On January 28 three Republican County Chairs released a letter titled, “New Jersey Republicans Giveth and Taketh Away.” The letter was signed by Morris County Chair Laura Ali, Camden County Chair Rich Ambrosino and Hunterdon County Chair Patrick Torpey.

The chairs are obviously unhappy with congressional candidate David Richter moving from CD2 to CD3.

They open their letter with, “Two recent shake ups in the GOP congressional primary landscape can be summed up by Charles Dicken's opening salvo in the Tale of Two Cities. ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ...’.” They definitely scored some points for creativity!

The chairs go on to explain how the “best of times” was the way “Party leaders worked hard to help a transition” of Rosemary Becchi from CD7 to CD11 and that thanks to the “selflessness of Larry Casha the Republican Candidate in CD-11, the field was cleared for Ms. Becchi.”

Then the letter moves on to describe “the worst of times.” The chairs explain, “Another candidate switched districts, this time in South Jersey, with the exact opposite effect. The odd man out when Congressman Jeff Van Drew switched parties in the 2nd Congressional District (CD-2) was David Richter, a self- funder, so we are led to believe, who was hanging on to his candidacy in CD 2. He has decided to run in the 3rd Congressional District (CD-3) where the presumptive GOP candidate is a millennial woman…”

The chairs go on to ask, “For a Party that preaches the need to support younger female candidates, what are we thinking by pushing for this boneheaded play?” They end the letter doing something I’ve been known to do from time-to-time, they take a shot at party insiders writing, “We are hopeful that as the candidate selection process moves forward in Ocean County {Gibbs has the endorsement in Burlington), the rank and file County Committee Members will make sure the Party does the right thing, even if other Party insiders do not.”

It's highly unusual for a group of county chairs to publicly voice their displeasure at a move by party insiders. I asked Chairman Ambrosino about it and he explained, “The optics of this are horrible, rich white guy moves to run for office, gets forced out of the race and announces he’s moving again to force a young woman out of another race. A woman who who has held elected office and cut taxes. The rich district shopper has done neither. It’s terrible optics that could cause us to lose a race we could win.”

So now I’ll let the letter speak for itself, view it below: