There was little talk of bi-partisanship in Colts Neck yesterday morning at the Monmouth Republican Nominating Convention. The Republican nominee for Governor showed up at the Monmouth County Republican Nominating Convention.
Governor Chris Christie brought the crowd of some 400 county committee members and guests to their feet several times as he declared that it is he, and the Republicans who have stood with him “along with some right thinking Democrats,” who have turned Trenton upside down since he was elected in 2009.
Christie acknowledged the impact that the Monmouth GOP had in his 2009 victory over Jon Corzine. “When most people didn’t know me, you gave me a chance. When nobody thought I could win, you did,” Christie told the crowd as he thanked Monmouth for the 64,000 vote pluarity he won in the county in ’09 general election and the first GOP county endorsement he received in the ’09 primary. He specifically thanked former Monmouth Republican Chairman Joe Oxley who is now out of politics after being sworn in as a Superior Court Judge on Friday. “I will miss Joe’s political partnership,” said the governor, “but I know New Jersey will be well served by Joe in his new position, which I had something to do with him getting.”
The Committee is comprised on one male and one female from each New Jersey county. The members are elected by Republican voters in the June primary. Primary challenges are rare with the members typically being chosen by the County Committee.
Hanlon and her fellow State Committee Member John Bennett squared off in the race to replace Joe Oxley as Monmouth Republican Chairman last June. Bennett prevailed by 3 votes out of 615 cast. Since then, Hanlon has been the consummate team player. She is an attorney with Archer & Greiner’s Shrewsbury office, serves as the Deputy Municipal Attorney of Tinton Falls, the Atlantic Highlands Prosecutor and a Commissioner of the Monmouth County Board of Elections.
Bayshore Tea Party co-founder Bob Gordon told MoreMonmouthMusings that he would recommend that the groups’s candidates for the Legislature from the 13th district, sheriff and freeholder not file as candidates in the June 4 Republican primary if GOP Chairman John Bennett would allow the candidates onto the March 23 County Convention ballot without having to submit the signatures required under the new by-laws to challenge incumbents. He would not guarantee that the so far unnamed challengers would abide by the results of the convention and not file for the primary if they lose in Colts Neck on the 23rd. “That would be up to the candidates,” he said.
Gordan said that county committee members inclined to support the Tea Party challengers are reluctant to sign convention petitions for fear that they will be challenged in the next committee election in 2014.
The deadline to submit petitions for the convention ballot passed last week. Primary petitions are due on April 1.
Neither Gordon nor fellow co-founder Barbara Gonzalez would name the potential challengers. Gordon said that there is a full slate of candidates to take on Senator Joe Kyrillos and Assembly Members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon in the 13th district. On the county level, Sheriff Shaun Golden faces a challenge while Freeholder Director Tom Arnone and Deputy Director Serena DiMaso may only have one challenger, if the candidates file.
Monmouth County Republican Chairman John Bennett announced this morning that Governor Chris Christie will be on hand to accept the party’s nomination for reelection when the Committee convenes at Colts Neck High School on Saturday, March 23.
In an email to County Committee members, Bennett said that he was hopeful that all members would be able to join him in nomination Christie, Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno and all incumbent legislative and county candidates.
Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long, a Democrat, will endorse Governor Chris Christie for reelection tomorrow morning at Woody’s, according to a source who doesn’t want to be known for talking to a Republican blogger.
Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long. photo credit:RedBankGreen.com
The Christie campaign has announced a campaign event at Woody’s Ocean Grille for 11:15 am.
Long did not return a call for comment. Nor did Christie strategist Mike DuHaime.
Long’s support of the Republican governor is a set back for Monmouth Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal, one of Democratic gubernatorial presumptive nominee Senator Barbara Buono’s strongest supporters.
Should Long find herself in trouble with Gopal, Monmouth Republican Chairman John Bennett would welcome her to the GOP.
“I would welcome any caring mayor or council member, including Mayor Long, into the party,” said Bennett in a phone interview, “So long as they are working for the people and not out of a personal agenda, I will welcome them.”
Ocean County GOP Chairman Geroge Gilmore is among a handful of connected lobbyists hired by AshBrit, the Florida company that won the sole state contract for Superstorm Sandy clean up, who was making sales calls to municipal officials looking for lucrative non-bid clean up work after then storm, according to an article in The Star Ledger this morning.
MMM was the first to report that former Corzine staffer Maggie Moran and her firm, M Public Affairs, was selling AshBrit’s premium priced services to Sandy ravaged municipalities. The Ledger report expands the list of lobbyists working for AshBrit in New Jersey to Gilmore, former Corzine cabinet member Kris Kullari, and former Assembly Republican director Jon Bombardieri.
AshBrit has been widely praised for the quality of the clean up work it hired subcontractors to perform. Their no-bid pricing is the issue. AshBrit charged $100 per ton for debris removal. Towns that didn’t hire AshBrit got the work done for $26 per ton.
“If this isn’t a classic example of how everything is connected in New Jersey politics, I don’t know what is,” said state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), who was Corzine’s running mate in 2009 when Moran managed his re-election campaign.
