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Praise for Kyrillos, Prayers for Bellew

By Thomas Stokes, Middletown

With the June 4th primary rapidly approaching, I wanted to share why I’m supporting Republican Joe Kyrillos for State Senate.

I began working for Conservative candidates in High School when Barry Goldwater ran for President.  In college, I founded the first Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) chapter at NYU.  I served as a Municipal Chairman of the NY State Conservative Party and worked hard to elect Ronald Reagan (Chair, Taxpayers For Reagan) before moving to New Jersey many years ago.

Joe and I have been good friends for a number of years. I have been proud to support him in every election.  Now, he’s facing a new primary opponent – and what I have discovered about his opponent is alarming, and is something that should also concern you. By the way, contrary to claims she’s an attorney, Joe’s opponent never even went to law school, let alone pass a bar exam.

Leigh-Ann Bellew claims she is a champion of fiscal responsibility. Unfortunately, it’s just not true. Three years ago, she racked up almost $140,000 in credit card debt on 20 different credit cards – including payment to a vacation timeshare company in Las Vegas – and didn’t pay the bills. Instead, she filed for bankruptcy.  How can we trust her to be the conservative leader we need when she can’t even be responsible for her own finances?

To make matters worse, the Monmouth County Democrat Chairman has now confirmed reports that Ms. Bellew’s campaign has sought funding and other assistance from the Democrats in this primary!

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Posted: May 16th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 13th Legislative District, 2013 Election, Joe Kyrillos, LD 13, Leigh-Ann Bellew, Monmouth County, Primary Election, Thomas Stokes | Tags: , , , | 44 Comments »

Bellew Campaign Seeks Help From Monmouth County Democrats

Monmouth Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal

Monmouth Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal

We couldn’t make this up

Monmouth County Democrat Chairman Vin Gopal told MMM that a representative of the Bellew for Senate campaign reached out to him for financial support and help in generating publicity for the Bayshore Tea Party backed slate of candidates in the 13th Legislative District Republican Primary.  “We need help getting the truth out,” Gopal said the operative pleaded.

The campaign operative, who Gopal said is close to Bellew but not so involved with BTPG, said the campaign was having difficulty raising money, recruiting volunteers and getting positive press.

“I turned him down,” said Gopal, “this is a primary between two Conservative Republican tickets.  It’s not our fight.

“Kyrillos may have run as a moderate in the U.S. Senate campaign last year,” Gopal added,” but based upon his voting record in the legislature, he is a Conservative as far as I am concerned. He’s voted against abortion rights, marriage equality rights and the millionaires tax.

“I’m glad to see the Republicans spending money fighting with each other instead of coming after us.”

MMM called Bellew, her campaign manager Dwayne Horner, and BTPG co-founder Barbara Gonzalez for comment.  None have returned the call.

UPDATE

Gonzalez did not return our call, but she banned MMM publisher Art Gallagher from the BTPG’s facebook page.  Eariler today, Gonzalez accused Gallagher of censoring BTPG members’ comments on this site.  That hasn’t happened.

Posted: May 6th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 13th Legislative District, 2013 Election, Joe Kyrillos, LD 13, Leigh-Ann Bellew, Monmouth Democrats, Monmouth GOP | Tags: , , , , , | 31 Comments »

Debate Challenge: Kyrillos vs Bellew

Bayshore Tea Party Group co-founder Barbara Gonzalez pinning Sen. Joe Kyrillos

Bayshore Tea Party Group co-founder Barbara Gonzalez pinning Sen. Joe Kyrillos

MMM has challenged State Senator Joe Kyrillos to accept Leigh-Ann Bellew’s debate challenge if Bellew produces documentation of the law degree and undergraduate degree she told us she earned.  MMM publisher Art Gallagher offered to moderate the debate.

Kyrillos laughed at the idea, but has not agreed.  He didn’t decline either.

Gallagher called Bellew for Senate campaign manager Dwayne Horner to issue the challenge. Horner has yet to call back.  A Bayshore Tea Party member who asked not to be named agreed to extend to the challenge to Bellew.

Posted: May 6th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 13th Legislative District, Joe Kyrillos, LD 13, Leigh-Ann Bellew | Tags: , , , | 23 Comments »

Bellew Needs To Come Clean On Her Credentials

State Senate primary candidate Leigh-Ann Bellew owes her supporters, and the voters of the 13th Legislative District, the truth about her resume.  Any candidate’s educational and employment history is an important consideration for voters to take into account when choosing their nominees and elected officials.  Bellew is asking Republican voters to fire an long term and distinguished incumbent in Senator Joe Kyrillos, and to hire her instead.   In order for her candidacy to be taken seriously, she needs to be transparent about her education, career and character.

