PRESS RELEASE: Now Is Not The Time To Be Bitter

Republican candidate for US Congress in CD1, Claire Gustafson, has a little motherly advice for two Senate candidates today. Her press release follows:

Claire Gustafson, Republican candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s First Congressional District, after reading reports that unsuccessful GOP US Senate candidates Tricia Flanagan and Hirsh Singh haven’t coalesced behind the winner of the primary election, Rik Mehta, said, “Now is not the time to be bitter.”

“I’ve been where Flanagan and Singh are now, I lost a hard-fought four-way congressional primary in 2014,” Claire Gustafson said, “I get it, losing isn’t fun. What I didn’t do was discourage my supporters from getting behind the winner. Instead, I made sure I supported Garry Cobb and even contributed financially to his campaign.”

Gustafson continued, “Telling a reporter, ‘I’m going to let him call me. I’d like to hear more about his platform and about what he offers,’ sends the wrong message to your supporters. Even worse, filing for a recount in four counties will change nothing. These actions have the potential to hurt down-ballot races.”

“President Trump’s voters are going to vote for him no matter what.” Gustafson added, “What concerns me is that because Flanagan and Singh refuse to back Mehta Republican voters will simply skip the rest of the ballot.”

“This election is far too important to risk losing down-ballot races simply because candidates suffered a tough loss.” Gustafson said, “No question Flanagan and Singh both garnered a significant number of votes, now it is time to encourage party unity and encourage those voters to support the entire Republican ticket. This is a golden opportunity for Flanagan and Singh to step up and be leaders in our party. I’m happy to help make that happen, I’m just a phone call away.”

Gloucester County Democrats Fear Competition At The Polls

I get it, challenging the signatures on nominating petitions is a part of political campaigns in New Jersey (and elsewhere). It’s a part of campaigns I dislike. No campaign I managed has ever challenged nominating petitions – that’s how much I despise the practice. I believe working to remove a candidate who meets the requirements to run for an office from the ballot is a gutless move that proves the person challenging signatures on a nominating petition has very little faith in their chosen candidate to win on ideas.

From my observations, over the years, it appears that more often than not challenges to nominating petitions are intra-party affairs (or is it inter, I always get the two confused) with challenges filed against competitors in a primary election like last year when a supporter of a certain someone who may or may not have led folks to believe he had access to $2 million for a congressional run got Brian Fitzherbert tossed from the primary election ballot.

But that’s not the case in Gloucester County where the County Democrats decided to attempt to deprive voters of a choice for freeholder in November. On April 3, 2019 John Alice, Counsel to the Gloucester County Democratic Committee, challenged the nominating petition of Republicans Diane M. King and Andrea K. Sammons. The challenge left King and Sammons with only 94 valid signatures removing the two from June’s primary election ballot.

So why get the Republican candidates removed from the ballot? Are the Gloucester County Democrats freeholder candidates so weak they don’t want any competition in November? I don’t even know who they’re running and don’t care because there is no way I’m voting for them.

It is possible for Republicans to win in Gloucester County? It’s happened before, remember Larry Wallace and Vince Nestore? And it can happen again. Especially against weak Democratic party candidates. Looking at some historical data one can see it can happen. In the 2014 U.S. Senate race Jeff Bell lost the county to Cory Booker, but Bell was a weak candidate with little money and still managed to earn 45% of the county-wide vote against the well-funded Booker. That same year in the CD1 Garry Cobb managed 44.78% of the vote against Congressman Donald Norcross, and Cobb, like him or not, was a horrible candidate. In 2016, President Donald Trump squeaked by Hillary Clinton county-wide 47.82% - 47.34%. Last year Bob Hugin beat U.S. Senator Bob Menendez 49.72% - 46.37% while the Republican candidates for sheriff and surrogate both received slightly more than 42% of the county-wide vote.

Trump and Hugin both won county-wide in Gloucester County and the other numbers show Republicans have a base of 42% in the county. With a little money and a solid message Republicans can win in Gloucester County. The addition of the new energy brought to the party by Chairwoman Jacci Vigilante helps too.

Diane King has run before and is popular among Republicans in Gloucester County. The addition of the Gloucester County Young Republicans Chair Andrea “Andy” Sammons as King’s running mate brings extra excitement to the ticket. So, yeah, the reason the Gloucester County Democrats decided to have the Republicans bounced from the primary election ballot is that they are afraid of competition.

All is not lost. King and Sammons can still appear on the November ballot. It’s going to require a write-in campaign in June. It’ll be a good test for Vigilante and the candidates and success can build momentum going into November.

The growing popularity of King, the excitement of a young Republican in Sammons on the ticket and the work of Vigilante in building the party in Gloucester County can only lead to good things. I have no doubt King and Sammons will appear on the ballot in November and will do my part to ensure it happens.

Gloucester County Republicans – pay attention as information will be coming soon on how to PROPERLY write-in your vote.