Where’s Pallone when we need him? 

Proposed Rebate Rule Hands a Hefty Payday to Big Pharma Paid for by Patients AND Taxpayers

By Rich Pezzullo

Rich Pezzullo

There is full -fledged crisis that is not on the border – it’s in our families and can no longer be ignored.  One in four Americans cannot afford their medication.

There is a controversial initiative being pushed in Washington called the Rebate Rule, which affects the ability of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) such as Express Scripts, CVS Caremark and OptumRx to negotiate rebates with drug makers for Medicare recipients. We need leaders from both political parties- including Congressman Frank Pallone, to come out and take a more vocal, stronger stand against this.

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Bob Hugin wins Monmouth GOP endorsement for U.S. Senate

Rich Pezzullo gets the CD-6 endorsement by acclamation 

Former Celgene CEO Bob Hugin won the endorsement of the Monmouth County Republican Committee for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination tonight besting Brian Goldberg by a margin of 121-17. Read the rest of this entry »

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Pallone and Pelosi block hope for terminally ill patients

Congressman Frank Pallone

Congressman Frank Pallone and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi rallied House Democrats to block the passage of legislation supported by President Trump that would allow terminally ill patients to try to extend their lives by using experimental drugs that have not been approved by the FDA.

President Trump called for the “right to try” legislation in his State of the Union Address.  The U.S. Senate passed the bill unanimously and there is bi-partisan support for the bill in the House.

The bill was up for a ‘fast track’ vote in the House on Tuesday, which requires passage with votes from two-thirds of the chamber.  The vote was 250 aye to 140 no, falling short of the two-thirds requirement. Read the rest of this entry »

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Pezzullo to challenge Pallone

Rich Pezzullo

Conservative businessman Rich Pezzullo announced last night that he will seek the GOP nomination to challenge Congressman Frank Pallone in the 6th Congressional District of New Jersey (parts of Monmouth and Middlesex counties).

Pezzullo declared his candidacy at the Middlesex County Republican Women’s Club’s annual Reagan Day celebration.

“We can no longer allow enemies of American progress like Frank Pallone to represent us when he and others like him are spending every day trying to hold our nation back. I am challenging him because I believe that the Sixth District deserves so much better — a representative they can rely on, that they can be proud of,” Pezzullo told the gathering. “Pallone was elected to Congress 30 years ago and has not accomplished anything. He is too far left even for his own rabidly leftist party. Isn’t it time for a Congressman who will work for a living?” Read the rest of this entry »

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Sonnek-Schmelz: Pallone’s behavior is disgraceful

Congressman Frank Pallone sitting on the House floor. Photo via twitter

Brent Sonnek-Schmelz, the Republican candidate challenging Congressman Frank Pallone in New Jersey’s 6th District, called the 28 year incumbent’s behavior on the floor of the House of Representatives “disgraceful.”

“Frank’s right,” the challenger continued, “he does not have much to be proud about after 28 years.”

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Pallone has less than $1 million in campaign cash

Plainfield Today photo

Congressman Frank Pallone’s (NJ-6, Monmouth and Middlesex) once formidable campaign war chest of roughly $4 million is down to less than $1 million according his latest report to the Federal Election Commission.

New Jersey’s senior Democratic congressman, Pallone spent $3,778,155 in the Special U.S. Senate Primary last summer in his bid to replace the late Senator Frank Lautenberg. He lost that primary to then Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

Pallone reported $938,472 cash on hand in his congressional campaign account as of March 31, 2014.  He raised $200,449.64 in the first quarter of this year and disbursed #338,450.67.  $60, 645 remains in his senate campaign account.

The $938,472 that Pallone reports on hand may be inflated by illegal contributions. A cursory examination of his most recent quarterly report reveals $14,200 in contributions from individuals during the current election cycle that exceed the legal limit of $2600 per election.

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Hari Eppanapally Withdraws From CD-6 Race

In an email to Middlesex and Monmouth County Republican Chairmen Sam Thompson and John Bennett, Hari Eppanapally withdrew his name from consideration for the nomination for Congress from the 6th congressional district this afternoon.

In his letter which can be read in its entirety here, Eppanapally said he made the decision to withdraw in the best interests of the GOP so that the party can put up a united fight against the incumbent, Congressman Frank Pallone, by rallying behind one candidate.

“Looking at the big picture and being a responsible leader, I feel the party’s time and energy  should be spent on the main election to win this race rather than diluting it on a primary which may divide the party.”

Anthony Wilkinson, an attorney from Old Bridge, is now the only candidate seeking the Republican Party endorsements at the Middlesex and Monmouth GOP conventions which will be held tomorrow morning. Monmouth’s convention is at Freehold Township High School at 9am, Middlesex’s at Royal Albert’s Palace in Fords at 10..

Eppanapally said the GOP in CD-6 and nationally should focus on Health Care, Education and the Economy.

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Eppanapally offered an explanation for his support of Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula’s 2012 congressional candidacy against Congressman Leonard Lance in the 7th congressional district.

I want to clarify my support to Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula during his 2012 Congressional race from NJ CD7. He is a
very close long-time friend of mine. I decided to support him purely on a personal level, not because of his Party affiliation. I
want to stand corrected on this so that people do not have any misunderstanding on my belief in Republican principles.

Eppanapally did not offer an explanation of his $2500 contribution to President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign in his letter.

MMM stands by its endorsement of Eppanapally for the Democratic nomination in CD-6.

Pallone can be beat in a primary, as Cory Booker proved last August in the Special Senate Primary.  More importantly, Pallone’s campaign war chest was depleted by about 75% in that primary last year.  Eppanapally can force Pallone to spend his resources while defending his Democratic nomination while the GOP candidate, presumably Wilkinson baring an unknown primary contestant, raises funds for the fall campaign.  If Eppanapally agrees to enter the Democratic Primary, MMM will lead his petition drive to get him on the ballot.

UPDATED

Eppanapally told MMM that he became interested in challenging Pallone after being approached by the National Republican Congressional Committee. NRCC presented Eppanapally with statistics showing that almost 300,000 Indian Americans live in Middlesex County, over 100,000 of them in CD-6 and argued, based upon Anna Little’s 2010 performance against Pallone, that an Indian American candidate could swing enough votes to beat Pallone.  Eppanapally said that he would only seek the nomination if there was no primary challenge.  When Wilkinson got in the race and made it clear he would run a primary campaign regardless of the outcome of the Monmouth and Middlesex GOP conventions, Eppanapally bowed out.

Labels and List’s analysis of the 2010 U.S. Census Data indicates that there are 21,069 voters of Indian/South East Asian descent in CD-6.

Eppanapally told MMM that his $2500 donation to President Obama’s reelection campaign was the price of a ticket to an event at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in 2011 that he attended as an employee of Financial Policy Council Inc.  Obama spoke at the event.  He said he was unaware that the event was an Obama fundraiser when he attended.

Eppanapally said he would not challenge Pallone in the Democratic primary.

UPDATED AGAIN

Eppanapally called to clarify his earlier remarks about his $2500 contribution to President Obama’s reelection campaign and the event at the Waldorf-Astoria. He said that his attendance at the event was “on the personal level” and not as an employee of Financial Policy Council Inc.  He said he wrote a personal check to the Obama campaign to attend the event.  Asked how he could not know that he was contributing to the Obama campaign or attending an Obama fund raisers if he wrote a check to the Obama campaign, Eppanapally said, “It doesn’t matter.”

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Old Bridge Attorney Seeks GOP Nomination in CD-6

Anthony Wilkinson, 48, of Old Bridge, will compete with Hari Eppanapally for the Republican nomination to represent the 6th Congressional District on Saturday, March 22 when the Middlesex and Monmouth County Republican organizations convene separately to nominate their candidates.

Wilkinson, the married father of two children, 26 and 17, is a partner at CoffyLaw, an Intellectual Property and Business Law firm in Freehold.

A Michigan native, Wilkinson moved to New Jersey in 1990 upon his graduation from Yale Law School where he was an editor of the Yale Law and Policy Review, a director of the Yale Moot Court of Appeals, and a founding director of the Yale Civil Rights Law Association.  He received a undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1986.

Wilkinson started his legal career as a Judicial Law Clerk for Chief Justice Robert N. Wilentz of the New Jersey Supreme Court before moving on to the elite Dewey Ballantine where he was an associate in the project finance group. In 1993, Wilkinson left the practice of law to embark on a career as a high school teacher.

In 2007, Wilkinson returned to the practice of business law as an Associate at Wilentz, Goldman and Spitzer where he practiced until joining CoffyLaw last month. He serves as an Educational Consultant to the Seton Hall University Academy for Urban Transformation, an Adjunct Professor of Business Law at Pillar College and as a Volunteer Teacher at the Monmouth Worship Center in Marlboro.

Wilkinson has not previously sought elected office. He told MMM that he has never contributed to a Democratic congressional or presidential candidate. He was recently appointed to the Old Bridge Township Ethics Board.

Wilkinson bested Eppanapally before the Middlesex GOP Screening Committee last week, 20 votes to 11.

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Lonegan Should Challenge Pallone

Steve Lonegan is not going to win the GOP nomination to replace the retiring Congressman Jon Runyan in New Jersey’s third congressional district.

The party bosses in Ocean and Burlington Counties that comprise the district have settled on endorsing former Randolph Mayor Tom MacArthur.  Ocean County Republicans with the stones to defy Chairman George Gilmore are lining up behind Toms  River Councilman Maurice Hill, a retired Navy rear admiral.  If Lonegan continues to compete for the nomination in the party conventions, he’s likely to come in third in Ocean and second in Burlington.  Lonegan does not have an organization to compete with the Ocean and Burlington Republican organization should he run a primary race against MacArthur.

Lonegan should stop fighting fellow Republicans in Ocean and Burlington and come north to Monmouth and Middlesex where we need his considerable talent.  If Monmouth GOP Chairman John Bennett and Middlesex GOP Chairman Sam Thompson have not been on the phone pleading with Lonegan to take on ObamaCare author Frank Pallone in the 6th Congressional district, they are missing an opportunity.

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Cullari will not challenge Pallone

He had pledges for the $30,ooo he wanted to raise in thirty days and said Monmouth GOP Chairman John Bennett reacted enthusiastically to his potential candidacy, but at the moment of choice his heart was not in it.  Ernesto Cullari, a GOP primary candidate for the CD-6 nomination in 2012 told MMM he will not seek the nomination to challenge Frank Pallone this year.

Cullari said he recently signed a deal to author a series of novellas, the first of which will be released later this year, and that his commitment to that project and his partners was the major stumbling block to mounting his second campaign for public office.

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