support in the Middlesex and Mercer portions of the district.  Sipprelle lost to incumbent Democratic Congressman Rush Holt.

Both Little and Corsi were supported by BTPG’s grassroots activists.

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Who is Christine Hanlon? The Monmouth County GOP Chair’s Race, Part 4

By Art Gallagher

Who is this woman who, only six years ago was not involved in politics and now has State Legislators and county elected officials feverishly working the phones to make sure she is elected Monmouth County GOP Chair on Tuesday evening at Colts Neck High School?

Late last week as I was finishing up my preparation for this series, I called two of the elected officials who had endorsed John Bennett for Chair.   I trust these people’s judgment and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something.

“Tell me why John Bennett will be a better Chair than Christine Hanlon,” I asked both Republicans.  Neither had an answer.  Both said they liked Christine and that she would be a good Chairwoman.  They both spoke of their friendship with Bennett and the support he gave them early in their careers as the reason for endorsements.  Neither disagreed with my concerns about Bennett’s baggage.   

One of them called me back over the weekend and asked, “Why do you think Christine will be a better Chair than John?”  “Bennett is too much of a risk.  Fair or not, he will become a campaign issue and a distraction.   No one works harder than Christine and she’s motivated by something other than personal gain,”  was my reply.  “How can you say that about someone who has only been involved for a few years?” the person quickly asked.  “Because I’ve taken the time to get to know her, just like I took the time  to get to know you when you were running.”  “Oh, I was just asking.”  “That’s OK, I was just answering.”

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CD-6 Primary: It will all come down to turnout

On the day Anna Little won the endorsement of the Middlesex County GOP, she became the favorite to win the 6th congressional district nomination.  Despite that all of the candidates, Democrat and Republican are from Monmouth County, the new 6th is a Middlesex County district. 

With no presidential contest on the top of the ballot and the U.S. Senate race uncompetitive, turnout is likely to be very low.  13,000 voters decided the 2010 primary race between Little and Monmouth County GOP Vice Chair Diane Gooch by less than 90 votes.  This time out, I’ll be surprised if there are more than 6000 votes.

Based on name recognition, Little should be considered the favorite.  She scored an upset in the last primary. She was the general election candidate in 2010 and she was a countywide candidate for Freeholder in 2006.

Coming into the race, Ernesto Cullari, the Monmouth County GOP endorsed candidate was a complete unknown, except for readers of the triCityNews where he was the token conservative columnist.   The nomination in both Middlesex and Monmouth Counties was his for the taking because no one else wanted it.  Little was running for the U.S. Senate nomination against Joe Kyrillos.

Little has been once again running against the Republican establishment who turned her away for the congressional nomination twice and never wanted her as freeholder candidate.  She won the office of Freeholder by one vote at a raucous January 2006 convention and was denied the nomination for reelection in 2007.

But it was during a meeting with Kyrillos in early March, before the Monmouth County screening/candidate selection and after Cullari announced his candidacy, that Little give up her Senate bid and decided to make another run for Congress.   Kyrillos did not want a primary challenge from the pesky Little.  Little did not want her career to end with a primary loss to Kyrillos.   The independent minded elected officials and municipal chairs of the Monmouth GOP were not going along with the deal.  They knew Little was no more of a threat to Kyrillos than Badar Qarmout.

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Republicans’ map favors minorities

John Farmer, the tie breaking member of the congressional redistricting commission, chose the Republicans’ map because, in his view, it created the possibility of two more minority districts than they Democratic map did, according to a report by Mark Magyar at NJSpotlight.

The new 9th district’s population is 53.1% minority.  Leaders of the minority community were pleased with the map, counting on it becoming a minority represented district once Bill Pascrell, who turns 75 this month, retires.  But Steve Rothman, 59, challenging Pascrell in the Democratic primary makes eventual minority representation less likely, which could lead to a minority challenger entering the 9th district Democratic primary.  That’s the point of Magyar’s piece.

