Your Candidate Might Not Win, But…

It’s Primary Election Eve! Thank you to every candidate who put their name on the ballot, even those we criticized.

It’s not always easy putting your name out there. You know you’re going to be attacked. Internet trolls make up lies about you. Some people even believe those lies. They repeat those lies over and over until other people believe those lies to be true. Sometimes we try to set the record straight.

It all comes with the territory.

Volunteers line up behind a candidate. Some become emotionally attached to the campaign they aggressively represent on social media (some are honest, others simply repeat the lies).

Folks argue about what candidate is best. Sometimes it gets personal.

This year is certainly different than past years. A couple of races got really ugly.

Because this election is mostly a mail-in election it could take at least a week – maybe more – to declare a winner.

After the votes are all counted your candidate might not win, but remember you chose to get involved in partisan politics. Candidates especially, please remember you chose to get involved in partisan politics. No one forced you to compete in a primary election.

Primary elections are family fights. As with any family fight, we all kiss and make up after the fight for the greater good.

In other words – if you are a candidate and you lose, it is your duty to support the candidate that just beat you – it’s the price you pay for picking a team to play on.

If you are the supporter of a candidate and your candidate loses the same rule applies.

And, yes, here at the Bob & Steve Show we practice what I am preaching in this post.

In 2018’s CD2 primary I was with former Cumberland County Freeholder and former 1st Legislative District Assemblyman Sam Fiocchi. Bob was with Fiocchi. Seth Grossman won the primary, Bob and I got behind him. Fiocchi got behind Grossman. Bob and I launched the radio show about a month after that primary and Grossman was our first ever guest on the show.

The Republican candidate running in CD1, Claire Gustafson, competed in the primary in that district in 2014. The Republican organization’s in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester all lined up behind Garry Cobb. Gustafson didn’t complain the system was rigged, she ran her race. She didn’t win. She got behind Cobb and even went to one of his fundraiser to contribute financially to his campaign. She did what a partisan should do and supported the team!

As recently as this year Bob and I did the right thing. In CD2 when there was a crowded field we got behind candidates. Bob was behind Brian Fitzherbert. I favored David Richter. Then Congressman Jeff Van Drew became a Republican and earned President Donald Trump’s endorsement. The President is the head of the party and, as partisans, we did as partisans are supposed to do, followed the president’s lead and threw our support to Van Drew.

Considering two guys as opinionated as Bob and I have shown that we can get behind someone we did not support in a primary – you can do it too.

I don’t want to hear any garbage like “I could never vote for someone who believe such and such.” Get behind the winner of the primary because you chose to take part in partisan politics and that’s what partisans do.

Never forget, you chose to play on the Republican team. It was your choice. If you don’t like it then you shouldn’t have decided to engage in partisan politics. Go change your registration to unaffiliated!

Besides, ANY Republican is better than any of the Democrats who will be on November’s ballot.

Singh Now Reaps What His Campaign Has Sowed, But He Has Done The Impossible

Hirsh Singh during the talent portion of the beauty pageant he won

Before I begin I would like to congratulate former beauty pageant winner Hirsh Singh for doing the impossible: He has national committeeman for the Republican Party of New Jersey Bill Palatucci and I being nice to each other again. I like it! Thanks Hirsh!

Back when I left the US Senate campaign of a candidate who shall not be mentioned I thought it might be a good thing for the radio show because it gave me the ability to opine without having to listen to people say “that’s because you work for so-and-so.” Generally speaking, I’ve managed to avoid hearing that garbage.

After leaving that campaign Bob and I suddenly started treating all the other candidates fairly, or at least fair for us, to the point that we let bygones be bygones when it came to Republican US Senate candidate Hirsh Singh. Way back on January 11 we had him as an in-studio guest on the radio show. I challenged him a little bit, but I wasn’t nearly as aggressive as I can be. Bob even said some very nice things about Singh on the air. Singh and I had some nice, private, off-the-record conversations – and they will remain private and off-the-record. I even became friendly with Singh supporter Michael Shapiro (and I like his suits).

Unfortunately, all that kindness and friendliness has fallen by the wayside. It was nice while it lasted.

At least this time the friendliness hasn’t ended because of us. Singh now reaps what his campaign sowed. Singh’s campaign accused the county selection/convention process of being rigged, constantly lied about US Senate candidate Rik Mehta’s work history and has internet trolls posting garbage all over social media.

I did notice that Singh didn’t refer to the process as rigged in the four counties where he was awarded the line. Funny how that works.

Most recently, the Singh campaign has asked folks to commit voter fraud. I’ve never seen a candidate openly encourage voter fraud and I’ve been doing this a long time. I can honestly say it’s the first time a candidate has managed to shock me by his actions, but I think Camden County GOP Chairman Rich Ambrosino summed it up perfectly:

“In all my years participating in Republican politics this is a first! Singh is telling voters, vote early and if you change your mind, vote again. Al Capone would be proud.” Rich Ambrosino said, “I never thought I would live to see the day when a candidate for any office actually begged voters to change a vote they already cast.”

All of this has led to eight GOP county chairs calling on Singh to get out of the race. Eight! That’s twice as many county lines Singh managed to win.

Yet, Singh somehow manages to be delusional and believes his campaign has momentum. He said so in a statement:

“This is a ploy to distract from the fact that Rikin Mehta is a democrat plant who will stop the Republican Resurgence in NJ. We are winning. It’s an unsuccessful orchestrated attempt to stop our momentum.”

