CD2 Action: Fitzherbert, Another Endorsement. Richter Continues To Explore. Grossman Argues With A Reporter.

Sorry for the lack of blogging this week, but I had to overcome the shock of Victoria’s Secret hiring a transgender model.

Men who “identify” as women modeling lingerie or not, politics keeps going and there was some action in CD2, on the Republican side, this week.

Announced candidate Brian Fitzherbert was seen at several National Night Out events and came with another endorsement this week. The Fitzherbert campaign sent out a release earlier in the week announcing the endorsement of Linwood Mayor Richard L. DePamphilis, III. According to the release:

“We need a real leader who is willing to fight for lower taxes, immigration reform and who has the courage of conviction to stand up for the people of New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District. We have seen Brian’s leadership ability first-hand as he has worked to help build the Republican Party in Atlantic County and across South Jersey. A principled conservative, Brian will be a leader that will fight for South Jersey in Washington, D.C. That is why I am happy to endorse Brian Fitzherbert for Congress,“ said Mayor DePamphilis.

“I am proud to receive the endorsement of Mayor DePamphilis and I thank him for his service as a Navy Veteran and his commitment to South Jersey as a public servant. Mayor DePamphilis is an inspiration to all Americans who seek to serve our country and communities. I am honored to have his support and look forward to working with him as we fight to win back the 2nd Congressional district,” Fitzherbert said.

We’ve received no reports of the other announced candidate, Robert “Bob” Patterson, doing any campaigning this week. Maybe, the Victoria’s Secret news has him concerned about the lack of “semen-exposed” women. Perhaps I’ll run into him at the Gloucester County GOP’s monthly happy hour tonight.

David Richter, who formed an exploratory committee for CD2, is still exploring, but he was in Hammonton this week where he was given the opportunity to speak to the Hammonton GOP Club.

We did get news that rumored potential candidates John Andrie and John Zarychare out, though there is a rumor someone else may get in, we’re trying to run that down.

Potential candidate, last year’s nominee, Seth Grossman, decided it was a good idea to get into as Twitter fight with Politico reporter Matt Friedman (a few screenshots at the end). It probably wasn’t the smartest idea to get into a fight with a reporter who will likely cover the race if he gets in, but what do I know.

It’s still looking like a CD2 primary could be fun to watch. Stay tuned!

Note: While Bob has endorsed Brian Fitzherbert for next year’s CD2 primary, Steve is completely neutral and making no endorsement

Fitzherbert Introduces Campaign Team In CD2

Brian Fitzherbert

This is one of those weeks where our day jobs have gotten in the way of blogging, so we missed a Monday press release from Brian Fitzherbert’s congressional campaign. The recently announced Republican candidate for congress in CD2 rolled out his campaign team in the press release.

According to the campaign’s press release the Fitzherbert team includes the following:

Much like in his professional career, Fitzherbert has put together a team with national experience and the best in their field. Ethan Zorfas and Evan Kozlow of Axiom Strategies, Brett Loyd of The Polling Company, digital strategists from The Prosper Group and Amanda Woloshen Glass, the former Campaign Manager and State Director for former Congressman Leonard Lance (NJ07), will serve as Fitzherbert’s campaign team.

“The team is in great company with Amanda at the helm along with Axiom Strategies, given the firm has helped elect 78 current Members of Congress” Fitzherbert said.

Amanda is a veteran political strategist and government affairs specialist with an expertise in the areas of campaign management, communications and messaging. She has a successful track record of winning campaigns and successfully building issue-oriented and diverse grassroots coalitions.

The Polling Company is proud to be recognized as one of the nation’s most respected polling and market research consulting firms.

The Prosper Group is a national leader in digital advertising and online fundraising for GOP candidates and have contributed to the digital strategy of more winning campaigns than any other digital-first GOP consulting firm.

That appears to be a pretty solid team, which also means an expensive team, so we assume that means Fitzherbert will post strong fundraising numbers in his first report.

Bob Patterson, who ran in CD1 in 2016, is a candidate in CD2. He raised a little over $200,000 in 2016.

Seth Grossman is rumored to be making another run. According to the FEC he had a little more than $300,000 in total receipts in his effort against Jeff Van Drew.

Another one rumored to be running is realtor John Andrie. We have no idea what his fundraising ability is.

David Richter has an exploratory committee. Much has been said about his ability to self-fund.

The field is taking shape. It should be interesting to see who really gets in (or not) and what kind of teams they assemble.

2020 GOP CD2 Primary Beginning To Shape Up

By now our readers should be aware that Atlantic County Young Republicans Chairman Brian Fitzherbert officially announced his candidacy for Congress in CD2 earlier this week.

Fitzherbert made a run for the congressional seat a year ago before he was removed from the ballot.

It appears there is another candidate already in the race. Bob Patterson of Haddonfield who ran for Congress in CD1 against Donald Norcross in 2016 has launched a campaign website for CD2. Knowing Patterson lives in Camden County I thought when I heard he launched a campaign website he was going to run in CD1 again. So, I checked the website and he is clearly running in CD2:

Screenshot from Patterson’s website

There is a third potential candidate in CD2. David Richter, who has formed an exploratory committee. Admittedly I wasn’t very nice to Richter in a past blog post, but the guy definitely has a good sense of humor. At a recent event in Salem County he was able to deal with me busting his chops. And, he shared a laugh with Fitzherbert at the event when I asked them to take a photo together and told them both it will end up on the blog at some point:

David Richter and Brian Fitzherbert

There are still rumors out there that last year’s nominee Seth Grossman and a real estate guy John Andrie are looking at running in CD2, since neither have announced anything they are still rumors.

If three is a crowd, does four or five become a mess?

It’s looking like 2020 is going to have an exciting primary season.