Vote-By-Mail Ballots Are Out: Gloucester County Republicans Don’t Forget To Write-In Your Freeholder Candidates

Regular readers (and listeners) may recall one of our recent blog posts in which I explained that Gloucester County Democrats want no competition in November’s election and challenged Republican nominating petitions for freeholder. From that blog post:

But that’s not the case in Gloucester County where the County Democrats decided to attempt to deprive voters of a choice for freeholder in November. On April 3, 2019 John Alice, Counsel to the Gloucester County Democratic Committee, challenged the nominating petition of Republicans Diane M. King and Andrea K. Sammons. The challenge left King and Sammons with only 94 valid signatures removing the two from June’s primary election ballot.

Because the preferred candidates for freeholder of the Gloucester County Republicans, Diane M. King and Andrea K. Sammons will not appear on the primary election ballot Republicans must write them in.

Don’t let the Democrats in Gloucester County get a free pass. Write-in Diane M. King and Andrea K. Sammons on your Republican ballot.

Looks Like There’s Going To Be A GOP Primary To Challenge Booker And One Of Those Candidates Once Won A Beauty Pageant

Hirsh Singh

A couple of weeks ago I was talking with someone and the conversation went something along the lines of “it looks like everyone wants to be governor, but no one wants to run against Cory Booker.”

Then, last week, out of nowhere the “news” that Hirsh Singh is going to run against Booker came out. There was a disgustingly kind piece in the Shore News Network that appeared to make it sound like Singh was the best candidate the Republican party has.

Admittedly, I am not a fan of Hirsh Singh! I even went to Facebook and made my feelings on Singh’s candidacy known:

We talked about Singh’s candidacy for a little while on Saturday’s radio show (I’ll upload it to the website next week). What I said on the radio show wasn’t much different than what I said on my Facebook page – basically that he’s done nothing for the party, didn’t offer any support for the party’s congressional nominee after losing last year’s primary, that the establishment types backing him are a major problem in our party and there is  no way I will vote for Singh in a primary.

Fortunately for me anyway, it looks like I will not have to vote for Singh in a primary because, according to New Jersey Globe Tricia Flanagan “will seek U.S. Sen. Cory Booker’s seat in 2020.” According to New Jersey Globe:

Though the candidate ran as an independent on a pro-Trump platform in 2018, she said she intends to run with the Republican party this time around.

“Either way you slice it. I am running. I am challenging booker, and I intend to win for a MAGA majority,” Flanagan said.

I’ve never met Flanagan, never talked to her and wouldn’t know her if I tripped over her. I’ve heard from others that she’s very conservative.

Singh, on the other hand, I had a phone conversation with him when he ran for governor and he lied to me in that conversation. By way of background, a friend of mine was doing video work for him and at that friend’s urging, Singh called me. I asked him directly what made him think he could be governor and said something about the amount of money one would need to raise. Singh told me he had just written a check to his campaign for $1 million, to which I asked where he got $1 million and he told me from his personal wealth. Considering we all know that money was a loan from his father to the campaign, his reply to me was a lie.

I did meet Singh once recently in Salem County for about 30 seconds. A handshake and done, no conversation.

Not only did Singh lie to me in our one and only conversation, but he, at the very least, led Republicans to believe he would self-fund his last campaign. Don’t take my word for it. From the Press of Atlantic City:

Singh also angered party leaders like Atlantic County Republican Chairman Keith Davis, who accused him of misleading county party officials about how much personal wealth he had. After pledging to self-fund his campaign and raise as much as $2 million, Singh filed financial papers indicating he only has $50,000 to $100,000 in personal wealth, Davis said.

I’m fairly certain Flanagan has never led anyone to believe she had a couple million dollars lying around to self-fund her own campaign.

On the issue of honesty in this potential GOP primary the edge goes to Flanagan.

Let’s not forget Singh once accused South Jersey farmers of hiring illegal aliens. From New Jersey Globe:

Singh told the Ocean City Sentinel: “There’s a lot of industry down here that relies upon a certain part of the population that’s not here legally, like the farmers and otherwise.”

To my knowledge, Flanagan has never intentionally gone out of her way to anger a group that has a significant impact on the local economy. Again, in this potential GOP primary the edge goes to Flanagan.

Of course there’s also the problem with some of Singh’s past social media posts:

Or that time Singh wondered “Where are all the intelligent girls at”

So, on truthfulness, farming, social media posts (and maybe borderline misogyny) the edge goes to Flanagan. But, on the issue of beauty I guess I have to give the edge to Singh because he did win a beauty pageant once:

Singh announced the winner at 2:24

You decide, a less than honest son of a millionaire beauty contest winner or an unknown conservative.

