I’ll start with a disclaimer: This post is NOT me taking a shot at young Republicans. It is me saying, once again, that the “leaders” of a rogue young Republican organization better start getting their house in order before they have a negative impact on the officially chartered young Republican organization.

To be clear, the South Jersey Young Republicans are not chartered and therefore not officially recognized by the Young Republican National Federation (YRNF). The Young Republican Federation of New Jersey (YRFNJ) is chartered and that means they are officially recognized.

Both organizations are fairly active on social media. The difference is the officially recognized group doesn’t post stupid stuff. The unofficial group tends to post stuff without bothering to gather facts, like the time the organization’s apparently self-appointed leader, Jenna Evans, made the false claim that Atlantic County Young Republicans Chairman Brian Fitzherbert tried to sabotage one of their events.

Evans’s claims were untrue, but that didn’t stop her, and others, from making the claim without checking the facts.

Well, it turns out Evans, or the person running her group’s Facebook page, still insists on posting things without checking facts. For example:

Granted, Evans and her sidekick Hirsh Singh (more on that in a bit), were only about 2 or 3 years old when that man stood in front of a tank at Tiananmen Square, but a simple Google search would have told them the guy was not run over by the tank.

One would think the leaders of the rogue young Republican group would fact check before sharing such an image. Apparently not.

And, just because I promised “more on that in a bit” here’s how I know Singh is Evans sidekick. Back in March, shortly after I wrote my piece proving that Evans didn’t know what she was talking about when she accused Fitzherbert of “sabotaging” her Atlantic City event she reached out to my radio show co-host Bob Greco. She set up a meeting with Greco, coincidentally not far from my house, and she brought Singh to that meeting. Two peas in a pod!

Why make it a point to out Singh as Evans sidekick? Singh wants to be Governor/Senator/Congressman/Senator and one would think that a guy who wants to be elected to an office who also appears to be a leader of a rogue YR organization might at least make sure that organization checks facts before posting to social media.

If the leaders of the rogue YR group do take the friendly advice and start fact checking before posting to social media, maybe then they’ll start thinking before posting distasteful items to their Facebook page:

While I completely understand they were going for humor when they shared the above post to the South Jersey Young Republicans Facebook page I believe Evans and Singh should have thought for a minute before posting. Apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks the post wasn’t the smartest thing to do:

“You’re kidding right?” And, “Probably should have deleted before posting this one. Keep it classy kids,” sum up my thoughts.

Sharing posts like the one above, while amusing to some, do nothing to advance the Republican cause and puts the official young Republican organization in the state at risk of being lumped in with the rogue organization. The lack of fact checking and thoughtless post sharing is not fair to the young Republicans who did things the right way and got chartered.

So, South Jersey Young Republicans, before you negatively impact the actual chartered Young Republican Federation of New Jersey please get your house in order

It’s tough being a Republican in New Jersey. I don’t think anyone would disagree with that statement.

Unfortunately, no matter how tough it is to be a Republican in this state, there’s someone, somewhere, who wants to make it even tougher. Republicans have enough problems and we keep adding to them, uncertainty in the powerful Ocean County GOP organization because of the situation with its chairman and issues in Burlington County thanks to state Senator Dawn Addiego’s party switch and allegations that Assemblyman Joe Howarth tried to do the same.

Then there is the situation in Morris County, second only to Ocean in GOP strength, where it appears there is open revolt against the new Republican leadership where information from meetings appears to be getting leaked immediately. There’s going to be more on this later this week, but here at The Bob & Steve Show we’ve been treading lightly because it appears a certain Freeholder who once had me (and 3 candidates) charged criminally is involved with the revolt.

Despite all these problems it appears some people just want to make things worse, right here in South Jersey. South Jersey, probably the toughest place in the state outside of Hudson County to be a Republican, where we have to deal with the well-oiled George Norcross machine.

I don’t know why this issue has come to light, maybe it’s plain old jealousy, or maybe it’s a case of someone listening to the wrong people. Whatever the reason the South Jersey Young Republicans led by Jenna Evans decided to launch into attack mode at Brian Fitzherbert the chairman of the Atlantic County Young Republicans.

Evans, via social media, accused Fitzherbert of sabotaging a Trump event, “Make Saint Patrick’s Day Great Again,” she originally intended to hold at the Borgata this past weekend. The event was moved to the Golden Nugget. She shared a Joseph Rudy Rullo post to Facebook that went viral:

The problem with the attack is it is completely untrue. As I understand the situation, it turns out the Atlantic County Young Republicans Vice Chair, Maryetta Borkowski, works at the Borgata and was asked by management if a “Make St. Patrick’s Day Great Again” event, that happened to have the Borgata logo on it was an ACYR event and was told that if it was they could not use the Borgata logo. Borkowski gave a truthful answer, it was not their event. Eventually, Borgata sent a cease and desist to Evans regarding the unauthorized use of their logo. In other words, just a standard business practice. No one tried to sabotage anything.

The way I understand events appears to be true, even according to Evans’ own social media comments. Unfortunately, Evans mistakenly believed that Borkowski contacted Borgata management when, in fact, Borkowski works there:

Perhaps if Evans had bothered to investigate what happened she wouldn’t have gone off half-cocked and thrown out wild accusations.

Additionally, Fitzherbert filled in for Bob Greco on this weekend’s Bob & Steve Show and plugged Evans’ event on the air. I would have plugged the event if I knew of it, I likely would have included it here on the blog if we were asked.

Even worse than her undeserved attack on Fitzherbert, Evans thought it would be a good idea to lash out at Gloucester County GOP Chair Jacci Vigilante. Evans went so far as to accuse the chairwoman of “a lack of teamwork and support for one another.”

Not only is Evans wrong in her attack on Fitzherbert, but her attack on Vigilante is way off base. I serve as the municipal chair in Greenwich Township (Gibbstown) and have firsthand knowledge of how Vigilante is running the organization. Frankly, teamwork and support for one another are hallmarks of the Vigilante leadership team. Prior to Vigilante taking the reigns the thought was always that the Gibbstown organization took care of everything ourselves and the Township was ignored for the most part. Vigilante and her team have been very supportive of our municipal organization.

It is entirely possible Evans simply viewed the South Jersey Young Republicans event as “her” event and because she didn’t bother to investigate why Borgata sent her a letter to not use their logo she took things personally and lashed out. Make no mistake, she did refer to it as “my event.”

Bottom line: If Evans is serious about running a Republican organization she should get all her facts straight before attacking fellow Republicans. In this case she is wrong and should be apologizing to Fitzherbert and Vigilante as publicly and aggressively as she was in attacking them.