The addition of all of Trenton and Plainfield in Rush Holt’s district, presumably makes the 12th the other potential minority district.

The NJGOP should identify and agressively recruit high quality minority candidates to run in these districts.   A Hispanic in 9 and an African American in 12.  Then the GOP should  raise the money to make those campaigns competive.

The GOP should recruit and fund an Asian American to challenge Frank Pallone in the 6th, while they are at it, unless Diane Gooch decides to run.

If running competively in the 9th, 12th and 6th is considered a pipedream, than it is also a pipedream that Joe Kyrillos can beat Robert Menendez for U.S. Senate or that the GOP presidential nominee can win New Jersey.

If the NJ GOP uses the same old playbook it will get the same old result.

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Gooch “has a decision to make”

Diane Gooch, Chairwoman of Strong New Jersey, Vice Chair of the Monmouth GOP, and a primary candidate for the GOP nomination in the 6th congressional district in 2010 is not ready to jump into another race for congress, according to a source familiar with her thinking.

Gooch, of Rumson, now resides in Republican Chris Smith’s 4th district.  In 2010 her residence was part of Democrat Rush Holt’s district but she chose to compete in the 6th. 

Former Highlands Mayor Anna Little, the 6th district GOP nominee in 2010 didn’t stop running against Pallone until recently.  She now appears to be focused on competing for the nomination to challenge U.S. Senator Robert Menendez.

A Democratic strategist close to Pallone feels the new 6th is slightly safer for the incumbent.  The Democrat thinks that Perth Amboy, Carteret and all of Woodbridge off set the loss of Plainfield.

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Little Opening A U.S. Senate Campaign Account. Shakeup In Her Army

By Art Gallagher

Anna Little, the former Mayor of Highlands, former Freeholder and the 2010 GOP nominee in the 6th Congressional district is one step closer to challenging Monmouth County State Senator Joe Kyrillos for the GOP 2012 U.S. Senate nomination.

Little told Politickernj that she would be filing with the FEC today to open a campaign account for her U.S. Senate bid.

An embarrasing Little For Senate fundraising letter dated November 28, arrived in former donors’ mail boxes this week.

Atlantic Highlands Municipal Chairwoman Jane Frotten has resigned as Little’s campaign treasurer.  Atlantic Highlands Mayor Fred Rast has resigned as president of Anna’s Army Foundation,  “a non-profit educational foundation created in the image of Anna Little and her campaign for Congress in the 6th Congressional District of NJ.”

Until recently, the race for the Republican nomination to challenge Senator Robert Menendez was seen as battle between Kyrillos and fellow State Senator Michael Doherty.  Kyrillos has a Senate Exploritory Committee.  Doherty has been traveling the state touting his Fair School Funding plan.  MMM has learned from very reliable sources that Doherty is leaning against entering the Senate primary.   If Doherty does stay out of the race, a head to head match up between Kyrillos and Little could be in the making.

Little should take a reality check and reconsider before her dreams of a political future are irreparably shattered.

Little made a name for herself with the stunning upset victory over Diane Gooch in the primary for the 6th congressional district nomination in 2010.   Little’s margin of victory was 84 votes out of roughly 14,000 cast.

What Little has failed to realize, and she stops talking to anyone who tells her the truth, is that she didn’t win that primary so much as Gooch lost it.

Not that her victory was an accident.  The strategy of the Little primary campaign was to sneak up from behind.  I know because I, then still a close confidant of Little, helped design the strategy.   None of the “experts” took Little’s challenge of the county party lines and the uber funded Gooch seriously going into the primary.  That was the key to victory.  Build a ground game to bring out new voters and count on the fact that the “experts” don’t see the Tea Party wave coming.   Even the Tea Parties were shocked by the depth of the 2010 tsunami.  David Corsi’s inexplicable primary victory over Scott Sipprelle in the Monmouth County portion of the 12th congressional district proves that the party establishment was caught with their pants around their ankles.

They won’t be caught off guard again.