The internet trolls supporting Singh’s campaign are who really piss me off. I’ve said repeatedly it’s okay for candidates to attack each other as long as those attacks are factual. Unfortunately, Singh trolls love to lie. Here’s a perfect example:

For Joe Rullo to write, “This coming from a chairwoman who holds a so called fair screening and her freeholder candidate on the screening committee endorses Mehta day before screening” is proof enough that Rullo has a serious problem with being truthful.

That fact is, the person Rullo is talking about is Greenwich Township Mayor George W. Shivery, Jr. who made his endorsement as mayor before he officially announced as a candidate for freeholder and Shivery was NOT a part of the chairwoman’s screening committee.

In other words, for Rullo to claim Shivery was on the screening committee is a blatant lie. Rullo knows it’s a lie. Singh knows it’s a lie. Has Singh asked his number one internet troll to retract the statement? Nope.

And that is a problem. As a candidate, when your supporters resort to telling lies, it is your duty to denounce those lies. Singh doesn’t denounce the lies – he shares them, even encourages them.

I suppose Rullo thinks he’s going to parlay all his lying on behalf of the Singh campaign into a run for governor.

Since it is highly unlikely that Singh will win the Senate primary Rullo running for governor may be a good thing for Singh.

Maybe next year Singh can resurrect his political career by running for Lieutenant Governor as Rullo’s running mate.

No, that won’t work because one thing I am sure of is the only guarantee in life is that Rullo will never win a Republican primary for governor, so Singh won’t be able to resurrect his political career that way.

Another thing I am sure of is that even Hirsh Singh knows he is not winning this primary election – if he thought he were winning he never would have sent out a mailer begging voters to ask for a do over.

My question is will Singh stick around and support the winner of the primary or will he do as he did after losing in 2018 and disappear?

That’s the difference between guys like Singh and former congressional candidate Brian Fitzherbert. In 2018, after Singh pulled the cowardly move of getting Fitzherbert thrown off the ballot, Fitzherbert didn’t disappear. He stuck around and built a young Republican organization, helped others launch their organizations and after Seth Grossman won the primary, Fitzherbert helped that campaign. Where was Singh? Nobody knows.

My bet is 2020 is going to be like 2018 for Singh. He’ll lose the primary and disappear.

It’s unfortunate, I really was starting to like Singh. I take no pleasure in watching younger candidates implode, but you reap what you sow.

And now I can sit back and watch the Singh trolls post their stupid little memes and repeat all their lies on the Bob & Steve Show Facebook page. It’s okay we have thick skin.

US SENATE: Does He Support The County Organization(s) That Endorsed Him?

Hirsh Singh

Under normal circumstances I probably wouldn’t care about the fact that a Republican US Senate candidate blurred out the names of all the candidates, with the exception of President Donald Trump, in the column with him. Unfortunately, these are not normal circumstances.

On this past Saturday’s radio show Bob and I spent a considerable amount of time discussing the fact that some Cumberland County Republicans have called radio station management complaining we don’t show enough support for Cumberland’s Republican candidates on the air. Apparently, this has been discussed quite a bit, or at least often enough to get back to us, in GOP circles.

Never mind the fact that I still sometimes hear “The Sound of Silence” in my head because we played it on the air so often during our relentless attacks on former temporary state Senator Silent Bob Andrzejczak and his at least 119 days of silence.

Perhaps those Republicans who claim we don’t show support for Cumberland Republicans forgot our quick about face in CD2 after Congressman Jeff Van Drew became a Republican. Bob, in a rare blog post withdrew his endorsement of Brian Fitzherbert and I stopped inviting then CD2 candidate David Richter on the show. In other words, we fell in line. We even had Congressman Van Drew on the show and he has an open invitation. His opponent, Bob Patterson, does not have an open invitation. Quite the opposite, I go out of my way to find a reason to write about Patterson’s thoughts on condoms and “the remarkable chemicals in semen,” mostly because Patterson’s past writings on the topics make me laugh.

Sure, the Cumberland Republicans who claim we don’t show Cumberland Republicans enough support will argue we don’t support former beauty pageant winner Hirsh Singh’s candidacy for US Senate. Neither does at least half our listening audience! While Singh has the line in Cape May, Cumberland and Atlantic – all counties where WVLT is heard – US Senate candidate Rik Mehta has organizational support in Salem, Gloucester, Camden and Burlington – also all counties where WVLT is heard.

Furthermore, those same complaining Republicans should now be asking if Singh supports Cumberland County Republicans.

One would think that after fighting so hard to win the line in Cumberland that Singh would be proud to be in the column with all the candidates. He’s so proud to be in the column with his fellow Republicans that he blurred all their names out in a social media post:

Here it is larger:

He did the same in his home county of Atlantic:

Blurring out the names of those he shares the column with sends a terrible message.

Congressman Van Drew is in the column with Singh. Van Drew has a primary yet Singh blurred his name out.

One has to wonder – does Singh care about anyone else in the column? Does the blurring out of Van Drew’s name mean he supports Patterson?

This time, as opposed to other times, I didn’t go out of my way to pick on Singh, he can thank the Cumberland Republicans that have complained about us not being supportive enough for that. Maybe instead of questioning our party loyalty certain Cumberland Republicans should be calling out the guy they voted for at convention because Singh obviously doesn’t care about the rest of the column.