MMM is generally not a fan of Weinberg, but we are with her on this issue. Excess profits paid to AshBrit for making phone calls and signing contracts could have been used to rebuild infrastructure, house the displaced, etc, or not borrowed from China in the first place.
Two former New Jersey political powerhouses joined NJTV’s Michael Aron on his weekly show, On the Record, this week to discuss the 2013 gubernatorial race, the 2014 U.S. Senate race and to reminisce about the good old days… the governors they served under and how the climate has changed in Trenton since the days when they held power.
Democrat Joe Doria served in the State Assembly from 1980-2004. He was Speaker in the 1990-1992 session. Doria left the Assembly after losing the Democratic primary in 2003. In 2004, he was elected by the Hudson Democratic Committee to fill the State Senate term vacated by the death of Senator Glenn Cunningham, who was also the mayor of Jersey City. Doria also served as mayor of Bayonne from July of 1998 through October of 2007. He resigned from the Senate and as mayor when Governor Jon Corzine nominated him to become the Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs, one of the most powerful Cabinet positions in the State. His public career came to a sudden end in July of 2009 when Corzine announced his resignation as DCA commissioner after his home was raided in the Operation Bid Rig sweep the resulted in 44 arrests. Doria was never arrested and the U.S Attorney’s Office cleared him of all charges in October of 2011.
Republican John Bennett is chairman of the Monmouth County Republican Committee. He served in the State Legislature for 24 years, 10 in the Assembly and 14 in the Senate. While a Senator, Bennett was co-president of the chamber with Richard Codey during first two years of the McGreevey administration. Bennett was Acting Governor for 3 1/2 days, during the week between the Whitman/DiFrancesco administration and the McGreevey administration when New Jersey had five governors…DiFrancesco, Codey, Bennett, former Attorney General John Farmer and McGreevey.
Bennett’s career as a senator came to an end after he was defeated at the polls by Ellen Karcher, then a member of the Marlboro Township Committee. The Asbury Park Press ran Bennett out of office with a relentless series of articles, over a period of months, over a billing irregularity while he was Marlboro’s Township Attorney. Bennett was cleared of any wrong doing by the Feds in March of 2007.
Bennett is collecting a $90,000 annual pension from his years in the legislature and a plethora of part time law appointments tacked together to provide a handsome income.
The Bayshore Tea Party Group has started the process of evaluating incumbent Republican office holders with an eye towards possible nominating challenges, according to the group’s co-founder Barbara Gonzalez.
“We’re very angry at Republicans,” Gonzalez said in a phone interview with MoreMonmouthMusings, “but we’re not going to primary someone just for the sake of it. We have committees meeting to evaluate office holders’ records and postions. Many conservatives, not just the Tea Party feel we have no representation.”
Under the Party By-Laws passed by Monmouth GOP Chairman John Bennett last September, there is a new process by which incumbents on the County and State level can be challenged at nominating conventions. Gonzalez, who is also a member of the Monmouth GOP Board of Directors due to a provision in the new By-Laws, would not rule out challenges at the convention or in a primary should convention challenges fail.
The Monmouth GOP convention is scheduled for March 23, 8:30 A.M. at Colts Neck High School.
Former Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye is the new president of the Monmouth County Affiliated Republican Club.
Kaye takes over from Wayne Pomanowski who served as president for the maximum two years allowed by the club’s bylaws. 1st Vice President Gerri Popkin and 2nd Vice President Bob Burlew were unable to step up to the presidency due to other obligations. Howell Chairman John Costigan, the club Sergeant-At-Arms, declined the post because he is running to replace Monmouth GOP Chairman John Bennett on the GOP State Committee. Pomanowski said he suggested Kaye to Bennett.
Bennett said that Kaye was the unanimous choice of the club’s trustees at their January meeting. All other officers, except Pomanowski, retained their previous club offices. Pomanowski remains on the board.
The choice struck me as odd given 1) the wealth of up and coming talent in the Monmouth GOP and 2) Kaye’s rocky historical relationship with Govenor Chris Christie including the controversy surrounding Kaye towards the end of his distinguished 23 year career as Monmouth County Prosecutor.
Carol Mazzola, right, with Selika Josiah Gore and Kim Guadagno during their 2009 campaign. facebook photo
Marlboro Councilwoman Carol Mazzola met with Monmouth County Republican Chairman John Bennett prior to announcing her to run for reelection as a Democrat this fall. Mayor Jon Hornik was present at the meeting which took place in Freehold.
Mazzola told MoreMonmouthMusings that she met with Bennett out of respect for the chairman for whom she has great admiration. She said that Bennett attempted to pursuade her not to switch partys, but that her mind was already made upInflatable Slide.
The councilwoman, who is seeking her second term on the Marlboro Council, said she’s been struggling with the decision for many months. “In the end, I know I made the right decision for myself and for the citizens of Marlboro,” she said, “win lose or draw, I know I did the right thing.”
Ocean County GOP Chairman Geroge Gilmore is among a handful of connected lobbyists hired by 
Former Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye is the new president of the Monmouth County Affiliated Republican Club.