The Little Event

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Bennett: Monmouth GOP will have a convention in September

The Monmouth County Republican Committee will convene in September, either on the 22nd or the 29th depending on venue scheduling, for the purpose of adopting by-laws, electing a new GOP State Committeeman and electing a county party board of directors, according to Chairman John Bennett. 

Bennett is resigning from the state committee.

“I’m working hard and keeping my promises,” said the Chairman who celebrated the 25th anniversary of his 39th birthday at a fundraiser in Sea Bright yesterday.

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Gopal slams Bennett, Little over Christine O’Donnell appearance

Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal issued a scathing statement to Politickernj condemning Monmouth GOP Chairman John Bennett and 6th District Congressional nominee Anna Little for their decision to bring Christine O’Donnell to Monmouth County for a Little fundraiser next week.

“The Monmouth County Republican Party and their star candidate Anna Little are teaming up with the most extreme candidate ever to run for the U.S. Senate – an individual who openly talked about her involvement in witchcraft and who rejected the most basic theory of science, evolution,” Gopal said. “This is who extremist Anna Little and the Monmouth County Republicans are choosing to align themselves with and one has to wonder if they share Ms. O’Donnell’s views on evolution, witchcraft, women in the military and the countless issues in which she is out of touch with not just the residents in Monmouth County, but members of her own party. It becomes scarier everyday what a Congresswoman Anna Little would like.”

Gopal cited several of O’Donnell’s quotes made on Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect TV show and the FoxNews O’Reilly Factor in making his case that O’Donnell is detached from the mainstream.

“Who do they think they’re going to get to pay $2500 to meet that lunatic?” Gopal said when reached by MMM.

Neither Bennett nor Little were immediately available for comment.

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Christine O’Donnell coming to Hazlet to raise campaign cash for Anna Little

 This is not what I had in mind when I called on John Bennett and Sam Thompson, the GOP chairmen of Monmouth and Middlesex counties, to fix Anna Little’s overdraft.:

Patriot Ticket
$250

Co-Host Sponsorship
$2,500

Other Sponsorships Available – Please Call for Details

~ RSVP TODAY – Space is Limited ~

Call 732-658-5461

Please Mail Event Contribution Checks To:
Friends of Anna Little
P.O. Box 382, Highlands, NJ 07732

Please Include: Employer and Occupation in the memo line
(Information Required by Federal/State Law – if self employed list ‘self’ and industry ie: Attorney)

~Thank You to Our Host Committee ~

Municipal Chair of Old Bridge, Anita Greenburg, Assemblyman Rob Clifton, President of Affiliated Republican Club Wayne Pomanowski & Mayor Fred Rast of Atlantic Highlands

In case you blocked it out, O’Donnell was the 2010 Tea Party candidate for U.S. Senate in Delaware who scored an upset primary victory over former Governor Mike Castle  before going on to lose badly to Christopher Coons, costing the GOP the opportunity to take what had been Joe Biden’s Senate seat.  Castle was considered a sure victor in the general election had he been the nominee.

O’Donnell was a deeply flawed candidate.

The NJ media has compared Little to O’Donnell too often.  Once would have been too often.  Now the comparisons will inevitably start again.  The only thing that could prevent The Star Ledger’s Tom Moran or Politickernj from making such a comparison is if Little fails to get enough traction against Frank Pallone to warrant any ink.

The comparisons could start, mercifully, with failure to file notices from the FEC.

Governor Chris Christie campaigned for Castle in 2010.

He also appeared at least two fund raisers for Little in 2010.  Those weren’t catering hall fund raisers.  They were held at elegant waterfront private homes.  This news makes one wonder about Bennett’s and Thompson’s clout with the Governor.  This one makes one wonder if Christie will be stumping for Little in October.

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Unity or Strange Bedfellows in the Monmouth GOP?

Anna Little, with good reason, has been taking credit for John Bennett’s election as Monmouth GOP Chairman.  If not for Little endorsing her benefactor and encouraging the County Committee members who are also Tea Party activists to vote for Bennett, Christine Hanlon would be Chairwoman.

Little’s reward, whatever it is, will come sometime after she loses to Frank Pallone in November.

The biggest change that Bennett has made since taking over the helm of the Monmouth GOP six weeks ago is to start to make good on his campaign promise to raise the money necessary for county campaigns.   He has informed the Monmouth GOP ticket of Freeholders John Curley and Serena DiMaso, as well as County Clerk Claire French, not to worry about rasing money for the fall campaign.  He has instructed office holders not on the ballot this fall, including the legislative delegation and the sheriff, all of whom have campaigns next year, to suspend their fund raising activities effective August 1 so as not to compete with his efforts for the current campaign.

But how will he raise the money?

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Monmouth Democrats 2ndQ ELEC report not filed. Missing?

Monmouth GOP Team reports $83,000 cash on to hand

The Monmouth Democratic Party’s second quarter campaign finance report, due July 15th, has not been posted on the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission’s website as of this afternoon.  Dem Chairman Vin Gopal told MMM that the report was filed with ELEC, along with the report designating him as the new chairman, on July 10th.  Gopal said he would contact ELEC resolve the problem.

At the end of the first quarter, the Monmouth Dems had $6,305.14 cash on hand and was $78,025 in debt.  Over $60K of the debt was owed to then County Chairman Victor Scudiery.  Gopal said that the second quarter report “was pretty much the same, less than $10,000 on hand.”

