2021 Action: Ciattarelli Rolls Out Endorsements In Singh’s Backyard

Jack Ciattarelli

Republicans are starting to pick sides in the 2021 gubernatorial primary and the field hasn’t even been set. As for me, I will remain solidly on the fence until the field is set.

There are two announced candidates, former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli and former beauty pageant winner Hirsh Singh. Other potential candidates are Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, NJGOP Chairman and former Lopatcong Mayor Doug Steinhardt and retired landscaper/washed-up out-of-work actor/keyboard warrior Joe Rudy Rullo.

Ciattarelli, Singh and Rullo all ran four years ago when former Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno won the primary. I was a Ciattarelli supporter in that primary and am still impressed at the amount of mileage Guadagno got out of showing up at all the county party rubber chicken dinners before the primary season kicked off.

Ciattarelli obviously decided he isn’t letting that happen to him again because the guy has been everywhere, fundraisers, happy hours, county party breakfasts.

Singh, the other announced candidate, didn’t learn the same lesson. While he’s been seen at a few rallies he mostly stuck with social media and filing lawsuits, though he did recently turn up at the Camden County GOP fourth quarter meeting and holiday party. Maybe his strategy is changing.

But, back to Ciattarelli. The guy has been busy! On December 1 he rolled out a list of “Nearly 90 Republican leaders” across Somerset County who have endorsed his candidacy for Governor. Admittedly, I ignored it because Somerset is Ciattarelli’s home county.

Then, on December 4 I received a Jack4NJ email with the subject “Introduce Myself.” It was from Mike Friedman who served as the lone Republican on Voorhees Township Committee from 2011-2019. Admittedly, I ignored that too, because I already know Mike and didn’t feel the need to be introduced. I probably should have read the email because Friedman informed readers he has “…stepped up to serve as the Camden County Coordinator for the 2021 Jack Ciattarelli for Governor campaign.” That’s a pretty solid endorsement out of Camden County.

Yesterday and the day before, Jack Ciattarelli got my attention! His campaign walked into Hirsh Singh’s Atlantic County backyard and scored some big endorsements. Ciattarelli’s first stop was in western Atlantic County where he scored key endorsements in Hammonton. I know some of the folks in Hammonton, they were very supportive of former Assemblyman Sam Fiocchi in his 2018 bid for Congress. Experience has taught me the Hammonton folks will work hard for who they endorse.

Scoring the Hammonton endorsements wasn’t enough. Ciattarelli then headed east the next day and rolled out endorsements from the “Republican Club of Atlantic City, as well Atlantic City Councilman Jesse Kurtz.”

Atlantic is Singh’s home county and he allowed the only other announced candidate in the race to walk into his county and score big endorsements. Perhaps he should have learned form Jack and made sure to protect his home turf first, just like Ciattarelli did in Somerset.

The field is still taking shape but it looks like 2021 could get exciting, so stay tuned. And, eventually I will learn how to spell Ciattarelli without going to his campaign website to copy and paste it.

Update: New Jersey Globe reports Bramnick will not run for Governor.

AP Calls It For Mehta

Rik Mehta

I had just finished discussing with Bob the title for today’s blog post. It was going to be “Challenge Accepted” because chief Hirsh Singh troll Joe Rullo said on social media, “It’s so far from over that’s why no media source has the guts to call winner for 2 days now.”

The blog post was going to be the Bob & Steve Show calling the GOP US Senate primary for Rik Mehta.

It’s too late now because the AP beat us to it.

Admittedly we broke our own rule for the radio show by getting involved in a primary. We weighed in heavily for Mehta over the last two weeks of the campaign. We chose to do so because we grew tired of the lies and half-truths directed at Mehta.

I’m not normally happy when someone beats us to breaking news, but this time I’m not bothered by it.

Congratulations Rik Mehta! We look forward to having you on tomorrow’s show.

To the others – thanks for putting your names on the ballot. You are part of what makes New Jersey politics fun to watch.

Special mention to Natalie Rivera for running a mostly positive campaign and refusing to engage in false attacks. Kudos Natalie!

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.