The Chairman Speaks.

Adam Puharic the Monmouth County republican Chairman spoke to the Asbury park editorial Board. The article about that meeting appeared in yesterday's paper . I thought he did a good job in pointing out the flaws in the pay to play regulations and backed it up with research. He is right it is flawed.

Then he talked about the convention selection process he instituted. I still do not get it so I am asking someone out there who supports Adam's procedures to explain it to me. What do we gain by having powerful party insiders pre- screen candidates? How would it have changed Monmouth County politics if it had been done that way the two previous years by Fred Nieman.
Would we have wound up with John Merla rather then Bill Barham? Was there a better candidate then Lillian Burry? Would Anna Little have been kept off the ballot the first time?

I will tell you what I think the whole thing is about. Powerful individuals and two or three large powerful towns did not like the fact that they were no longer calling the shots. They did not like the fact that small towns could build coalitions and have an impact on the selection process. They were unhappy that they and their candidates actually had to court the votes of people in these towns. They had to appear in front of clubs and chairmen and be subjected to questions about where they stand. How demeaning is that?

If it where not for this screening committee thing then Adam Puharic might have been considered a good Chairman. This idea has caused resentment, is undemocratic and likely caused us to loose a Freeholder seat.

So until somebody can give me an explanation as to how this was a good idea I will continue to hammer away at it.

THE EDITOR HAS HIS HEAD IN A VERY DARK PLACE.

I am almost starting to feel sorry for the Freeholders. They place the job of recommending an Architect for a specialized job in the hands of professionals within the county government to remove any political taint and the Asbury Park Press finds a way to slam them anyway.

I will admit if I had been in their shoes I would have wanted to know that the firm recommended was the high bidder and an explanation as to why they where preferable to a lower bidder. However the press slammed them awfully hard considering that they apparently are trying to do the right thing. What really got me was the demand that the Freeholders be told how much in political contributions each bidder made. WAIT A MINUTE. I thought we wanted to remove that from consideration. Isn't it better if they do not know that information. Is the press suggesting that those who donated to a political campaign within the rules be penalized? That seems wrong.
The editor needs some sunshine. Come on out of that dark place. PLEEEEASE.

CONTEST. WIN BIG PRIZE.

Now that the election is over I thought we might try running a little contest for all the newly elected officials.

If you are an elected official at any level of government please submit your best idea for cutting spending. A panel of select judges will then decide which idea is the best.

The prize? You will get an "ataboy" from the Monmouth Bull Moose and your idea will be promoted on the Internet. So do not be shy start posting those ideas now.

Contest rules: No purchase necessary, offer open only to NJ elected officials. Offer expires November 30th 2007. Offeree and judges are not liable if winning idea causes the collapse of the government, ruins your day or ends your free ride. Politicians under indictment or investigation prohibited from participation. Offer void where prohibited. All decisions of judges are final.

Local Races Rebuttal

Highly respected Monmouth County Republican Blogging pioneer Art Gallagher of More Monmouth Musings recently stated on his Blog.

On the municipal level, the county is trending Democratic:Wall: Independent
republicans win, a repudiation of the local and county GOP organizations.
Splits: Middletown, Holmdel, Hazlet, Keyport, Oceanport, Spring Lake, Red Bank,
Sea Bright. Marlboro: A huge Democratic victory with a major assist from local
Republicans

Is this correct? I beg to differ.

Wall - a split in the party. Republicans won just not the Republicans the leadership backed. This indicates a problem with the leadership. I am with the insurgents on this one.

Middletown- split but my contacts there say that Scarfenbergers running mate was very poor in public appearances. Also this race demonstrates the power of name recognition. The two winners had the most. If Tom Hall (a real class act) had run for reelection he would have won handily.

Holmdel- The loosing Republican had run against the party and with Terrance Wall in the previous municipal election. That could of been the cause of his defeat.

Hazlet- I do not know enough about to comment on. Maybe someone else out there can.

Keyport- Was all Democratic and we gained a seat. That does not show a Democratic trend.

Oceanport - They beat an incumbent Mayor and did not loose any seats. The Mayoral winner Mike Mahon worked hard and is smart, sincere and personable . I hope the party sees more of him.

Red Bank - We held our own. Given the demographics in Red Bank that is a good thing.
I think Pat Menna will make it even harder for Republicans to win because he has a much more palatable style then mean McKenna did. Hate his politics but Menna is a gentleman.

Sea Bright - In a very close race in a small town an obviously popular candidate won. This swung on personality and local issues not party trends.

Marlboro - Republicans lost because as many bloggers have pointed out the head of the ticket imploded. He was beat by a former Republican who was born and raised in Marlboro and was helped by disaffected Republicans.

Add in a win in Highlands and an impressive win by an embattled Republican in Manalapn and wins for new Republicans in Eatontown.

If you logically analyze the data there is no trend. I must respectfully disagree with the gentleman from Highlands.