The Democratic county candidates, Kevin Lavan and Bill Shea for Freeholder and Michael Steinhorn for Clerk, have $64.14 between them as of their post-primary reports.  Lavan and Steinhorn each told ELEC that they were not raising or spending money for the primary race.  Shea raised over $20K, but spent all but $64.14 in the uncontested primary.

The Monmouth GOP appears to be in better shape.  The GOP committee reported $34,790.31 in cash as of June 30th.    In their post-primary reports, Freeholder Director John Curley reported $22,554.81 in cash; Freeholder Serena DiMaso reported $11,401.19 and County Clerk Claire French reported $14,673.21.

Monmouth County  Republican Chairman John O. Bennett III has instructed all county and state elected officials, with the exception of this year’s candidates, to suspend raising money as of August 1 so as to not compete with his fundraising activities for the coming county campaign.  Bennett promised Curley, DiMaso and French that he would raise the funds necessary for the fall campaign.

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Anna Little Reports Negative Cash On Hand

Anna Little’s congressional campaign account is overdrawn $11,321.08, according to the FEC Form 3 Record of Receipts and Disbursements, that her campaign submitted to the Federal Election Commission yesterday.

$22,188.28 seems to have disappeared overnight, between May 16 and May 17, from Little’s meager coffers.  In  the pre-primary report of activity for the April 1 through May 16 period, “Friends of Anna Little” had $13,806.95 cash on hand on May 16.  The next day, her campaign’s beginning balance was negative $8,381, according to the report submitted yesterday.

Monmouth County GOP Chairman John Bennett, Middlesex County GOP Chairman Sam Thomspon and the Bayshore Tea Party Group need to step in and right the Little campaign before it does damage to the rest of the party.  Thompson thought his judgment was better than that of the Monmouth GOP screening committee when he awarded his county’s party line to Little when her home county leaders thought better.  Bennett, while not yet chairman, supported Little in the primary against Ernesto Cullari.  Bennett and Thompson headlined a fundraiser for Little.

When MMM questioned Thompson about Little’s FEC reports in May he said, “I have a hard enough time keeping my own campaign reports straight.”  That flippant attitude is no longer acceptable.

Bennett relied on Little’s support to win the chairmanship by three votes.  Little has been taking credit for Bennett’s victory at her weekly campaign meetings at the Keyport IHOP. 

The Bayshore Tea Party Group’s leadership, despite having well earned reservations about Little, chose to support her over Cullari as an act of defiance towards the Monmouth GOP.

Thompson, Bennett and BTPG gave us this mess.  They need to clean it up.  Fast.

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Name that lawyer/politican Poll Closed

That decorated tricep belongs to Marlboro Council President Frank LaRoccaMMM received an emotional email from Frank LaRocca this morning asking that we not make political fodder of his new tattoo.

The tattoo is a tribute to LaRocca’s recently passed law partner, Andrew Hegt, who died suddenly at the age of 35 on June 14.  Hegt was the father of five children, including newborn twins.

“My tattoo is St. Andrew’s Cross and the Scales of Justice,” said LaRocca, “it is an artistic tribute to a man I loved dearly and who died tragically.”

LaRocca has created the Hegt Memorial Fund with an initial goal of raising $100,000.  LaRocca says he’s raised $40 thousand so far. $6,506 has been raised on the fund’s website.

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Bayshore Tea Party Promises Primaries

Monmouth GOP Chairman John O. Bennett III invited Bayshore Tea Party Group Co-Founder Barbara Gonzalez to speak at the GOP Unity Breakfast last Saturday.

Gonzalez and fellow co-founder Robert Gordon responded on Monday by issuing a statement to say something that Gonzalez forgot to say to the Unity gathering on Saturday:  Every Republican can expect a primary if they don’t do what the Tea Party wants them to do.

Here’s the statement:

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Thanks for a great month

June was by far the most active month in MMM’s history.  There have been 32,000 visits and 57,000 page views so far month.  71% of those visitors were repeats.  Google analytics says that all of that traffic came from 8700 computers.  Unbelievably to me, the average visit is for 11 minutes, which is longer than it takes to read an entire issue of the Asbury Park Press.

According to alexa.com, only 15,850 websites in the New York area and 125,439 in the United States get more traffic than MMM.

Special thanks go out to Anna Little, Ernesto Cullari, John Bennett, Christine Hanlon, Vin Gopal, Frank LaRocca, Barbara Gonzalez, Bob Gordon, Linda Baum  Rachel Alintoff, Judge Paul Escandon, Louise Murray and everyone who wears bathing suits on the Asbury Park Boardwalk.  I can’t forget Bob Menendez’s opposition research team.

I doing my monthly review, I couldn’t help but notice the success of my friends in Asbury Park.

Congratulations to Dan Jacobson and Molly Mulshine at the AsburyParkSun.  In only three months they have made a significant impact in the local media market.  Alexa.com says that APS is in the top 200,000 of all websites nationally and in the top 35,000 in the New York area.   Mulshine was the first to report the Asbury Park Boardwalk beach attire controversy, a story that went national.

UPDATE: July 1

Wow!  I haven’t had such a busy last day of the month since I was in the car business.  The final numbers for June are 32,959 visitors fromm 9,194 unique IPs and 58,768 page views.  Ranked 120,646 in the U.S. on Alexa.

As Lois mentioned in the comments, thank you so much to all the commenters, especially the “congregation” as Lois called the regulars.  I won’t name them all because I’m sure to leave an important one out.

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