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:

Read the rest of this entry »

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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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Oxley Righted The Ship

Photo credit: Scarcini, Hollenbeck

When Joe Oxley was elected Monmouth County Chairman in June of 2008, by acclamation and with no opposition, he took over a party that had gone through six tumultuous years that left it in debt, fractured and on the verge of losing control of Monmouth County’s government for the first time in two decades.

Four years later, the Monmouth GOP holds all seats on the Freeholder Board, all Constitutional offices, all Legislative seats in the county and the vast majority of municipal offices throughout the county.  New Jersey has a Republican Governor who would not have been elected if not for the voter turnout in Monmouth County.

One year prior to taking on the Chairmanship, Oxley made the politically shocking and personally risky decision not to seek a fourth term as Monmouth County Sheriff.   Oxley had excelled as Sheriff.  He made a national name for himself and for the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Department.  He was one of, if not the most, respected and popular elected officials in Monmouth County.  He was risking his career to lay the ground work for taking over the Monmouth GOP Chairmanship a year later in order to save the imploding  party from itself.

A hunger for leadership  and stability caused the various factions of the party to lay down their arms to acclaim Oxley the Chair without opposition.   Leadership, stability and winning is what they got, whether the faction leaders liked it or not.  Most often they didn’t as Oxley frustrated almost every party leader, ally or foe, during his two terms with an unorthodox but extremely effective leadership style that had nothing to do with building his personal popularity but everything to do with bringing leadership, stability and victory back to the party.  One could easily make an argument that he sacrificed much of his personal popularity for the good of the party. 

During his Chairmanship, Oxley earned his living as a municipal attorney.  He wasn’t greedy.  He didn’t abuse his political power for personal gain.  The level of work he took on was modest.  He and his new law partners lead the way in reducing legal fees on the county and municipal levels.

As Oxley moves on to the next phase of his professional life he still faces risks resulting from his 2007 decision to give up an office, Sheriff, that was securely his for as long as he wanted it, in order to provide a greater service to the county that he loves.   The obviously politically timed release of Solomon Dwek’s 2006 allegations against Oxley, allegations that had been released two years ago, albeit with less detail, will make Oxley’s confirmation as a Superior Court Judge more difficult.

As the Monmouth County Republican Party concludes a heated campaign to choose Oxley’s successor tonight, we should first lay down our arms, as we did in asking him for leadership in 2008, and thank him profoundly for a job well done.

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Negative Campaigning: The Monmouth County GOP Chair’s race, Part 5

As the Monmouth County GOP Chair’s race  crescendos on its way to a close tomorrow, several Republicans, mostly Bennett supporters, are bemoaning the negative nature the campaign.

Those who think this campaign was negative have limited experience in competitive campaigns.   Many, perhaps most, Monmouth County Republicans have limited experience in competitive campaigns.  If you want to experience competitive campaigns, spend some time in Bergen County.

John Bennett said he would run a positive campaign. He didn’t and he never intended to.  He ran a clever campaign designed to turn his substantial negatives around on his opponent.   Attempt to make his negative history out of bounds to talk about because he has a letter saying he didn’t do anything wrong and make his opponent’s government work a “conflict of interest”  to deflect attention away from his own piggish career.

That might have worked in the old 12th district against hapless Democrats .  It could never work in a competitive race.

John Bennett doesn’t know how to win a competitive race.  He’s never won one, unless you consider his 2003 primary against an unknown conservative by the name of Richard Pezzullo a competitive race.  Whenever John ventured out of his comfort zone in the old 12th, he lost.  

When Bennett was a “Chairman” as Leader of the Senate Republicans in 2003, he lost badly. Before that loss he fought back calls from fellow Republicans in Trenton to give up the Senate Co-Presidency and he fought back Chairman Bill Dowd’s call to step aside in his own race.  John knew better than everyone else.  Except he didn’t and he caused the loss of not only his own seat in the old 12th, but the Assembly seats too.  Worse, and something New Jersey has yet to recover from, he lost the Senate.

It’s not negative to say this.  It is just what is so. 

What would be negative is to not say it loud enough, like John’s friends didn’t say it loud enough in 2003.

Whoever the next Chairs of the major parties are on Wednesday morning, Monmouth County is going to become a more competitive county.  Those who rationalize that this year is a presidential year and next year is a gubernatorial year, so we’ll do well anyway are short term thinkers who don’t know how to build an organization.  That’s the kind of thinking that lead to the loss of Republican dominance in Trenton.

The two men who are competing for the Monmouth Democratic Chair both have a great deal of respect for the organization that Joe Oxley and Christine Hanlon have rebuilt over the last four years.  Both men are preparing and thinking long term.

