Gubernatorial Primary Heats Up A Little

Hirsh Singh

Hirsh Singh

I thought about making the headline for this post: Ciattarelli Campaign Hits A Nerve.

No doubt the Ciattarelli campaign has upset Hirsh Sing and his supporters with a mailer that calls Singh out on issues such as the fact he doesn’t pay property taxes and has publicly praised former President Barak Obama.

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Looks to me that everything in the mailer is true, I’ve been chucking many of these grenades at Singh since running former Assemblyman Sam Fiocchi’s 2018 congressional campaign – you know the campaign in which the establishment Singh claims to be against heavily backed him.

None of that matters to Singh. He wants to get by screaming “MAGA” and “Trump” and thinks as long as he keeps doing that folks will think he’s the real conservative and no one should challenge him.

Singh got challenged by way of a Ciattarelli campaign mailer. The most recent Ciattarelli mailer so infuriated Singh that he went on social media to argue with folks.

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“What do you call this Jack mailer?” Asking the question in response to the social media post implies Singh is calling the mailer “dirty tricks.” Singh then follows that question with, “At least I’m honest.” An obvious attempt at calling Ciattarelli a liar, it doesn’t matter to Singh that the information in the mailer is true.

I’m not going to argue with Singh’s “At least I’m honest” comment and simply remind readers that it was Hirsh Singh who, in 2018, led Republicans to believe he could self-fund when he couldn’t. Don’t take my word for it, read about it in the New Jersey Globe here.

I guess a lot of folks were talking about the most recent Ciattarelli campaign mailer because, not only did Singh take to social media to argue with folks about it, he also shared a post from his number one internet troll, the retired landscaper, out-of-work actor:

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I’m not going to defend Chris Russell, he’s a big boy and can defend himself, plus the dude runs like 5,000 miles a week, so I’m fairly certain he’s in better shape than Rullo. You know who I’d bet on.

I will take issue with the claim that Russell “is mailing lies about Hirsh Singh. For fun, I’ll go from the bottom up.

“Attacks women on social media.” Well, Singh did once tweet that he had “99 problems and they’re all bitches.” So, that point is TRUE.

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“Hirsh publicly praised and supported Obama.” This one is too easy, I’ve used Singh’s Obama Cairo speech quote in at least a half dozen press releases for two former clients. The point is TRUE.

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“Hirsh has financial ties to Phil Murphy and Hillary Clinton.” That point on the mailer states that “Singh’s largest campaign donor is a major donor to liberal Democrats. Again, the point is TRUE.

While the point is true, I would have probably gone a different route and pointed out that the Singh family made at least $35,828,281 during the Obama years. It’s true, I wrote a piece about it last year (read it here).

Oddly, the Singh family government gravy train dropped when President Trump took office. There’s a nice graph showing that in the piece I wrote.

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The final point, really the first, “Hirsh pays zero in property taxes.” The point is TRUE.

Hirsh Singh lives at home with his mommy and daddy. He obviously does not pay property taxes. I suspect that means he also doesn’t pay for electricity, gas, internet, cable TV and quite possibly doesn’t pay for his own cell phone or car insurance.

I could be wrong, but I would think folks might want a governor who has faced some of the struggle they themselves faced, at the very least someone who has actually paid a utility bill once in their life.

The shame of it all is Singh could have had a bright political future but instead chooses to keep running for offices beyond his reach and to accuse people of lying about him when they are obviously telling the truth.

The primary is June 8, choose wisely folks. And, hopefully someone will remind me to wish Singh a happy anniversary on winning a beauty contest at the end of the month:

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US SENATE: Singh Won Ocean. Does This Mean We’re Done With The ‘System Is Rigged GOP Establishment’ Garbage?

Hirsh Singh

Hirsh Singh

Big surprise the other night! Someone other than Rik Mehta won a county line in the Republican U.S. Senate race. Despite Mehta having the recommendation of the screening committee Ocean County Republicans voted 106-77 to give the line to Hirsh Singh. New Jersey Globe reports Natalie Rivera received 5 votes and Tricia Flanagan couldn’t even get someone to second her nomination.

As Mehta was winning 11 straight county lines other candidates and/or supporters of the other candidates were complaining about the process and blaming the “GOP establishment” for their candidates’ losses.

Hopefully, with Singh’s win in Ocean County the whining and crying about the process and the “GOP establishment” is over. Singh relied on help from the establishment to win the line. Don’t take my word for it, here is what the Asbury Park Press had to say:

Currently, a power struggle is underway within the party between Frank B. Holman III, the current chairman, and its longtime kingmaker and former chairman, George R. Gilmore, who still retains the loyalty of many in the party’s leadership.

Gilmore, a master vote-counter, who resigned his formal leadership role after he was convicted in April of three federal tax counts, had worked to wrangle votes for Richter and Singh ahead of Wednesday night’s convention. Gilmore also accurately predicted to a reporter the outcome of the convention more than a week ago.

Former Ocean County Chairman George Gilmore “worked to wrangle votes for Richter and Singh…”

Folks, you can’t get much more “GOP establishment” than George Gilmore in Ocean County!

I couldn’t help noticing no one is crying and whining about the “GOP establishment” after the Ocean County convention. I suppose things are different when you learn how to work the system and win a convention WITH THE HELP OF THE ESTABLISHMENT.

To be fair, because the Asbury Park Press went out of its way to put it out there that Gilmore collected votes for Richter and Singh I got a comment from Singh. Singh assured me, by voice and by text, that he “did not work with Gilmore or Holman. This was from just hard work.”

