Gloucester County GOP Chooses Shivery To Run For Surrogate

Greenwich Township Mayor George W. Shivery, Jr.

Gloucester County Republicans have chosen Greenwich Township (Gibbstown) Mayor George W. Shivery, Jr. as their candidate for County Surrogate.

The Surrogate position had to be added to this year’s general election ballot as a result of a vacancy created upon the passing of former Surrogate Helene Reed.

Shivery is currently the longest serving Republican mayor in Gloucester County. He is a proven vote getter winning re-election to a sixth consecutive term last year in a Township with a roughly 5-1 voter registration disadvantage for the Republican. Gloucester County GOP Chairwoman Jacci Vigilante said in a statement from the Shivery campaign, “He’s obviously got the ability to bring Democrats into the Republican column. As an organization we’re excited to have him on the countywide ticket.”

Shivery last sought higher office in 2009. He and former Cumberland County Surrogate Art Marchand were backed by the state GOP in what became a circus of a primary election. Then Gloucester County Chairwoman Loran Oglesby refused to give the Marchand-Shivery ticket the line, instead placing all candidates in the column with the organization’s slogan and Marchand and Shivery being bracketed pulled lousy ballot position. The folks in Salem County were okay with Shivery but preferred Robert Villare to Marchand and only Villare used the county’s slogan. Only Cumberland County gave the line to Marchand-Shivery and former Chairman Bob Greco’s line held. The strength of their victory in Salem County led to a win for Villare and Lee Lucas, a frequent caller to The Bob & Steve Show.

Despite the loss, Shivery didn’t go away and hosted Chris Christie’s town hall with Neil Cavuto at Gibbstown’s Broad Street School. Shivery packed the place to standing room only even though Christie’s staff doubted Shivery’s ability to do so. I know because I had just arrived for a visit from New Mexico and received a call from Christie staff suggesting they might bring pipes and draping in case the crowd wasn’t big enough.

While Shivery has always been a team player, he was the first South Jersey mayor to endorse Christie for Governor, he always puts his constituents first. When Christie was busy preparing to run for president a freak, macroburst storm hit Gloucester County, leaving most of Gibbstown without power for days. Shivery could get no satisfaction from the Governor’s office, so he put the town’s residents before politics and called Christie out for his refusal to declare an emergency.

Shivery did more than call out Christie after that storm. After learning the Volunteers of America facility that houses senior citizens was without power he enlisted the help of former NRA Field Coordinator Christian Ragosta and provided bagels, coffee, donuts and water to residents that were unable to get upstairs to their rooms because the elevators didn’t work. Shivery was everywhere in town, helping however he could.

Shivery is a proven vote getter who understands the difference between good campaigning and good government and will be of value to the Republican ticket in Gloucester County this year. Following is the press release announcing his candidacy for Surrogate:

Gloucester County Republican Executive Committee Chooses Shivery

Greenwich Township Mayor George W. Shivery, Jr. to run for Gloucester County Surrogate

GIBBSTOWN – At a meeting of the Gloucester County Republican Executive Committee yesterday held in Mullica Hill, Greenwich Township Mayor George W. Shivery, Jr. was selected as the GOP’s candidate for Gloucester County Surrogate in the upcoming special election.

“I was happy to give Mayor Shivery the news that he was unanimously selected as our candidate for Surrogate,” Gloucester County Republican Chairwoman Jacci Vigilante said. “Last year George won his sixth term as mayor of Greenwich Township, despite a voter registration disadvantage of roughly 5-1. He’s obviously got the ability to bring Democrats into the Republican column. As an organization we’re excited to have him on the countywide ticket.”

Shivery is in his 16th year as mayor of Greenwich Township. Prior to winning election as mayor Shivery was on the Greenwich Township Board of Education for six years and served as its Vice President.

“I’m thankful for the confidence the Gloucester County Republican Executive Committee has in me and look forward to an aggressive campaign season,” Mayor George W. Shivery, Jr. said. “Given that very few people know what the Surrogate does, as a career educator, it’ll be important that I make certain voters know what their County Surrogate does, make the difference between my opponent and me clear and show why I’m the better choice for the position.”

Shivery added, “The Surrogate’s office is actually very well run, I don’t see myself trying to fix something that isn’t broken. I believe the position is largely administrative and since I have served as our Township Administrator at no additional cost to taxpayers since 2006, who better to be the next Surrogate.”

“I look forward to working with Chairwoman Vigilante and her team to bring voters into the Republican column up and down the ballot,” Shivery said.

George W. Shivery, Jr. was re-elected Mayor of Greenwich Township for his sixth consecutive term on November 7, 2017. Prior to becoming Mayor in 2002 Shivery served for six years on the Greenwich Township Board of Education, four of those years as Vice President, a Commissioner on the New Jersey Mosquito Commission and a past president of the Gloucester County Mayor’s Association.

Active in the community, Shivery is a member of VFW Post #5579 Auxiliary (his father was a charter member and past Commander of the Post), a member of the Board of Education of Guardian Angles Regional Catholic School, President of Mullica Hill Rifle and Pistol Club, a member of the Elks Lodge and the Loyal Order of the Moose.

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Booker Talks About “Decency And Integrity” While Displaying Neither

U.S. Senator Cory Booker

U.S. Senator Cory Booker, during his opening statement at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, proved again yesterday that he has no clue what he’s talking about.

Even though he was ruled out of order Booker simply ignored the ruling and said, “I appeal to be recognized on your sense of decency and integrity…” and he kept babbling a bunch of nonsense ignoring the fact he was ruled out of order again.

The first obvious point is that a guy who talked about “decency and integrity” proved he has none of either by continuing to speak for over a minute after being ruled out of order multiple times and having the gavel banged. One can’t talk about “decency and integrity” and then display neither.

