APP endorses Claire French for Clerk

Could they possibly endorse Curley and DiMaso for Freeholders too?

The Asbury Park Press has recognised the fine job Republican County Clerk M. Claire French has done over the last ten years and endorsed her for a third five year term.

The Neptune Nudniks got this one right.  They dismissed Democratic candidate Michael Steinhorn as someone who “has little to recommend him for the job,” despite the fact that he exposed the statistical anomaly of the Monmouth GOP winning the first general election ballot position in 30 of 33 years and that they like his proposal to that the clerk’s office provide mobile services to seniors and veterans.

Given their logic in endorsing French, it will be fascinating to see how they endorse at least one of the Democratic Freeholder candidates, as I expect they will.

The Democratic Freeholder campaign has been so anemic that I suspect many readers don’t even know who is running.  Despite the Monmouth Dems outraising the Monmouth GOP through September, there is little evidence that Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal and his team are trying to get their nominal slate elected.   Publicly Democratic leaders say the right things about supporting their candidates. Privately they seem resigned to a Republican blow out.

The Democratic candidates are William Shea and Kevin Lavan.  Shea, as Amy Mallet’s running mate, lost to Freeholders Lillian Burry and Gary Rich last year. He is challenging Freeholder Director John Curley for a full three year term.  Lavan, who lost his run for Assembly to Declan O’Scanlon and Amy Handlin in the 13th district last year, is running against Freeholder Serena DiMaso for the remaining one year of Rob Clifton’s term.  Clifton resigned upon being sworn into the State Assembly.

Shea and Lavan were not even on the same page when the Nudniks interviewed all four candidates in September.  Shea recklessly proposed a 20% across the board spending cut from the county budget without backing up how he would do it.   Lavan said “maybe” depending upon the results of an audit.

Yet, the Nudniks loath single party control of any governing body (except the federal government when it is in Democratic hands) and has a historical bias against “Club Monmouth” as they frequently call the Monmouth GOP.  They seem to forget that all of the Monmouth Republican county office holders and all of Monmouth GOP leadership has been replaced since Operation Bid Rig, except Claire French who they just endorsed.  The GOP holds all five seats on the Freeholder Board.

Will the APP editorial board affirm the nudnikness and endorse Shea or Lavan?  We’ll find out soon.  Either way, it won’t matter on election day.   It might matter to their own crediblity if the actually endorse the best people for the job and get over their own biases.

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Monmouth Dems Outraise Monmouth GOP

In their first quarters as party chairmen, Democrat Vin Gopal bested Republican John Bennett in the fundraising battle by over $10,000.

According to their reports filed with the NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission, the Monmouth County Democrats raised $38,647.50. and spent $28,096.01.  The Democrats started the quarter with only $957 in cash. As of September 30th they had $11,509.

The Monmouth GOP ended the quarter with almost $2,000 less cash than it had when Bennett was elected.  The GOP reported raising $28,296 and spending $30,284.  Former Chairman Joe Oxley left Bennett with $34,790.  Of the $28K  Bennett raised, $6000 was donated by the Election Fund of Assemblyman Dave Rible and $3000 was donated by Senator Jennifer Beck’s campaign account.

Gopal’s large donors were Local Union 400 IBEW ($3500), the Middletown Democrats ($1850), Plumbers and Pipe fitters Local Union #9 ($1000) and the Uliano Law Firm of West Long Branch ($1500).

Gopal raised $20,710 in contributions of $300 or less.  Bennett raised $9,802 in donations of $300 or less.

“The Monmouth County Democrats are organizing at a grassroots level because residents across the county are beginning to realize there is a very clear difference between the two political parties,” said Gopal,   “At our convention last June, we had a turnout of over 90% of our county committee with hundreds of new county committee members entering the political process, many of them first time contributors to our party,”

” With party standard bearers like Barack Obama, Bob Menendez and Frank Pallone, people see that we are building and we are organizing.  The Monmouth County Democratic Party is fighting for middle-class taxpayers, fighting for small business owners and working to protect our environment.  There is a clear difference between the two county parties and our messages and people across the county are beginning to recognize these differences.”

Bennett did not return a call for comment.

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Do we need Jimmy Carter to monitor Monmouth County elections?

The editorial board of the Asbury Park Press Neptune Nudniks want the State Attorney General’s office to monitor the ballot positioning draw for Monmouth County elections until such time as the legislature takes the chance out of ballot positioning.

Even though they acknowledge that there is no way to prove their allegations, the Nudniks are basically accusing Monmouth and Essex County Clerks, and the Monmouth GOP and Essex Democrats by inference, of fraud because the results of ballot positioning draws have defied statistical probability by huge margins over the past few decades.

Ballot drawings should be watched. But the Attorney General or Jimmy Carter don’t have to do the watching.  The APP should send a reporter and write about the process.

One reason this matters, the Nudniks and the “experts” they refer to say is because voters who are uninformed about candidates will vote for candiates in the first ballot position.  It seems to me that “voters” who are uninformed about the candidates stay home.  They APP could impact this problem by doing a better job covering candidates and campaigns.

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Bennett proposes to reduce his term to one year

Monmouth GOP Chairman John O. Bennett III emailed a new “final draft”  of proposed bylaws this afternoon.  For the most part the draft released today is a match for the previous “final draft” released last week.

A quick read revealed one minor change to the candidate selection process that MMM suggested last week…an “open seat” seat is now defined as an office with no Republican incumbent.  Previously “open seat” was undefined.