I think what we do see is a tendency for voters at the local level to disregard party affiliation and vote on local issues. Not necessarily a bad thing for the towns or the party's.

Top 10 things I learned from this Election (maybe)

Number 10 - Not getting the Asbury Park endorsement doesn’t kill you
It did not have a big effect on the county races. Most of their endorsements went to sure things anyway.

Number 9 - If the Asbury Park press hammers you unmercifully you have problems. Witness the 12the legislative district. They did to Karcher what they did to Bennett. It was the hammering that effected the 12th not the endorsement.

Number 8 – Negative campaigning doesn’t always work and sometimes it backfires. A couple million dollars worth did not help the Democrats in the 12th. It did not help the new Sheriff. She would have won by a bigger margin if she did not go negative.

Number 7 – Negative Campaigning works sometimes. Karcher was killed by a Christmas tree farm. (BTW the republican candidates owe Blogger Barry Goldwater BIG time). If it was not for that one issue she would have won by at least 5 points.

Number 6 – I have not a clue as to what makes negative campaigning work and what makes it backfire.

Number 5 - Name recognition helps. Kim Guadagno had better name recognition then Hill. Clifton and DAmico had better name recognition then Cantor and Schueler. The only one who broke the trend was Casagrande and not by much.

Number 4 – Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. Usually only the disaffected make noise and they are not always in the majority. Look at Manalapan. You would have thought that Andrew Lucas was dead meat based on Internet postings. Yet he won by a comfortable margin.

Number 3 – Sometimes the Internet postings are a sign of trouble. If you read the comments posted at online newspaper articles about Karcher’s farm you knew she was in trouble.

Number 2 – Internet Bloggers are our friends (well at least some of them)
It is better to work with them then attack them. Abe and Goldwater helped quite a bit. Good opposition research. The fact that the party seems to have embraced at least some of the reforms bloggers have been advocating helped the republicans turn their election prospects around.

AND THE NUMBER 1 THING I LEARNED FROM THIS ELECTION IS.

We Bloggers don’t know everything. Let’s face it our predictions of apocalypse for county Republicans did not come true. Although, if Anna Little had not been dumped I think everyone can agree we would be sure that only one Democrat would be on the Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Now that I have catalogued all I learned (or didn’t) I have to go lay down. I have a headache

TR'S Ballot Question Recommendations

Question 1: Dedicate 1% of sales tax for property tax reform. VOTE NO. It is another fiscally irresponsible political shell game.

Question 2: Stem cell research Bond Issue. VOTE NO. If it is so great private industry will fund it. This is a job for free enterprise not the state government. Plus we can not afford it. Plus it is fraught with ethical issues that there is wide public disagreement about.

Question 3: Green Acres , Blue, Farmland, Blue Acres and Historic preservation Bond.
VOTE YES. This is the state governments job. We live in a state with a higher population density then India. Preserving open space is critical to the quality of life for NJ residents.

Question 4: A constitutional amendment changing the current wording that says idiots and insane people can't vote to say person who has been adjudicated to be incompetent by a court of competent jurisdiction to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting. Hmmmm?
I understand what they are getting at but I have a better idea we should liberally construe our constitution (that's what our courts likes to do) and interpret idiot in the modern colloquial sense.
This would stop about 2 thirds of the uninformed public from voting and should insure better electoral outcomes. So VOTE NO.


Just kidding about the last one. lol.

THOUGHTS FOR TODAY

So is it just me or does anyone else think Bob McKennas reasons for the Republicans in Wall not debating was lame. My attitude has always been debate anytime anywhere anyone. Then again I also enjoy pugilistic endeavors (i.e. fist fights).

The APP refusal to endorse Kim Guadagno for Sheriff is nuts. She is the most qualified candidate to ever run for that office. Question would the APP have taken that route no matter what or does the blame get layed at the feet of whoever thought up the poorly thought out and badly executed negative campaign launched against her opponent?

Speaking of negative will the Karcher attack adds help her or backfire? I guess we will find out on election day. Anyone see any polling data on that race?

Also to0 bad Claire French did not get the APP endorsement. Claire made a mistake not standing up to the old guard but that one mistake should not wipe out all the hard work she has done.
She is an outstanding county clerk and has done a fantastic job upgrading the clerks office technology wise.

Let hope the APP does not carry much wieght.

How about those Larry Inzerillo signs out by Brookdale that have a paper attached to them that say "lower tuition". What a hoot. Actually I have seen a number of individualized signs. Candidates on signs with other people running and with there own signs too. All different colors. orange, yellow bright green. I saw one that said Vote Green, Clifton and Cantor.
Differentiate and target specific markets sounds pretty smart. T he only question I have is will we get sign overload and block them all out?

Ahhh the last few tense days before the election. On the day after will I be praising the powers that be or monday morning quarterbacking and doing the BULLMOOSE SLAM.