The Gooch campaign’s primary strategy was to ignore Little and run against incumbent Congressman Frank Pallone.   It was a good strategy for a conventional time.   Conventional times ended in 2010 before the establishment realized it.

It wasn’t until the final weekend of the 2010 primary campaign when Little managed to get onto TV, that the Gooch campaign realized that they might have a problem.  They tried legal maneuvers, that failed, to get Little’s ads pulled.  It was too late to respond.   Little had successfully used the “surprise them” and  “get the last word” strategies that we had successfully used in Highlands campaigns many times.

The problem with a “don’t let them see you coming” playbook is that it only works once.

A key political operative with close ties to both Gooch and Kyrillos has been keeping a close eye on Little since she declared her rematch with Pallone on election night 2010.

“She won’t get a free ride next time,” said the operative on the condition of anonymity, “we had a thick opposition research file on her in 2010 but didn’t use it because we weren’t taking her seriously and didn’t want to hurt her needlessly.  The file has gotten a lot thicker in the last year.”

With their discharge from Anna’s Army, Frotten and Rast join the growing brigade of Monmouth County politicos who will no longer go to battle for Little. 

Roughly a year ago, this blog compared Little to Jon Corzine over a policy position she took in one of her final acts as the mayor of Highlands.   Unfortunately, it is becoming apparent that Little also shares a personality trait with the former governor.  She surrounds herself with people who tell her what she wants to hear and burns bridges with those who tell her what she needs to hear.

Little had a bright political future ahead of her on election night in 2010.   Then she started talking. 

She declared her rematch with Pallone, announced the formation of Anna’s Army and challenged Gooch, who had funded independent anti-Pallone ads, to a rematch.  She failed to thank her supporters, Tea Party and establishment, who were caught off guard by her lack of humility. 

She’s on the verge of crossing a line from which there will be no return.   She should reconsider and start mending fences.  Many of her old friends are forgiving.

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Dustin Racioppi Leaving RedBankGreen

Prolific Reporter Is Joining The Asbury Park Press

Dustin Racioppi is taking his considerable talent to The Asbury Park Press.  Hopefully the creative and entrepreneurial scribe will not be stifled by the suits at Gannett.

“Hopefully I won’t become a “Nudnik'”, said Dustin when confirming his move.

In his two years at RedBankGreen Dustin demonstrated an enviable ability to report local events from car accidents to council meetings with a compelling flair that kept readers coming back for more.  He contributed mightly to the impressive growth of RBG and to the emergence of the “hyber-local” news business that the corporate media giants are now unwittingly attempting to homogenize.

Focus is a key to Dustin’s success. He lived and breathed his beat of Red Bank, Fair Haven, Rumson and Middletown.  Last year while preparing to cover Congressman Frank Pallone’s office hours in Long Branch, I reached out to Dustin to see if he was going to cover it.  “Long Branch is Jupiter to us,” was his response.

I was surprised when I first heard that Dustin was leaving RBG.  While preparing to move MMM to this domain from the old blogspot site I sent a feeler out to Dustin about joining me.  “I love working for John Ward,” was his immediate response.  That was obvious from the quality of his work.

And Ward, owner/publisher of RBG, obviously loved having Dustin work for him.  In an “Help Wanted” ad for reporters on RBG, Ward says:

We’re interested in teaming up with people who can quickly gather information and shape it into brief stories that are factually solid and fair, yet more than mere stenography. A distinctive and confident writer’s voice, or a desire to develop one, is a must. So is a broad range of interests, from the arts to public policy to business. The ability to take a decent photograph is a big plus. Wannabes, whiners and prima donnas: please don’t waste our time. We’re interested in working only with those who demonstrate entrepreneurial energy and focus on what needs to be done. Yeah, they sound boring, but they’re the most fun to be around. And we do have fun here.

In other words, John is looking to clone Dustin.   Not an easy person to find, as I have learned over the last year. If you’re out there and love politics more than sprinkling fire hydrants or fireworks shows, call me first, or last.

