It Appears At Least One Republican Is Getting Serious In CD2

David Richter via Facebook

I wasn’t planning on writing anything about CD2 today, but since New Jersey Globe and InsiderNJ have both broken the news that David Richter has formed an exploratory committee to challenge Congressman Jeff Van Drew here we go.

Admittedly, I wasn’t very kind the first time Richter appeared on the Bob & Steve Show radar, but that was only because I do tend to be a pessimistic anti-establishment kind of guy.

I assume Richter announced this exploratory committee via press release, but I guess my pessimistic anti-establishment attitude left the Bob & Steve Show off his press list. I won’t allow that to cloud my judgment and whenever he wants our 50,000 listeners to meet him Mr. Richter is welcome on the show.

I do agree with what both, New Jersey Globe and InsiderNJ report Richter said:

“New Jersey is quickly becoming a one-party state, and that party continues to move leftward towards socialism.  We need elected representatives in Congress who will fight for less government, lower taxes and free markets, and who will protect our individual rights and constitutional liberties,” said Richter.

While it appears Mr. Richter is saying the right things, he does have work to do. There’s been a lot of talk that Hirsh Singh, Seth Grossman, Brian Fitzherbert and some real estate guy John Andrie are all looking at CD2.

Singh, Grossman and Fitzherbert all have some name recognition in the district and all have at least some sort of organization which puts them ahead in a ground game if Richter really is in this.

The one thing Richter appears to have that the others don’t is enough money to self-finance if he must. While there are some that aren’t exactly thrilled that a guy they never heard of with a lot of money appeared out of nowhere to get into this race all that talk could stop as soon as checks start being written. Money does tend to buy some love in GOP primaries.

If the last CD2 primary proved anything it proved the party line can be beaten in crowded GOP primaries which means if Richter and the others are in it could come down to organization. Of course, money can buy organization.

Now that Richter is making some serious noise about getting into this race other Republicans considering it will likely start making moves.  

For now, I’m going to make an effort to be a little nicer to Richter and reserve judgment until we learn more about the guy. Who Knows, maybe he’ll come on the show.

PRESS RELEASE: NJGOP Chairman Steinhardt Responds To Murphy's New Potential Gas Tax

NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt weighed in on Governor Phil Murphy’s recent suggestion of “mileage fees” today. The Chairman’s press release follows:

Trenton, NJ - Governor Murphy is considering new "mileage fees" to pay for a shortfall in his infrastructure budget.

According to the state treasurer, tax revenues look like they’re falling short of this year’s $1.5 billion highway fuels revenue target. This shortfall could trigger yet another automatic gas tax hike to make up the difference.

Governor Murphy described finding a new way to tax people on their travel as, finding a different mouse trap to capture the movement around this state.

NJGOP Chairman Steinhardt questioned, "The Governor needs a better mousetrap to capture traffic movement? Hardly. It’s just another tax trap to capture more of your hard earned dollars! New Jersey is the highest taxed state in the nation. We don’t need new mousetraps,  we need honest solutions. Start with the repeal of the automatic tax increase put into place by a bunch of government bureaucrats. Finally, if the Governor really needs to know “where people are going”, try lower cost states like Pennsylvania and North Carolina.”

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Gloucester County Democrats Fear Competition At The Polls

I get it, challenging the signatures on nominating petitions is a part of political campaigns in New Jersey (and elsewhere). It’s a part of campaigns I dislike. No campaign I managed has ever challenged nominating petitions – that’s how much I despise the practice. I believe working to remove a candidate who meets the requirements to run for an office from the ballot is a gutless move that proves the person challenging signatures on a nominating petition has very little faith in their chosen candidate to win on ideas.

From my observations, over the years, it appears that more often than not challenges to nominating petitions are intra-party affairs (or is it inter, I always get the two confused) with challenges filed against competitors in a primary election like last year when a supporter of a certain someone who may or may not have led folks to believe he had access to $2 million for a congressional run got Brian Fitzherbert tossed from the primary election ballot.

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.

So why get the Republican candidates removed from the ballot? Are the Gloucester County Democrats freeholder candidates so weak they don’t want any competition in November? I don’t even know who they’re running and don’t care because there is no way I’m voting for them.

It is possible for Republicans to win in Gloucester County? It’s happened before, remember Larry Wallace and Vince Nestore? And it can happen again. Especially against weak Democratic party candidates. Looking at some historical data one can see it can happen. In the 2014 U.S. Senate race Jeff Bell lost the county to Cory Booker, but Bell was a weak candidate with little money and still managed to earn 45% of the county-wide vote against the well-funded Booker. That same year in the CD1 Garry Cobb managed 44.78% of the vote against Congressman Donald Norcross, and Cobb, like him or not, was a horrible candidate. In 2016, President Donald Trump squeaked by Hillary Clinton county-wide 47.82% - 47.34%. Last year Bob Hugin beat U.S. Senator Bob Menendez 49.72% - 46.37% while the Republican candidates for sheriff and surrogate both received slightly more than 42% of the county-wide vote.

Trump and Hugin both won county-wide in Gloucester County and the other numbers show Republicans have a base of 42% in the county. With a little money and a solid message Republicans can win in Gloucester County. The addition of the new energy brought to the party by Chairwoman Jacci Vigilante helps too.

Diane King has run before and is popular among Republicans in Gloucester County. The addition of the Gloucester County Young Republicans Chair Andrea “Andy” Sammons as King’s running mate brings extra excitement to the ticket. So, yeah, the reason the Gloucester County Democrats decided to have the Republicans bounced from the primary election ballot is that they are afraid of competition.

All is not lost. King and Sammons can still appear on the November ballot. It’s going to require a write-in campaign in June. It’ll be a good test for Vigilante and the candidates and success can build momentum going into November.

The growing popularity of King, the excitement of a young Republican in Sammons on the ticket and the work of Vigilante in building the party in Gloucester County can only lead to good things. I have no doubt King and Sammons will appear on the ballot in November and will do my part to ensure it happens.

Gloucester County Republicans – pay attention as information will be coming soon on how to PROPERLY write-in your vote.