PRESS RELEASE: NJGOP Calls Out Murphy Disingenuous Effort On SALT

NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt called out Governor Phil Murphy over the “disingenuous nature” of the state’s lawsuit against the IRS. The chairman’s press release on the matter follows:

Trenton, NJ - Today, Governor Murphy announced that the state of New Jersey would file a lawsuit against the IRS to end the federal cap on SALT deductions.

NJGOP Chairman Steinhardt released the following statement, calling out the disingenuous nature of Governor Murphy's lawsuit:

"When we say we want honest answers to real problems, this lawsuit is exactly what we are NOT talking about. If Phil Murphy really cared about the infamous property tax burden that all New Jersey families carry, he would have addressed it in any of his budgets or through legislation in Trenton. He has raised taxes and increased spending at every turn.

"This lawsuit is a political stunt and another waste of taxpayer money. If we really want to lift the SALT cap, then we need to send representatives to Washington that can actually have a conversation with President Trump. Right now, we have a group of Trump protestors like Tom Malinowski who spend their time trying to impeach the President rather than improve New Jersey.”

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Fitzherbert Introduces Campaign Team In CD2

Brian Fitzherbert

This is one of those weeks where our day jobs have gotten in the way of blogging, so we missed a Monday press release from Brian Fitzherbert’s congressional campaign. The recently announced Republican candidate for congress in CD2 rolled out his campaign team in the press release.

According to the campaign’s press release the Fitzherbert team includes the following:

Much like in his professional career, Fitzherbert has put together a team with national experience and the best in their field. Ethan Zorfas and Evan Kozlow of Axiom Strategies, Brett Loyd of The Polling Company, digital strategists from The Prosper Group and Amanda Woloshen Glass, the former Campaign Manager and State Director for former Congressman Leonard Lance (NJ07), will serve as Fitzherbert’s campaign team.

“The team is in great company with Amanda at the helm along with Axiom Strategies, given the firm has helped elect 78 current Members of Congress” Fitzherbert said.

Amanda is a veteran political strategist and government affairs specialist with an expertise in the areas of campaign management, communications and messaging. She has a successful track record of winning campaigns and successfully building issue-oriented and diverse grassroots coalitions.

The Polling Company is proud to be recognized as one of the nation’s most respected polling and market research consulting firms.

The Prosper Group is a national leader in digital advertising and online fundraising for GOP candidates and have contributed to the digital strategy of more winning campaigns than any other digital-first GOP consulting firm.

That appears to be a pretty solid team, which also means an expensive team, so we assume that means Fitzherbert will post strong fundraising numbers in his first report.

Bob Patterson, who ran in CD1 in 2016, is a candidate in CD2. He raised a little over $200,000 in 2016.

Seth Grossman is rumored to be making another run. According to the FEC he had a little more than $300,000 in total receipts in his effort against Jeff Van Drew.

Another one rumored to be running is realtor John Andrie. We have no idea what his fundraising ability is.

David Richter has an exploratory committee. Much has been said about his ability to self-fund.

The field is taking shape. It should be interesting to see who really gets in (or not) and what kind of teams they assemble.

2020 GOP CD2 Primary Beginning To Shape Up

By now our readers should be aware that Atlantic County Young Republicans Chairman Brian Fitzherbert officially announced his candidacy for Congress in CD2 earlier this week.

Fitzherbert made a run for the congressional seat a year ago before he was removed from the ballot.

It appears there is another candidate already in the race. Bob Patterson of Haddonfield who ran for Congress in CD1 against Donald Norcross in 2016 has launched a campaign website for CD2. Knowing Patterson lives in Camden County I thought when I heard he launched a campaign website he was going to run in CD1 again. So, I checked the website and he is clearly running in CD2:

Screenshot from Patterson’s website

There is a third potential candidate in CD2. David Richter, who has formed an exploratory committee. Admittedly I wasn’t very nice to Richter in a past blog post, but the guy definitely has a good sense of humor. At a recent event in Salem County he was able to deal with me busting his chops. And, he shared a laugh with Fitzherbert at the event when I asked them to take a photo together and told them both it will end up on the blog at some point:

David Richter and Brian Fitzherbert

There are still rumors out there that last year’s nominee Seth Grossman and a real estate guy John Andrie are looking at running in CD2, since neither have announced anything they are still rumors.

If three is a crowd, does four or five become a mess?

It’s looking like 2020 is going to have an exciting primary season.