I’m not going to take issue with the Asbury Park Press or Singh and leave it to the readers to decide.

My issue is with all the people who have been crying “the system is rigged” and complaining about the “GOP establishment.” I want to know what happened to all the crying, whining, complaining people now that someone other than Mehta has won a county line.

I’ll wait!

Note: Hirsh Singh called me at 12:27PM to clarify that “the Singh for Senate campaign Ocean County effort was led by Joe Rullo who beat Chris Russell and did not work with any establishment or county chairman.”

Insurgent Democrats Excite Some South Jersey Republicans And Put Machine Democrat Hypocrisy On Display

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It’s no secret, much to the dismay of many of my Republican friends, I love a good primary election fight. Unfortunately, for me, there’s only one GOP primary (LD8) for me to write about and it’s kind of boring.

But at least the Democrats in Camden County are giving me something fun to watch, and it appears some Republicans are getting excited about it.

Things started heating up last week thanks to a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial, “The machine age of politics should be over in N.J., Philadelphia” and a piece in Politico by the great Matt Friedman, “Anti-machine Democrats in Camden County complain of ‘phantom candidates’.” Even the folks over at Blue Jersey got into the act.

I take no issue with any of those pieces, but they all had one name in them: George Norcross. And, whenever Norcross’ name is mentioned, Republicans seem to get excited.

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I’ve written before in this blog that “For some reason South Jersey Republicans get excited when they hear the name George Norcross. Well, here’s a newsflash for you. Voters don’t care! His name is not on the ballot.”

Yet, it doesn’t matter, still folks get excited at the mention of the Norcross name. Every time I say something like that I am accused of being pro-Norcross and/or the South Jersey Democrat machine. For the record, I’m not. Frankly, I’m not a fan of machines, period. That said, I do admit to being jealous that Norcross was able to build such a well-oiled machine.

This is not to say that I don’t work to beat that machine. I have and I continue to do so. The machine can be defeated. My co-host Bob Greco and I proved that. Back in 2009 when Greco became chairman of the Cumberland County Republicans he asked me to come work with him. We met a year earlier when I was working on state Senator Joe Pennacchio’s U.S. Senate campaign. Greco told me I could go at the Democrats as hard as I wanted – no leash – naturally I agreed since he promised not to put a leash on me. Together, along with quality mail by Chris Russell, we won and won enough that in only a few years flipped a 7 – 0 Democrat controlled freeholder board to 4 – 3 Republican. We did it with very little money and without mentioning the name Norcross.

Anyway, thanks to another Politico piece this week in the New Jersey Playbook even more people got excited over the insurgent Democrats challenge to the Norcross machine.

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I had never heard of GGCNJ before someone sent me a link to their social media post. Apparently, it stands for Good Government Coalition New Jersey and according to Facebook their page was created on June 4, 2017. They even have a website on which they claim to be a “nonpartisan, grassroots group whose mission is to strengthen democracy by working with residents across our state to bring greater transparency, accountability, and participation to our state and local governments.”

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Unfortunately, immediately after the line about being “nonpartisan” is the question “Want to build a progressive party from within?” Of course, that makes me wonder exactly how “nonpartisan” the group truly is.

So basically, it appears to me this whole anti-machine thing in Camden County is the progressives versus the establishment. I don’t quite understand why Republicans are getting excited over it – other than it’s fun to watch.

Now, if Republicans really want to make any kind of issue about all this Democratic Party infighting I would suggest they key on a letter penned by Camden County Democratic Committee Chairman state Senator Jim Beach in which he attacks many of the progressive (or are they insurgent) Democrats as “Trump Republicans.”

One glaring example is Jen O’Donnell. From the letter posted on CamdenCountyProgressiveDems.com.

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True O’Donnell once ran for office with Republicans, I know, I designed the palm card, she might have been registered as a Republican for all I know, but she was never a “Trump Republican.” The palm card was clear, she and her running mates were “Republicans and Independent Democrats.” Trump wasn’t even a candidate when I designed the palm card. Or at the very least not one I was paying attention to. So, to call O’Donnell a “Trump Republican” is a stretch at best.

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Another thing I would take issue within Beach’s letter is that he points out the criminal histories of several of the insurgent candidates.

Another thing I would take issue within Beach’s letter is that he points out the criminal histories of several of the insurgent candidates.

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I’m fairly certain the histories listed by Beach are true, but why speak out about these particular Democrats when he completely ignored the arrest of former Assemblyman Arthur Barclay and only after Republicans discovered the arrest did Beach say anything, and when he did speak, not a word about the arrest, only that Barclay resigned for “health reasons.”

And, that’s not the only time the Camden County Democratic Committee chairman sat silent when one of his own was in legal trouble. I still don’t think Beach has uttered a word about former Haddon Township Commissioner Paul Dougherty, the guy who was involved in a hit and run and tried to blame it on his wife and eventually pleaded guilty on an unrelated charge.

And when the Deputy Mayor in Voorhees was outed for getting into bar brawls Beach had nothing to say.

Considering he didn’t care when his own people ran afoul of the law, it’s obvious Beach’s letter has nothing to do with concerns about the past actions of the insurgent Democrats.

The bottom line here is there might be a reason to be excited by the insurgent Democrats challenge to the establishment Democrats in Camden County, but it’s not because the insurgents have a chance at winning. It is because it appears the hypocrisy of the establishment machine Democrats oozes out when the heat is turned up on them.

Keep it up insurgents! We’re all watching.