Dustin’s move comes at a difficult time for RBG as it faces competition for advertising dollars from the patch.com sites and perhaps The Two River Times.  Two weeks ago, Dan Jacobson reported in the triCityNews that TRT’s new publisher Ellen McCarthy was planning to convert the weekly paper’s website to an active news site with daily updates.  If McCarthy has started doing so, I haven’t noticed.  It’s probably still in the planning stages.  Diane Gooch is still listed as publisher on the TRT site, an indication that they haven’t gotten to working on the website yet.

MMM wishes the best for Dustin at APP, and for Ward and RBG.  While we’re at it, we wish the best for McCarthy and TRT and we pray the Neptune Nudniks learn from Dustin rather than trying to train him into a dead tree scribe.  The more quality sources of local information available the better for all of us in this Internet age.  I’m pretty sure Ward knows that.  Maybe the Nudni’s are beginning to figure that out, but probably not.  Jacobson doesn’t care.  Only Dan knows how to make dead trees sing.

We don’t wish Patch well so much.  We’d love them if they put out a consistently quality product, but that’s difficult if not impossible to do with part-time writers working for an extra $50-$100 per week.  In the mean time they’re only mucking up the revenue side of the business.  Patch’s only hope long term is for AOL/Ariann Huffington to pay Ward, Jacobson or me hundreds of millions of dollars and then leave us alone to do what we want to do. 

Not likely to happen.

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Gooch Steps Down As Two River Times Publisher

Diane Gooch has stepped down as publisher of the Two River Times in order to focus her efforts on her philanthropic and political activities, according to an article in the weekly newspaper that she owns with her husband Mickey.

“Serving the community is my passion,” said Gooch. “Doing so by publishing The Two River Times™ has been an honor, a pleasure, and a learning experience. I am proud of the journalism we created since I took over as publisher. Helping serve our loyal readers and advertisers has enabled me to grow intimately familiar with the concerns of our neighbors and small business owners. I look forward to continuing to fight for our beautiful corner of New Jersey through my philanthropy and advocacy work.”

The Gooches have hired Ellen McCarthy of Fair Haven to shepherd the newspaper they purchased from Geraldo Rivera in 2004.

McCarthy’s journalism career dates back to 1987 and includes positions with The Asbury Park Press and The Star Ledger.

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Gooch would challenge Pallone or Holt

Strong New Jersey Chairwoman Diane Gooch told NJ.com’s Auditor that she’d be an enthusiastic candidate for congress against either Frank Pallone or Rush Holt:

A scandal — and an opportunity

Diane Gooch may be looking to transform U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner’s shame into her political gain.

Gooch, who wanted to take on U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th Dist.) last year but lost the GOP primary to tea party favorite Anna Little, last week launched a “nationwide internet campaign” with the website WeinerMustResign.com. It is paid for by a nonprofit political organization that Gooch set up last summer.

In addition to the website, Gooch has been interviewed on a dozen radio shows and denounced Weiner (D-N.Y.), who is under fire for sending lewd photos of himself to women over the internet. She also plans to air radio ads on WABC, which features a stable of conservative talk show hosts.

So why does a wealthy Rumson Republican care so much about a Manhattan
congressman’s sex scandal?

“I care because he’s a congressman, and I think all congressmen should have integrity and common sense,” said Gooch, publisher of the Two River Times in Red Bank.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the effort builds Gooch’s name ID in case she wants to run again for a House seat. Visitors to the political committee’s website are hit immediately with a picture of Gooch, and a 451-word bio of her is just one click away. The committee, Strong New Jersey, raised $239,000 in 2010 — $99,000 from Gooch and $140,000 from her husband, Mickey.

Gooch said she hasn’t decided whether she’ll run because New Jersey’s congressional districts have yet to be redrawn.

“If they hand me a great district and I think I can beat (Democratic U.S. Reps.) Frank Pallone or (Rush) Holt, you better believe I’ll be there,” she told The Auditor.

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