Bellew has gone into hiding since the questions about her resume and education have become public.  When the questions about her legal education arose in early April, Bellew told MMM that she graduated from law school in Texas but never took the bar exam.  She said she went to work in customer service for American Express rather than pursue a career as a lawyer, and then exited the work force to raise her children.

However, since PolitickerNJ questioned the veracity of her resume, Bellew has stopped returning MMM’s repeated phone calls.  Her campaign manager, Dwayne Horner, has not been able to provide answers.

Bellew, her running mates and campaign volunteers have been distorting Kyrillos’s record. Kyrillos is a moderate, but he is not a tax and borrow liberal as the Bayshore Tea Party Group backed ticket is claiming.  Kryillos does not support partial birth abortion and death panels, as the duplicitous literature the BTPG backed campaign has been distributing claims.

Highlands-20130505-00346 (640x245)

 

If a candidate or campaign is going to take liberties with the truth about their opponent’s record, they at the very least should have the decency to be transparent about something as basic about their own education and career.

Leigh-Ann Bellew can put an end to all of this nonsense over her past by simply proving she has the degrees she has claimed she has.  She should do that immediately.  If Bellew has embellished her past, she should come clean about that and explain herself.

Posted: May 6th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 13th Legislative District, 2013 Election, Bayshore Tea Party Group, Joe Kyrillos, Leigh-Ann Bellew, Monmouth GOP, Primary Election | Tags: , , , , | 10 Comments »

Mystery Robo Call In LD 13

robocall_SNLSomeone commissioned ‘phone ID’ calls in LD 13 that went out yesterday asking Republican primary voters if they planned to vote for Republican Senator Joe Kyrillos, Tea Party challenger Leigh-Ann Bellew or if they are unsure.

Listen to the recording here.

It was left as a voice mail at an MMM reader’s home.  The caller ID said the call came from 602-357-5922, a Phoenix, AZ landline listed to Danny Crosby.

None of the competing campaigns or candidates will cop to paying for the call. There was no ‘paid for’ disclosure.

‘Phone ID’ calls are not polls, per se.  The data collected is used for get out the vote (GOTV) planning.

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Posted: May 1st, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 13th Legislative District, 2013 Election, Bayshore Tea Party Group, Monmouth GOP | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 32 Comments »

Christie Raises $500K in Middletown

Sheriff Shaun Golden, Freeholders Serena DiMaso and Tom Arnone at Christie fundraiser, facebook photo

Sheriff Shaun Golden, Freeholders Serena DiMaso and Tom Arnone at Christie fundraiser, facebook photo

Governor Chris Christie’s reelection campaign raised $500,000 at the Middletown home of Newport Capital Group President Domenic DePiero, according to sources familiar with the event.  The fundraiser, chaired by State Senator Joe and Susan Kyrillos, was the most successful Christie fundraiser to date, including the February fundraiser at the Palo Alto, CA home of facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Former NFL player Christian Peter, listed as a supporting member of the host committee on the event invitation, did not attend.   “The only big guy I saw was Christie,” one donor said.

Posted: May 1st, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 2013 Election, 2013 Predictions, Chris Christie | Tags: , , , , , , | 8 Comments »

Double Dose of Bad News For Buono

Yet, good news for Trenton Democrats—the NJ Republicans are trying to lose

By Art Gallagher

Buono Dawn Quixote2State Senator Barbara Buono, the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor, received two doses of bad news today (so far) for her fledgling campaign to unseat Governor Chris Christie in November.

1) A Quinnipiac poll released today indicates that Buono has made no progress over the last month in increasing her dismal name recognition.  78% of those polled don’t know enough about Buono to form an opinion. That compares to 79% last month.  Of the few who recognize her name, 43% have an unfavorable opinion.

Christie’s numbers remain amazingly strong. 67% approve of the job he is doing as governor.  66% says he deserves to be reelected. In a head to head match up with Buono, Christie wins 58%-26%, with 13% out to lunch.

2) Even worse for Buono, PolitickerNJ reports that she is likely to be the only major party gubernatorial candidate in the history of New Jersey’s matching funds campaign program not to qualify for the maximum amount. PolitickerNJ said that Buono has raised only $29,000 per week since she declared her candidacy in December.  In order to earn the maximum $2 million in state matching funds for the primary, she would have to raise $216,000 per week over the next six weeks of the primary campaign.

Christie has opted out of the state matching funds program and has raised upwards of $5 million to date for the primary.