Bennett’s bylaws, both drafts, contain a major change that MMM’s research and investigative staff missed last week.  He is proposing that that Chair and Vice Chair be elected annually.  From Article IV, section 1:

The County Chairman and Vice Chairman shall be elected at the annual meeting called in accordance with law as described in Title 19.  In the event a vacancy occurs in the position of County Chairman or Vice Chairman, a meeting of the County Committee shall be held within forty-five (45) days of said vacancy to fill the unexpired term.  (emphasis added)

The term of the Monmouth County Chairs of both parties has been two years since the Florio Administration.

Bennett told MMM that the change was unintentional and that he realizes that the bylaws as proposed are not perfect. He said he intends to serve for two years.  He plans on amending the bylaws at a convention in March of 2013.

The currently proposed bylaws will be up for adoption at a convention of the GOP County Committee that will take place on Saturday, September 29 from 9am-11am at Colts Neck High School.

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ByLaws: Keep them simple

Monmouth GOP Chairman John O. Bennett III is to be applauded for his endeavors to keep his campaign promises.  In particular, his efforts to codify bylaws, a nagging issue that has stymied several previous chairmen, are worthy of praise.

As we wrote yesterday, we think there are some issues in the bylaws draft.

A windbag is someone who talks too much yet contributes little of value.  Someone who complains yet offers no solutions.  At MMM we’re not windbags.

We have no intention of telling Bennett how to run the party or select candidates.  He should do what he thinks is best in how he structures the party and selects candidates.  If he does well, we’ll praise him.  If he screws up, we’ll be all over him with glee.  Not because we want him to fail, but because the web traffic will go through the roof.  This is a business after all.

It is in the spirit of not being a windbag and in driving traffic to this site, that we offer a solution to the bylaws problem that will let Chairman Bennett run the party and select candidates how he sees fit.  More importantly, our solution will not hamstring future chairs with unintended consequences of the bylaws as proposed.

Keep them simple.

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Monmouth GOP Unity on display in Tampa

PolitickerNJ.com anticipated an injured ego storyline in the aftermath of (John) Bennett’s June victory over intra-party rival Christine Hanlon.

But it wasn’t there.

“Christine and I are friends, and she’s been so helpful,” said Bennet, whose party dominates Monmouth.

In June, (Christine) Hanlon lost a bid for the Monmouth GOP chairmanship by a narrow margin to former state Sen. John Bennett.

“John and I are friends, and I support him,” Hanlon told PolitickerNJ.com.

“Monmouth is not Bergen,” assured (Brian) Nelson.

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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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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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Bennett’s Victory

Former Senate President John Bennett is the Chairman of the Monmouth County Republican Organization.

Besting State Committeewoman Christine Hanlon by only 3 votes of the 615 cast an elated and magnanimous Bennett congratulated Hanlon on a hard fought race and announced that she was welcome to fill whatever role she liked on his team.

Bennett profusely thanked the Western Monmouth committee members and invited Manalapan Municipal Chairman Steve McEnry to nominate Mayor Susan Cohen as Vice Chair.  Cohen was elected by acclamation.

In what was described as a record turn out, over 700 Republicans, including guests, crowded into the Colts Neck High School auditorium.

Freeholder Lillian Burry placed Bennett’s name into nomination and launched into the theme of the evening’s speeches by attacking the Hanlon campaign for negative campaigning.    A more conciliatory Senator Jennifer Beck nominated Hanlon with an acknowledgment of negative campaigning on both sides and an impassioned called to build on the successes of the last four years by voting for Christine.

A handful of members of the Bayshore Tea Party Group attempted to nominate one of their own for Chair.  Outgoing Chairman Joe Oxley shut them down as they continued to shout from their seats.

Bennett, who gave his speech without a microphone, continued the theme of attacking the negative campaigning and attacked Hanlon for refusing to give up county legal work.  During her speech, Hanlon called the negatives and two way street and was booed by Bennett supporters when she called the conflict of interest charge unfair.

If there was an undecided vote in the auditorium prior to the speeches, Bennett probably won them over with a better delivery than Hanlon’s.

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We must move forward together

By Christine G. Hanlon

This evening, the Monmouth County Republican Committee will come together to reorganize our Party and vote for a new County Chair. I humbly ask for the support of the county committee members from all across this wonderful county. I will work hard every day to make sure that Monmouth County, through Republican governance at every level, remains a beautiful and affordable place to live.

We must head into this election season with strength, unity and the resolve to work our hardest to elect a new President to the White House, Joe Kyrillos to the United States Senate, Chris Smith and Anna Little to the United States Congress, and to re-elect County Clerk M. Claire French, and Freeholders John Curley and Serena DiMaso. The stakes have never been higher. We must continue on our current path so that we can begin to restore America’s greatness, reduce the size of government, reign in spending, repeal Obamacare and get America back on the path of individualism.

I am confident that our best days are ahead of us. If I am elected Chair, I promise to work my hardest with you and for you to continue the great progress we have made in recent years. Most importantly, as your Chair, I will continue to work to build bridges and unify our Party so that we will emerge from this process stronger than ever!

I am so grateful for all of the strong support I have received, along with the endorsements of dozens of local elected officials, municipal chairs and the following state and county officials from Monmouth County.

• Senator Joe Kyrillos
• Senator Jennifer Beck
• Assembly Republican Conference Leader Dave Rible
• Assembly Republican Deputy Conference Leader Mary Pat Angelini
• Assemblywoman Amy Handlin
• Assemblyman Rob Clifton
• Sheriff Shaun Golden
• Surrogate Rosemarie Peters
• Freeholder Deputy Director Tom Arnone
• Freeholder Gary Rich
• Freeholder Serena DiMaso

I look forward to working with all Monmouth Republicans toward a bright future for Monmouth County, New Jersey and the United States of America!

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