Booker repeatedly made the accusation that the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation process was being rushed, even asking twice, “What is the rush?”

Here’s the thing, the process isn’t being rushed. Booker and his left-wing friends are wrong to claim there is a rush.

The truth of the matter is this particular confirmation process has taken more than 20 days longer than average. Investor’s Business Daily makes that point clear:

It's been 64 days since President Trump nominated Kavanaugh. The average time between nomination and the start of confirmation hearings for the past 10 Supreme Court justices: 41.6 days.

Once again, Cory Booker has proved he doesn’t care about facts. This, like everything else that comes from the left, is about emotion. Emotions aren’t facts and it would be nice if the left would learn that. Things would be a lot calmer in the country if they would.

NJ.com has a video of Booker ignoring the fact he was ruled out of order:

This “Dapper County Chairman” Has Faced Challenges From The Start And Overcome Them

Sate Senator Tom Kean, U.S. Senate Candidate Bob Hugin and Cumberland GOP Chairman Michael Testa

Michael Testa, the “Dapper County Chairman” of the Cumberland County GOP, became chairman under, I’ll call them, less than perfect circumstances. And, before Testa friends send me nasty emails for calling him the “Dapper County Chairman,” I get to call him that, I still remember the days of his ponytail. Plus, as I was preparing to write this post, I spoke with him and told him I was going to use the phrase.

One would think I would be the last person to praise Testa in any way. After becoming chairman he chose not to keep the previous chairman’s campaign consultant, the guy who created the messages of that chairman’s winning campaigns, the campaigns that led to a flip of a 7-0 Democrat controlled freeholder board to 4-3 Republican, namely me. Michael knows it angered me, I didn’t speak to him for years, to be fair he didn’t call me either.

But that’s all water under the bridge, we’re on speaking terms again, so much so that he’s scheduled to be the guest on The Bob & Steve Show on September 15 and, since obviously I’ll be in Vineland Saturday, I’ll be attending his party breakfast, for the second time, this weekend.

As much as I hate to admit it, Testa changing consultants was a smart move on his part. Remember, he took over under less than perfect circumstances, so out with the old, he had several factions within the party to think about and had to make decisions that were at least palatable to all those factions.

Another smart decision by Testa was to change the weekly GOP breakfast to every other week. As much as I love the previous chair, my co-host on The Bob & Steve Show, having to go to that breakfast every week was a giant pain in the ass. Also, holding the breakfast on different sides of the county is another smart move, it brings different people to the event and helps build the party and party building is one of the most important parts of the job.

Recently Testa has had to walk something of a political tightrope and has managed to do it skillfully. For example, it was rumored that folks in the Republican party wanted Testa to speak out publicly against the party’s nominee in the 2nd congressional district, Seth Grossman. Despite the rumored pressure, Testa has never publicly uttered a negative word about Grossman and continues to show support for the candidate publicly. Showing public support of the primary winner is exactly what the chair should do, it’s part of partisan politics.

During the screening/convention process leading up to the primary Testa took some heat over the Cumberland GOP convention. We can argue until we’re blue in the face over whether or not he should have postponed the convention until after the snow storm during which it was held, but that was the least of the heat he took. There were many folks across the state who thought Testa should have done something to ensure local congressional candidate, former Assemblyman Sam Fiocchi, won the line at the convention. It didn’t happen, instead Bob Turkavage won the line by one vote.

There were some who claimed Testa rigged his convention. Frankly, if he rigged that convention Turkavage wouldn’t be the guy who got the line. And, remember I was Fiocchi’s consultant in that race, so if I’m saying the convention wasn’t rigged, it wasn’t.

To add insult to the injury of being accused of rigging his convention, Testa then had to deal with Turkavage acting like a complete novice and failing to file the required paperwork with the county clerk to be placed in the organization’s column on the primary election ballot. Harry Hurley called the situation “Disgraceful.”

There was nothing “disgraceful” about it. The paperwork is required. It is and always has been the candidate’s responsibility to make certain all necessary forms are filed appropriately and on time. It was the Turkavage campaign’s responsibility to file and his campaign should have been in constant communication with Testa to be certain things were moving along as they should. On top of that, this wasn’t the first time Turkavege didn’t file paperwork on time. He was going to run for U.S. Senate in 2014 but didn’t file his paperwork because of traffic problems. My point? Turkavage already had a history of screwing up when it came to filing paperwork on time, and like the first time, he refused to accept responsibility. Testa did things properly.

Testa weathered the convention/Turkavage storm, even getting something of an apology from Hurley, who wrote, in part:

“The conversation was entirely respectful and positive. Testa was highly professional throughout and I only feel that it is fair to our readers to follow-up that while I can’t take back my words in total; I can say that I feel differently now about Testa then I did at the time I wrote my stinging rebuke of him a few weeks ago.

The easiest thing for me to do here would be to say nothing. That’s not how I work. The easy way is usually not the right way. Testa takes a great deal of pride in his leadership responsibilities. I owe it to you, our valued readers, to revise and extend my remarks about Testa. It’s the intellectually honest and right thing to do.”

It’s unusual for a county chairman to get a public apology from a member of the press which means Testa was right and handled the Turkavage situation properly.

In short, Testa has faced challenges from his first day as chairman, he’s worked through those challenges with determination and continues to work hard to grow the party. If you’re a Republican in Cumberland County and want to be a part of what Testa is building the next county party breakfast is Saturday, September 8 at the Green Olive restaurant, 610 Shiloh Pike in Bridgeton from 8:30 to 10:30 and the cost is $15 per person. Head on out and meet the “Dapper County Chairman,” Michael Testa, he’s working hard.