Gloucester County GOP Chair Forces Paper To Admit It “Missed The Story”

Jacci Vigilante

Earlier in the week this blog pointed out the local paper in Gloucester County, the South Jersey Times, was forcing Gloucester County Republicans to fight on two fronts.

We praised GCGOP Chairwoman Jacci Vigilante for fighting back against an obviously biased editorial.

Today, the South Jersey Times ran her response to that editorial. Vigilante has to be feeling pretty good because her response forced the editorial board to admit they “missed the story.” From the South Jersey Times:

Editor’s note: Admittedly, we missed the story about the April ballot challenge. Vigilante is correct in that if a candidate receives a sufficient number of write-in votes, that candidate can accept an unclaimed party nomination. Vigilante reports that as of Tuesday, King and Sammons have done so, and will be listed as GOP freeholder nominees this fall.

Forcing the liberal editorial board at the South Jersey Times to admit they missed a story and to write “Vigilante is correct” is the closest thing one will ever see to an apology.

We’re calling this a win for Vigilante.

South Jersey Times Editorial Board Wants The GCGOP To Fight On Two Fronts; Chairwoman Vigilante Obliges

Jacci Vigilante

It’s tough being a Republican in Southwest New Jersey. In Camden County you have The machine of George Norcross, in Gloucester County you have one of his best friends in Senate President Steve Sweeney. But when you add the local paper working against you it gets extra tough.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that Gloucester County Democrats had the Republican candidates for freeholder tossed from the primary election ballot, on June 9 the South Jersey Times editorial board ran a piece in which they claimed, “There were no Republican nominees for two county freeholder seats.”

Never mind the fact the South Jersey Times never bothered to cover the actual news that the Gloucester County Democrats challenged the nominating petitions of the Republican candidates to get them removed from the ballot. If it had been reverse and Republicans had Democrats removed from the ballot the South Jersey Times would have had a headline screaming about how Republicans were trying to disenfranchise voters.

Gloucester County GOP Chairwoman Jacci Vigilante is a fighter and has apparently decided she isn’t taking the local paper’s one-sided opinions and lack of reporting lying down. Good for her.

Yesterday, Vigilante fired a shot at county Democrats issuing a press release claiming victory for, “Preventing the Democrats’ efforts to deny a choice for freeholder in the general election.” It was a victory for which Vigilante, her county party and her candidates, Diane King and Andrea Sammons should be proud.

Today, Vigilante is fighting on the second front against the local paper. In a social media post the Gloucester County GOP shared a letter to the editor the chairwoman has sent to the South Jersey Times in response to their “opinion” of the local GOP.

In the letter Vigilante takes the paper to task for their lack of local reporting and makes certain that, at least the editorial board understands the Gloucester County GOP “has met challenge after challenge, including this one, thwarting the Democrats’ effort to deprive voters of a choice with a successful write-in campaign thanks to a group of hardworking, dedicated volunteers.” She then reminds them “The GOP is growing,” and that, “Perhaps The Times should start paying attention.”

Keep fighting chairwoman! You can view Vigilante’s letter below in case the South Jersey Times decides not to run it.

Sens. Menendez And Booker Decided To Defend Camden’s Machine Democrats

Sens. Menendez & Booker

It looks like South Jersey’s insurgent progressive Democrats have two new enemies. US Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker penned an editorial on June 7th in the Star Ledger.

They did a bit of tightrope walking, but the Senators’ editorial is a defense, actually an endorsement, of the tax incentives the insurgent progressive Democrats have been screaming about. They use the same words the establishment machine Dems use in support of everything happening in Camden. They talk about the schools, things local activists, for whatever reason, are against. They talk about public safety, you know the police department everybody else helps to pay for. And, they talk about jobs, jobs local activists and the insurgent progressive Democrats complain aren’t going to local residents.

As I’ve written before I’m not going to get into the debate about whether tax incentives are good or bad. We can argue that all day. What interests me is the fact that our state’s two US Senators have penned an editorial that goes against everything a very loud group of their constituents are against. These are the same constituents who by continuously supporting whatever Democrat appears on the ballot for any office helped create the problems with the tax incentives in the first place.

A quick look at the results of last year’s election shows the insurgent progressive Democrats in Camden County came out in droves for Menendez, a guy they now know stands for everything they campaigned against this year.

With Booker up for re-election this year, while simultaneously running for president, out publicly as a proud supporter of everything the insurgent progressive Democrats in Camden County are against one has to wonder if these folks will finally do something different and vote against someone who does not stand with them.

My guess is they’ll just keep doing what the machine tells them to do and wonder why nothing changes. Hopefully, they will prove me wrong.