Insurgent Democrats Excite Some South Jersey Republicans And Put Machine Democrat Hypocrisy On Display

It’s no secret, much to the dismay of many of my Republican friends, I love a good primary election fight. Unfortunately, for me, there’s only one GOP primary (LD8) for me to write about and it’s kind of boring.

But at least the Democrats in Camden County are giving me something fun to watch, and it appears some Republicans are getting excited about it.

Things started heating up last week thanks to a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial, “The machine age of politics should be over in N.J., Philadelphia” and a piece in Politico by the great Matt Friedman, “Anti-machine Democrats in Camden County complain of ‘phantom candidates’.” Even the folks over at Blue Jersey got into the act.

I take no issue with any of those pieces, but they all had one name in them: George Norcross. And, whenever Norcross’ name is mentioned, Republicans seem to get excited.

I’ve written before in this blog that “For some reason South Jersey Republicans get excited when they hear the name George Norcross. Well, here’s a newsflash for you. Voters don’t care! His name is not on the ballot.”

Yet, it doesn’t matter, still folks get excited at the mention of the Norcross name. Every time I say something like that I am accused of being pro-Norcross and/or the South Jersey Democrat machine. For the record, I’m not. Frankly, I’m not a fan of machines, period. That said, I do admit to being jealous that Norcross was able to build such a well-oiled machine.

This is not to say that I don’t work to beat that machine. I have and I continue to do so. The machine can be defeated. My co-host Bob Greco and I proved that. Back in 2009 when Greco became chairman of the Cumberland County Republicans he asked me to come work with him. We met a year earlier when I was working on state Senator Joe Pennacchio’s U.S. Senate campaign. Greco told me I could go at the Democrats as hard as I wanted – no leash – naturally I agreed since he promised not to put a leash on me. Together, along with quality mail by Chris Russell, we won and won enough that in only a few years flipped a 7 – 0 Democrat controlled freeholder board to 4 – 3 Republican. We did it with very little money and without mentioning the name Norcross.

Anyway, thanks to another Politico piece this week in the New Jersey Playbook even more people got excited over the insurgent Democrats challenge to the Norcross machine.

I had never heard of GGCNJ before someone sent me a link to their social media post. Apparently, it stands for Good Government Coalition New Jersey and according to Facebook their page was created on June 4, 2017. They even have a website on which they claim to be a “nonpartisan, grassroots group whose mission is to strengthen democracy by working with residents across our state to bring greater transparency, accountability, and participation to our state and local governments.”

Unfortunately, immediately after the line about being “nonpartisan” is the question “Want to build a progressive party from within?” Of course, that makes me wonder exactly how “nonpartisan” the group truly is.

So basically, it appears to me this whole anti-machine thing in Camden County is the progressives versus the establishment. I don’t quite understand why Republicans are getting excited over it – other than it’s fun to watch.

Now, if Republicans really want to make any kind of issue about all this Democratic Party infighting I would suggest they key on a letter penned by Camden County Democratic Committee Chairman state Senator Jim Beach in which he attacks many of the progressive (or are they insurgent) Democrats as “Trump Republicans.”

One glaring example is Jen O’Donnell. From the letter posted on CamdenCountyProgressiveDems.com.

True O’Donnell once ran for office with Republicans, I know, I designed the palm card, she might have been registered as a Republican for all I know, but she was never a “Trump Republican.” The palm card was clear, she and her running mates were “Republicans and Independent Democrats.” Trump wasn’t even a candidate when I designed the palm card. Or at the very least not one I was paying attention to. So, to call O’Donnell a “Trump Republican” is a stretch at best.

Another thing I would take issue within Beach’s letter is that he points out the criminal histories of several of the insurgent candidates.

Another thing I would take issue within Beach’s letter is that he points out the criminal histories of several of the insurgent candidates.

I’m fairly certain the histories listed by Beach are true, but why speak out about these particular Democrats when he completely ignored the arrest of former Assemblyman Arthur Barclay and only after Republicans discovered the arrest did Beach say anything, and when he did speak, not a word about the arrest, only that Barclay resigned for “health reasons.”

And, that’s not the only time the Camden County Democratic Committee chairman sat silent when one of his own was in legal trouble. I still don’t think Beach has uttered a word about former Haddon Township Commissioner Paul Dougherty, the guy who was involved in a hit and run and tried to blame it on his wife and eventually pleaded guilty on an unrelated charge.

And when the Deputy Mayor in Voorhees was outed for getting into bar brawls Beach had nothing to say.

Considering he didn’t care when his own people ran afoul of the law, it’s obvious Beach’s letter has nothing to do with concerns about the past actions of the insurgent Democrats.

The bottom line here is there might be a reason to be excited by the insurgent Democrats challenge to the establishment Democrats in Camden County, but it’s not because the insurgents have a chance at winning. It is because it appears the hypocrisy of the establishment machine Democrats oozes out when the heat is turned up on them.

Keep it up insurgents! We’re all watching.