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.

Where Are Those Menendez Loving Hypocrites Now? Is Ignoring Sexually Inappropriate Behavior The New Normal For New Jersey’s Democrats?

Remember those 88 women who signed a letter bashing all male eating clubs? Or that time Hudson County Democratic Organization Chairwoman Amy DeGise claimed Bob Menendez’s record has always defended women?

All of these women, in their hypocritical support of Bob Menendez, claimed to have issues with sexual misconduct toward women. Every single one of these women chose to ignore the fact Menendez’s own lawyers conceded the fact that Menendez worked to secure visas for young women to come into the country to visit with his pal Salomon Melgen.

Of course my friends on the left side of the aisle will argue Menendez never laid a finger on these women so he did nothing wrong, and that argument would be a bunch of BS. No matter what way you look at it, when a man 30 years older, maybe 40 years older, than young women plays sugar daddy to those young women there is something inappropriate going on. By helping get those women into the country, Menendez, at the very least, provided the conditions for Melgen to act in a manner that was sexually inappropriate.

Fast forward to the recent news of the sudden resignation of Governor Phil Murphy’s staffer Albert Alvarez, a guy who allegedly committed a sexual assault, rape to be specific, of a campaign volunteer in April 2017. I refuse to type the woman’s name in this post because I don’t think it’s fair to continue plastering her name all over the internet. Alvarez was able to stay in his $140,000 job after it was known there was an investigation into the alleged sexual assault.

Republicans have been calling for investigations into this matter. Those 88 women who signed a letter bashing all male eating clubs? Not a peep! Where are they? Where is Hudson County Democratic Organization Chairwoman Amy DeGise? Maybe they are all busy getting ready to spend between $500 - $5,400 to see Hillary Clinton suck up to Bob Menendez tonight.

It does make sense that Clinton would come to New Jersey to stump for Menendez. Clinton did just say, her husband, President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky wasn’t an abuse of power because she was a 22-year-old adult. To me, that statement means Mrs. Clinton thinks that Bob Menendez helping bring young women into the country for Salomon Melgen to play sugar daddy is perfectly acceptable.

It’s time for all these women “leaders” to step up and stop being hypocrites. If Phil Murphy, Bob Menendez or Albert Alvarez were Republicans they would all be making a lot of noise over Alvarez’s alleged sexually inappropriate behavior and Murphy and Menendez providing the conditions for men to engage in sexually inappropriate behavior. They would be angry over Hillary Clinton’s statement regarding Monica Lewinsky.

The actions, or lack of action, from these women “leaders” gives the appearance they only care about sexually inappropriate behavior when the actor is a Republican. It’s a disgusting double standard that causes me to ask, is accepting sexually inappropriate behavior the new normal for New Jersey’s Democrats?

The only question left is how many of these women “leaders” will be there to see Hillary Clinton this evening?