CAMPAIGN ACTION: Meissner Drops Out. Patterson Still Campaigning, But No Longer Taking Part In Screening/Convention Process

The US Senate race is down to four candidates after multiple sources reported that Stuart Meissner has dropped out of the race because he says his “narrow path to victory in the Republican primary by seeking the party lines in each of the counties does not afford us a chance to success in such efforts based on recent events.”

I’m assuming “recent events” are Rik Mehta being 7 – 0 in securing county lines.

Meissner’s exit leaves frontrunner Rik Mehta, former gubernatorial and congressional candidate Hirsh Singh, former independent Senate candidate Natalie Rivera and the other former independent Senate candidate Tricia Flanagan still in the race.

Moving on to CD2, based on a report by New Jersey Globe it appears CD2 Republican congressional candidate Bob Patterson is still running, but not competing in the screening/convention process.

I’ve been on the road a lot lately and haven’t been able to pay attention to what was going on in the campaign world, but as usual the New Jersey Globe report was right. Based on the number of times it was forwarded to me, Patterson made it crystal clear he is not taking part in the process via a campaign email.

I get it, Patterson is angry and who knows, maybe it’s a good idea for him not to compete in the county conventions and focus on getting on the ballot and run his primary race, but maybe it’s a bad idea.

The reason I think it is possible that Patterson’s strategy of skipping conventions is a bad idea is that it really is difficult to rig a county convention.

In a previous blog post I used the 2008 Murray Sabrin example that even if you believe the deck is stacked against you that with hard work you can still win conventions. Don’t forget, more recently never-Trumper Bob Turkavage won the Cumberland County convention in 2018, I’m not suggesting there was a fix, just that he worked hard and pulled off a win, I think people are still trying to figure out how he did it.

I don’t know if Patterson’s strategy is a good one. I know it’s hard to believe, but I’m not judging. Patterson did use the word “apparatchik” in his email, so I’ll give him bonus points for a large vocabulary.

We’re still a long way from June 2nd and a lot can happen between now and then. I’ll just sit back and watch.

OPINION: So, Your Candidate Didn’t Get The Line. Stop Blaming The State Party. And, Stop With The RINO Bullshit!

We’re about a third of the way through the convention/screening season and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rik Mehta won three more county lines (Camden, Burlington and Monmouth) bringing him to 6 – 0.

What struck me is that supporters of every other candidate, and at least one candidate himself, have taken to social media screaming RINO, or worse and went so far as to accuse “some very influential people in the State Party” of “putting their hand on the scale…”

The exception to the above is Natalie Rivera – she and her supporters have conducted themselves with class and dignity throughout the process thus far.

To the others: Enough already! Just because your preferred candidate didn’t win any county lines does not mean the state party is working against your candidate. It certainly doesn’t make the winner a RINO.

I get it, Mehta is the frontrunner. He now has a target on his back. Blaming the party and calling the frontrunner “RINO” are the arguments of LOSING campaigns. We’ve all heard these arguments before.

What not winning county lines does mean is your candidate has failed to get their message to those who matter at this stage of the campaign – county committee members and/or elected officials in those counties, the people who happen to be on the screening committees and voting in the conventions. If you want to whine and cry that those folks are the “GOP establishment” go ahead. It does not change the fact that your candidate failed to get the job done!

I’ll say it again, so it sinks in – if your candidate isn’t winning any county lines your candidate failed to get the job done.

It’s not the “GOP establishment’s” fault your preferred candidate didn’t get the line. Seriously, does anyone reading this honestly believe that the “GOP establishment” wanted Murray Sabrin to win the county line in Gloucester County in the 2008 U.S. Senate primary? I promise you they didn’t want that to happen, but Sabrin’s campaign did the work and won the line.

Bottom line: If your candidate didn’t get the line it IS your candidate’s fault.

Please, just stop the bullshit attacks. We’ve all heard them before. If you want to launch an attack, launch one that matters. Screaming “RINO” isn’t an attack – it’s a loser argument. Switching political affiliation several years ago – not a good attack – as a party we actually try to get folks to come to our party. Our President just held a rally in South Jersey because Congressman Jeff Van Drew came to our party. President Trump was once a Democrat. Dumb attack!

Now, if a candidate wrote a max check to a Democratic party candidate for President in October of 2007 and has claimed it was her husband when he wrote a max check to the same Democratic party candidate for President on the same exact day, that’s a fair attack, she knows who she is and she is not Natalie Rivera.

If a candidate praised a candidate as recently as last year for winning a Democratic party primary for District Attorney in New York, that’s a legitimate attack, not strong, but legit, he knows who he is and he is not Rik Mehta or Hirsh Singh.

I’m not going to do your work for you. Go out and do some opposition research. Make your attacks legitimate. Just stop with the RINO bullshit and stop blaming everyone else because your preferred candidate hasn’t won a county line.

Finally, there are a lot of folks complaining about the process of awarding county lines. Knock it off! You’re making the exact same arguments the Progressives are making on the other side of the aisle.

If you want your candidate to get the line in a county that hasn’t held a screening or convention then do like the 2008 Murray Sabrin campaign and get to work, but please just stop the bullshit.

Good luck!

Murray Sabrin Is The Best Thing To Happen To Bob Menendez

Murray Sabrin

Murray Sabrin strikes again!

Stockton University released a poll today that shows the U.S. Senate race between Bob Hugin and U.S. Senator Bob Menendez a dead heat with Menendez leading Hugin 45-43 percent and Sabrin polling at 3 percent.

Back in August we explained in this blog that Murray Sabrin has spent his entire political career screwing up Republicans. Without Sabrin in this race Hugin would be on top of Menendez, still within the margin of error, but leading.

According to the Stockton University poll:

Hugin is receiving 88 percent of Republican support and just 3 percent from Democrats. Menendez is receiving 80 percent of Democrat support, but 9 percent from Republicans. Independents are supporting Hugin over Menendez by a 4-to-3 margin.

One issue for Menendez: 14 percent of Democrats are undecided or say they will vote for a candidate other than Hugin or Sabrin. A challenge for the incumbent is to convince those Democrats to back their party’s candidate.

Democrats who don’t want to vote for Menendez aren’t voting for Hugin or Sabrin. Obviously, that means Sabrin is pulling Republican voters from the Republican in the race, continuing his tradition of screwing things up for the GOP. Sabrin has about as much a chance of winning this Senate election as does Natalie Rivera. Why can’t his supporters see that? “Or some other candidate” is polling better than Sabrin. Sabrin cannot possibly believe he has a chance of winning this race.

This is not an election where Republicans have the luxury of voting for some fringe candidate, including Sabrin, because the party nominee doesn’t align with them 100%. They need to get on board with Hugin or Menendez will be sending a birthday present to Sabrin in December.

Here’s hoping Sabrin can somehow be stopped from screwing things up for Republicans again.