General election ballots is some parts of New Jersey will be in the mail next week, but Hirsh Singh, a loser in the July 7th Republican U.S. Senate primary, is still fighting to get the Rik Mehta’s nomination to take on Senator Cory Booker overturned.
Singh hasn’t been able to get a Superior Court Judge in any New Jersey County to authorize a recount of the primary results. Yet, this morning he announced that he has filed an official contest of the primary.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rik Mehta’s campaign owes “a significant amount of money from the Primary with no plan to deal with it,” according to a leaked confidential email from Ron Gravino, the campaign’s former treasurer.
Now that all the votes that are going to be counted have been delivered, it looks as though Rik Mehta has survived his own embarrasing campaign and a spirited clown show by Hirsh Singh to win the Republican nomination of U.S. Senate.
There are late arriving and provisional ballots yet to be counted, but Mehta’s 11,290 vote margin against Singh will probably hold.
Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Hirsh Singh is defending his letter asking GOP primary voters to request a duplicate ballot from their County Clerk if they have already cast a vote for his opponent. Singh said he was unsure if his campaign would comply with Attorney General Gurbir Grewal’s demand that he cease mailing the letter and surrender his mailing list of potential voters to the State.
Rik Mehta, a former Food and Drug Administration official. won the Middlesex County GOP endorsement for U.S. Senate in online balloting that was tabulated this afternoon. Mehta’s name will appear below President Trump’s on the ballot in Middlesex in the Republican primary on June 2.
The Middlesex Republican nominating convention, originally scheduled for March 14, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Delegates voted online with balloting closing at midnight on the 14th, GOP Chairwoman Lucille Panos told MMM. The Middlesex GOP Executive committee tabulated and certified the votes today.
Dr. Rikin Mehta was endorsed by the Monmouth County Republican Committee for the GOP nomination to unseat Senator Cory Booker this morning at the committee’s annual nominating convention at iPlayAmerica in Freehold Township.
Mehta bested Natalie Rivera and Hirsh Singh, earning 56% (128) of the 230 votes cast. Rivera won the support of 32% (74) of the delegates and Singh 12% (28). 12 delegates present did not cast a vote in the U.S. Senate contest, according to parliamentarian John Lane.
The pharmaceutical entrepreneur/regulator and attorney is undefeated in County GOP contests after also winning Burlington County’s endorsement this morning. He has previously won the endorsements to the Union, Somerset, Hunterdon and Camden GOP organizations.
Former Monmouth County Freeholder did not interview with the Monmouth County Republican Screening Committee as scheduled this weekend. His name will not appear on the ballot for the nomination for U.S. Senate at the Monmouth GOP nominating convention on Saturday, February 8, according to Chairman Shaun Golden.
Golden told MMM that Rich initially confirmed his attendance at the Saturday morning interview and that an email from his campaign on Friday cancelled his appearance.
Shaun Golden and U.S. Senate candidate Rik Mehta at the Golden Gala
Bill Palatucci, New Jersey’s Republican National Committeeman, was showing U.S. Senate candidate Rik Mehta around the Golden Era Gala on Friday night, which surprised me because Hirsh Singh has been touting the Republican National Commiteeman’s endorsement for the nomination to take on Senator Cory Booker for months.
“I’m trying to get Eli Manning to run,” I told Palatucci when he asked me if I knew Mehta. Bill laughed and without missing a beat said, “Is that going to happen? Just it case it doesn’t, you should know Rik Methta.” Read the rest of this entry »