OPINION: So, Your Candidate Didn’t Get The Line. Stop Blaming The State Party. And, Stop With The RINO Bullshit!

We’re about a third of the way through the convention/screening season and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rik Mehta won three more county lines (Camden, Burlington and Monmouth) bringing him to 6 – 0.

What struck me is that supporters of every other candidate, and at least one candidate himself, have taken to social media screaming RINO, or worse and went so far as to accuse “some very influential people in the State Party” of “putting their hand on the scale…”

The exception to the above is Natalie Rivera – she and her supporters have conducted themselves with class and dignity throughout the process thus far.

To the others: Enough already! Just because your preferred candidate didn’t win any county lines does not mean the state party is working against your candidate. It certainly doesn’t make the winner a RINO.

I get it, Mehta is the frontrunner. He now has a target on his back. Blaming the party and calling the frontrunner “RINO” are the arguments of LOSING campaigns. We’ve all heard these arguments before.

What not winning county lines does mean is your candidate has failed to get their message to those who matter at this stage of the campaign – county committee members and/or elected officials in those counties, the people who happen to be on the screening committees and voting in the conventions. If you want to whine and cry that those folks are the “GOP establishment” go ahead. It does not change the fact that your candidate failed to get the job done!

I’ll say it again, so it sinks in – if your candidate isn’t winning any county lines your candidate failed to get the job done.

It’s not the “GOP establishment’s” fault your preferred candidate didn’t get the line. Seriously, does anyone reading this honestly believe that the “GOP establishment” wanted Murray Sabrin to win the county line in Gloucester County in the 2008 U.S. Senate primary? I promise you they didn’t want that to happen, but Sabrin’s campaign did the work and won the line.

Bottom line: If your candidate didn’t get the line it IS your candidate’s fault.

Please, just stop the bullshit attacks. We’ve all heard them before. If you want to launch an attack, launch one that matters. Screaming “RINO” isn’t an attack – it’s a loser argument. Switching political affiliation several years ago – not a good attack – as a party we actually try to get folks to come to our party. Our President just held a rally in South Jersey because Congressman Jeff Van Drew came to our party. President Trump was once a Democrat. Dumb attack!

Now, if a candidate wrote a max check to a Democratic party candidate for President in October of 2007 and has claimed it was her husband when he wrote a max check to the same Democratic party candidate for President on the same exact day, that’s a fair attack, she knows who she is and she is not Natalie Rivera.

If a candidate praised a candidate as recently as last year for winning a Democratic party primary for District Attorney in New York, that’s a legitimate attack, not strong, but legit, he knows who he is and he is not Rik Mehta or Hirsh Singh.

I’m not going to do your work for you. Go out and do some opposition research. Make your attacks legitimate. Just stop with the RINO bullshit and stop blaming everyone else because your preferred candidate hasn’t won a county line.

Finally, there are a lot of folks complaining about the process of awarding county lines. Knock it off! You’re making the exact same arguments the Progressives are making on the other side of the aisle.

If you want your candidate to get the line in a county that hasn’t held a screening or convention then do like the 2008 Murray Sabrin campaign and get to work, but please just stop the bullshit.

Good luck!