Trenton Republicans Trying to Lose

With Chrisite’s polling and financial numbers so strong, one would think that the Trenton Democrats that control the legislature would be concerned about Christie coattails.  Trenton Republicans seem enthused about the prospect of taking control of the legislature, but so far their campaign is deploying the stupidest strategy imaginable.

I’m not a professional political strategist, I just play one of the Internet.  In my not so humble opinion the NJ GOP‘s campaign against Corzine Democrats is the dumbest political strategy since Christine O’Donnell declared she is not a witch.

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Posted: April 24th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 2013 Election, 2013 Gubernatorial Politics, Art Gallagher, Assembly Republicans, Barbara Buono, Chris Christie, Democrats, Jon Bramnick, Legislature, NJ GOP, NJ State Legislature, Quinnipiac poll, Republican Party, Sheila Oliver | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Bayshore Tea Party Backed Slate Claims Momentum With Polling Data In LD13

Won’t Say Who Is Doing The Polling Or Reveal Data

UPDATED: 1pm

townhall.com photo

townhall photo

Bellew for State Senate campaign manager Dwayne Horner called from Texas to say that the campaign polled 5,000 Republican voters in LD 13 on Sunday evening and that 83% said they favored replacing the incumbents.  Horner refused to name the polling firm, saying only that its a well respected Republican firm that worked for the Romney campaign in Florida and several Texas congressional campaigns.

Horner declined to say what questions were asked of those polled, saying he would not get into the specifics of the poll.  Twice MMM asked if the incumbents were named in the polling questions.  Twice Horner declined to answer.

“83% said the incumbents should not be re-elected,” Horner said. “Did you tell them who the incumbents are?” we asked. “I’m not getting into the specifics of the poll, but Leigh-Ann Bellew’s name was mentioned,” Horner responded.

Horner challenged Senator Joe Kyrillos and the anonymous Republican political operative quoted below to go door to door and find 8 of 10 voters who plan to reelect Kryillos.

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we the peopleThe slate of candidates challenging LD 13 legislative incumbents, Senator Joe Kyrillos, Assemblywoman Amy Handlin and Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon claim they have polling data that indicates “voters overwhelming want to fire the incumbents.”

An email sent to Bayshore Tea Party Group members by co-founder Barbara Gonzalez reads, in part, as follows:

Momentum  is on the side of the candidates of R4CL.  Voters overwhelmingly say they are ready to fire the  current incumbents. Internal polls show that voters are ready to support  a new slate of candidates.

Gonzalez told MoreMonmouthMusings that she does not know who is conducting polls for the primary challengers led by state senate candidate Leigh-Ann Bellew or what the numbers say. “That message was sent over by the campaign, I just cut and paste and sent it out,” said Gonzalez, “but my internal poll agrees with it.  Everyone I talk to wants a change.”

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Posted: April 24th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 2013 Election, Amy Handlin, Barbara Gonzalez, Bayshore Tea Party Group, Declan O'Scanlon, Joe Kyrillos, LD 13, Leigh-Ann Bellew | Tags: , , , , , , | 16 Comments »

Bellew Hires Texas Gov Rick Perry’s Campaign Consultant

townhall.com photo

townhall.com photo

LD 13 State Senate challenger Leigh-Ann Bellew announced today that Dwayne Horner of Texas will lead her campaign against Senator Joe Kyrillos in the GOP primary.

Horner lead the Dallas area field operations for Texas Governor Rick Perry’s 2010 re-election primary campaign against U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, according to a press release from the Bellew campaign.  He was named “one of the best field directors in Texas” by the Dallas Morning News.

More recently, Horner ran the field operations for Texas Congressman Roger Williams’ victorious 2012 campaign in the new 25th congressional district.

Posted: April 19th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 13th Legislative District, 2013 Election, Joe Kyrillos, Leigh-Ann Bellew | Tags: , , , | 10 Comments »

Bellew challenges Kyrillos to debates as questions about her educational background arise

Leigh-Ann BellewLD 13 Challenger told MMM she graduated from law school

Leigh-Ann Bellew, the Tea Party backed candidate running against State Senator Joe Kyrillos in the 13th legislative district GOP primary issued a debate challenge to the incumbent yesterday just as simmering questions about her educational background surfaced in the press.

Bellew said that Trenton has changed Kyrillos over the last 26 years and that 13th district Republicans should learn where the candidates stand on the Constitution, Tax Policy and Gun Rights.

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Posted: April 19th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 13th Legislative District, 2013 Election, Bayshore Tea Party Group, Joe Kyrillos, LD 13, Leigh-Ann Bellew | Tags: , , , , | 18 Comments »