Ultimately the job of the county chair is to win elections.  The Chair is not a position to give as reward, an act of friendship or because someone’s earned it as a “capstone” to a career.  It is not a ceremonial post that someone can coast in for two easy years.  Not unless you’re willing to let the competition catch up during those two years

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Bennett responds to the Soprano State anonymous mailer

An anonymous mailing which included a copy of the book jacket of The Soprano State and the two pages of the New York Times Best Seller by Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure that featured former Acting Governor John Bennett was sent, from Trenton, to members of the Monmouth County Republican Committee this week, presumably to hurt Bennett’s candidacy for Monmouth County GOP Chair.

Bennett’s opponent, State Committeewoman Christine Hanlon, has denied any involvement in or prior knowledge of the mailing.

Bennett responded by mailing the County Committee members a photocopy of a March 24, 2007 Asbury Park Press article, Feds: Bennett is cleared in billing probe, which included a handwritten note from the former Acting Governor in which he refers to The Soprano State as a “politically charged and intentionally biased novel.”

A copy of Bennett’s mailing can be downloaded here.

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Monmouth GOP Chair’s Race, Part 1: The way the game is played

Ultimately the job of a county chair is to win elections.

Unfortunately, much of the current campaign for Monmouth GOP chair has been focused on the spoils of victory—which lawyer would be a hungrier pig if he/she got elected.

That issue is a red herring.

John Bennett’s pledge that he, his daughter and his firm will forsake doing legal work for the county should he be elected chair would be impressive if he also pledged to forsake municipal work and pledged not to trade legal work at the county and municipal levels with chairs from other counties.  That will never happen.

Bennett has demonstrated over his thirty year career that he is a master of working the system for the benefit of himself and his family.  There can be no  little doubt that before he pledged that he and his daughter would not do legal work for Monmouth County should he be elected GOP County Chair, that he already had made a deal to replace and expand those billable hours and retainers in other counties.  To put it bluntly, if Bennett becomes Chair, his income will increase from Ocean County and Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore’s income will increase in Monmouth County. 

“That’s the way the game is played,” one Bennett supporter recently told MMM in defense of the obvious.

John Bennett’s career is a case study in “the way the game is played.”   From the high five figure state pension, plus lifetime health benefits, he is collecting from tacking together part time jobs, a practice that is no longer legal, to the jobs he has secured for himself and his family members on the state, county and municipal levels, to making the government work that his opponent in the Chair’s race, Christine Hanlon and her partners, do an issue in this race, Bennett is the maestro.

Talk to me about the potential conflicts of interest of your opponent after you’ve pledged to give up all government work for yourself and your family.  Short of that, please stop insulting our intelligence.

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Patrick Murray predicts that Cullari will defeat Little

Monmouth University Polling Director Patrick Murray says on PolitickerNJ that Ernesto Cullari will defeat Anna Little in the CD-6 GOP primary based on Senator Joe Kyrillos coattails and “the bigger issue” that some of Little’s key supporters have fallen out with her since the 2010 race.

I wonder who Patrick is referring to.

CD6 GOP
2010 nominee Anna Little hopes lightning strikes twice and she knocks off the Monmouth County organization’s preferred candidate – this time, Ernesto Cullari.  But it just ain’t gonna happen.  It’s not because the party has gotten any better at GOTV.  Fewer than 14,000 Republicans voted in the last primary – and the only reason more will vote this year is that native son Joe Kyrillos is running for Senate.  The bigger issue is that some of Little’s key supporters have fallen out with her since the last race.  Winner:  Cullari

Murray predicts that 15% of partisan voters will come out on Tuesday statewide.   If the turnout is higher in Monmouth because of Kyrillos’ favorite son status, that should favor Cullari.  Little benefits from Kyrillos’s coattails in Middlesex where she appears under the senator on the ballot. 

Despite Murray’s swipe at the Monmouth GOP get out the vote effort, the real key to this race is will be the turnout in Middlesex.   If Sam Thompson’s team gets 5000 or more voters to the polls, Little should win.   In the 2010 race less than 3800 Middlesex Republicans voted.  However the Middlesex portion of the district is much larger now since redistricting.  If less than 5000 voters come out in Middlesex and 6000 come out in Monmouth, Cullari wins.   If 10,000 come out in Monmouth because of Kyrillos, Cullari wins handily.

MMM’s prediction:  In a repeat of 2010, the race will go to a recount. 

Unlike 2010 the race, the recount won’t be resolved before the Monmouth GOP convention.  Little will get up at the convention and endorse John Bennett for Chair as a payback for headlining her $10 per head spaghetti dinner fundraiser in Keansburg.  Cullari will get up and endorse Christine Hanlon because she’s Christine Hanlon.

Little will be forced to concede on June 15 in order to pay her fines from the FEC.  She won’t have enough money to pay her recount team and the fines.  John Bennett, fresh off his defeat in the Chair’s race, will be in Florida and unable to host a spaghetti dinner to pay Little’s fines and pay the recount team.

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