Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden told MMM that he will not be a candidate for Congress this year.
Monmouth County Republican Chairman John Bennett has been urging Golden to take on Congressman Frank Pallone due to the sheriff’s strong record of accomplishment and his popularity at the polls.
“I would love to see Shaun Golden run for Congress, ” Bennett said earlier this month, ‘Not only is he popular and a demonstrated vote getter, he has an outstanding record with a documented ability to get things done.”
Golden said that it is just not the right time for him to take on a congressional campaign.
Former Howell Mayor Joe DiBella said last week that he “would love to run against Pallone” if Golden doesn’t. Bennett told MMM that he received a message from DiBella expressing his interest. DiBella has not returned several phone calls inquiring about his candidacy from MMM this week.
Former Howell Mayor Joe DiBella said he “would love to” run against Congressman Frank Pallone if Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden decides against running.
Golden has been considering a run, at the behest of party leaders, for several weeks, but has yet to make a decision. Sources close to the sheriff say he is leaning against running due to his agenda in the Sheriff’s Department and the impact a candidacy would have on his family. Golden was reelected as Monmouth County’s Sheriff last November by a 64%-36% margin.
A 23 year veteran of the health insurance industry, the charismatic and articulate DiBella would offer a sharp contrast to Pallone, the self-professed author of ObamaCare, in matters of both style and substance during a federal election when once again ObamaCare is expected to be the predominant issue nationally. DiBella is an Executive Vice President of Connor Strong & Buckelew, the prominent insurance broker run by South Jersey’s Democratic power broker George Norcross and Joseph Buckelew, the former Republican Mayor of Lakewood.
Party leaders are encouraging Sheriff Shaun Golden to challenge entrenched ObamaCare defender
Former Highlands Mayor Anna Little told MMM yesterday that she is not running for Congress in New Jersey’s 6th congressional district this year and that she never had plans to do so.
The GOP nominee against Congressman Frank Pallone in 2010 and 2012 said that her November 1, 2012 email to supporters wherein she announced “I want to work for YOU in Washington” and asked supporters for contributions to help her “finish the job” was not an announcement of her candidacy, but rather a reaction to Pallone’s over the top defense of ObamaCare . In October, Pallone called a congressional hearing into ObamaCare that he was participating in a “Monkey Court.” Appearing on FoxNews with Megyn Kelly, Pallone shouted, insisting that President Obama had kept his, “If you like your healthcare, you can keep it, period, I guarantee it,” promise and said insurance companies were practicing capitalism by cancelling “lousy” “scam” insurance plans that people didn’t want to buy.
Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden
Sheriff Shaun Golden’s strong performance in last November’s election …a 64%-36% reelection victory with over 100,000 votes… was noticed by state and national Republican leaders, many of whom are encouraging Golden to take on Pallone.
The two Republican leaders who matter the most in determining who receives the GOP nomination, Monmouth County Republican Chairman John Bennett and Middlesex County Republican Chairman Sam Thompson, like the idea of Golden running against Pallone.
“I would love to see Shaun Golden run for Congress, ” Bennett said, ‘Not only is popular and a demonstrated vote getter, he has an outstanding record with a documented ability to get things done.”
Thompson said, “Shaun would be a great candidate.”
Little said she would support Golden if he runs.
Golden wouldn’t comment when we asked if he was running.
Sport’s Illustrated’s annual swim suit edition, usually shot in tropical island locations, features supermodel Hannah Davis enjoying the boardwalk at Seaside Heights and the beaches of Island Beach State Park and Cape May.
It is not known at this time if any federal Sandy Relief funds were used to recruit SI and Davis to the Jersey Shore, but Congressman Frank Pallone will probably call for an investigation.
Bayshore Tea Party Group member Frank Gonzalez, husband of the group’s co-founder, Barbara, installs homemade lawn signs on Rt 35 in Middletown during the 2013 Monmouth County Republican primary campaign
Bayshore Tea Party Group co-founder Barbara Gonzalez told HuffPost that her group has nearly 1000 members and that they are staunch supporters of former Highlands Mayor Anna Little’s quest to unseat Congressman Frank Pallone, in an article posted last evening.
“If you don’t get someone in who is totally willing to fight the establishment, it will never change,” Gonzalez told HuffPost.
Little lost to Pallone in 2010 and 2012 with BTPG’s support, but Gonzalez thinks it will be different this year.
Gonzalez said her membership roll has grown by “a couple of dozen new members” since earlier this month when the Bridgegate controversy broke.
The stunt Congressman Frank Pallone pulled this week, manipulating the media into inaccurately reporting that there was a new federal investigation into Governor Chris Christie’s participation in last summer’s #Stronger Than The Storm tourism ad campaign, is nothing new for the son a Long Branch used car dealer.
Such media manipulation is a well worn arrow in Pallone’s quiver.
In September of 2010, Pallone held a press conference in Keyport to announce his proposed $400 million Coastal Jobs Creation Act. USA Yesterday The Asbury Park Press gave Pallone’s announcement widespread coverage on its website and in its print edition. You could have thought Pallone was distributing bags of cash to fisherman along the bayshore given the way APP reported that “news.”
There was a problem with Pallone’s Act of Congress. He proposed the bill the previous March and it died in committee in July. But here he was in September, 5 weeks before an election, declaring himself to be the reincarnation of St. Anthony of Padula, the patron saint of fishermen.
