ICYMI: Three GOP Chairs Call Richter Move To CD3 “Boneheaded Play”

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:

Is Palatucci Screwing Up Another Congressional Primary?

Bill Palatucci (from Twitter)

Bob Greco and I thought long, but not very hard, about whether or not I should move forward with a blog post about Bill Palatucci. This past Saturday we discussed the email he sent “cautioning” fellow Republicans about wasting money on a candidate in CD7. (You can listen to episode #67 by going to the “radio shows” page of this website. The Palatucci portion starts at the 1 hour 20 minute mark). Anyway, the primary taking shape in CD7 is between state Senator Tom Kean and Rosemary Becchi. I may have met Kean a time or two over the years, but don’t remember it. Bob, as a former county chairman has dealt with Kean and likes him. Neither one of us would know Becchi if we tripped over her. I mention this because we have no dog in this fight and both feel Palatucci crossed a line by sticking his nose in this primary.

As we discussed on the radio show, this isn’t the first time Palatucci has angered us. When Bob was the Cumberland County GOP Chairman I was the organization’s consultant. We won elections. No one can deny that. Palatucci, on more than one occasion tried to get Bob to fire me. According to Bob, Palatucci would say, “You shouldn’t be using Kush” and “Maybe you should consider using somebody else.” And, to this day, Bob still believes it was on Palatucci’s order that the NJGOP’s former Executive Director told him to fire me. Listen to the show, you’ll hear Bob got so mad at that he fell out of his chair. He didn’t fire me.

Not only did Palatucci have a habit of interfering in how Cumberland County was being run, he also thought it was okay to threaten an assemblyman. As the story goes, the then assemblyman was asked to endorse Chris Christie’s presidential campaign and the assemblyman said he had to think about it. Shortly after saying he had to think about it the assemblyman received a threatening phone call from Palatucci. The assemblyman was added to the list of endorsers.

And, let’s not forget that the mess of a primary in CD2 last year was the fault of Palatucci. It was Palatucci that led the brain trust that went to Hirsh Singh and talked him out of the U.S. Senate primary and led him to believe he would have a clear path in the congressional race. Palatucci pressured chairs to get behind Singh, some have privately admitted to this.

Apparently, Palatucci’s email angered a lot of Republicans. A GOP women’s organization weighed in on the issue. Saturday night I was at the Camden County GOP fundraiser. I expected to take some heat over what we had to say about Palatucci on the radio show earlier in the day. I was surprised when I took no heat, but was instead congratulated by many for saying what needed to be said.

Obviously, Palatucci has a history of attempting to bully people into doing what he wants. And, since Palatucci already screwed up one congressional primary the question needs to be asked: is Palatucci’s meddling in CD7 going to create another mess?

While we wait for the answer to that question we are hopeful that Palatucci will finally realize his best friend is no longer governor, which means he no longer has any power. Maybe he endorsed Hirsh Singh for U.S. Senate because he needs a puppet. Time will tell.