The Asbury Park Press reporters and editors either didn’t check on the status of the bill or they willingly gave Pallone hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of “free media” 5 weeks before an election based on a story that was essentially a fabrication.
What Pallone did this week is the same play. In the mist of the media’s Bridgegate feeding frenzy, Pallone alerted the media that there was now a “federal investigation” into Christie inappropriately using Sandy Relief funds to boost his reelection campaign. The truth is that Pallone, in August of last year, wrote the HUD Inspector General asking that they look into the #Stronger Than The Storm ad campaign that featured Christie. In September, HUD informed Pallone they would do an audit, which is standard practice anyway.
Seeing the media sharks circling Christie hungry for blood, Pallone tossed the stale “news” of the standard HUD audit into the waters as if it was fresh meat. The sharks jumped and made a lot of noise, over nothing.
Congressman Frank Pallone moving his lips, and fingers
On early Monday morning, 6:54, in the midst of the Bridgegate network and cable TV media feeding frenzy engulfing Governor Chris Christie, CNN reported an “Exclusive” story that “federal officials” were investigating whether Christie had “improperly used” some of the Sandy Relief money used to produce the Stonger than the Storm tourism ad campaign. The source of the “Exclusive” was Congressman Frank Pallone.
That should have been the media’s first clue that Pallone is not trustworthy. He offered an exclusive to CNN, and then spread, the story, like a crack whore needing another fix.
But no, the media lapped up the story. It led the 8 am hour of most network morning news shows, and dominated the the political news of the day as an “additional federal investigation” that Christie was facing.
Christie was not first choice as star of #STTS campaign
Congressman Frank Pallone during the 2013 Democratic U.S. Senate Primary Debate
Congressman Frank Pallone lied to the Department and Housing and Urban Development’s Inspector General when he asked that they audit the Christie Administration’s 2013 post-Superstorm Sandy Shore Tourism ad campaign.
In his August 8, 2013 letter to HUD Inspector General David Montoya, Pallone said:
Recently released documents relating to the bidding process and contract award for this marketing campaign show that the contract was awarded to a firm that is charging over $2 million more than the next lowest bidder to develop the marketing plan. The winning firm is being paid $4.7 million for their work, while a comparable firm proposed billing the state $2.5 million for similar work. This large discrepancy between the competing proposals raises concerns as to whether these federal funds are being spent in the most cost effective manner, and should be reviewed by your office.
I am also concerned that the winning bid proposed including Governor Chris Christie in the advertisements, while the lower cost proposal that was not selected did not. As you know, the Governor is running for reelection this year in a high profile race. It is inappropriate for taxpayer-funded dollars that are critical to our state’s recovery from this natural disaster to fund commercials that could potentially benefit a political campaign. In these sensitive circumstances, even the appearance of a conflict of interest should be avoided.
The fact that this particular proposal was chosen despite an obvious conflict of interest, in addition to the higher costs, raises serious concerns with the entire process. I fought hard for passage of the Sandy aid package in Congress by assuring my colleagues that this funding was critical to our recovery and that it would be spent responsibly without waste, fraud and abuse. Many in Congress objected to this funding precisely because of concerns their citizens’ tax dollars would be misspent. In that regard, the state’s mismanagement of taxpayer funds for this marketing campaign is extremely troubling, especially when there are so many New Jersey residents still in need of assistance to recover and rebuild from this historic storm.
But the firm behind the #STTS ad campaign, MWW of East Rutherford, said their proposal was $2.745 million under the $25 million budget and $1.47 million lower than the runner-up’s bid. MWW said their proposal offered the lowest hourly rate of all bids.
UPDATE: Ian O’Connor of the HUD’s Inspector General’s Office responded to our inquiry regarding the audit into the #Stronger Than The Storm ad campaign.
We asked:
“Is this audit anything other than what would occur in the normal course of events regarding any HUD grant?
Is there a separate investigation into the Stronger Than The Storm in ad campaign?”
O’Connor replied:
“We received a request from Congress and are performing an audit to address those concerns.”
MMM followed up asking:
“Is there anything out of the ordinary about this audit?
Are all Congressional requests accepted?”
O’Connor replied:
“We have no further statements.”
So here is what we know. Congressman Frank Pallone asked the Department of Housing and Urban Development to look into the Stronger than the Strom ad campaign.
HUD said, OK.
——
When the federal government grants money, for anything, they later follow up with an audit to be sure the money was spent as intended.
Congressman Frank Pallone thought it would be clever to inform the media that the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s audit into funds granted for Sandy Relief was an investigation into Governor Chris Christie and his appearance in last summer’s #Stronger Than The Storm ad campaign.
MMM asked Ray Zaccaro, Pallone’s press contact in Washington for documentation that the audit is anything other than the normal course of business. Zaccaro said there was no documentation, just a phone call from someone at HUD responding to Pallone’s August letter on the matter saying, “yeah, we’ll look into it.” Zaccaro said that HUD wouldn’t discuss investigations, “except with us, Members of Congress.”
MMM reached out to Brian Sullivan in HUD’s press office for confirmation of a separate investigation. Sullivan referred us to Marta Metelko in the HUD Inspector General’s office. We received an auto reply from Ms. Metelko referring us to Mr. Ian O’Connor. We’ve yet to hear back from O’Connor.
