Salem County Convention Goes To Mehta And The Process Was Fair

Rik Mehta

What does a political junkie do on a beautiful Sunday afternoon? In my case I decided to drive 17 miles south of my home to Sakima Country Club to observe the Salem County GOP convention (and visit with many longtime Salem County friends).

I really wanted to observe a convention in a county where I haven’t done any work and have no clients. I wanted to see if there was anything to the argument that the “establishment” is pushing hard for a candidate.

What I witnessed was a completely fair, open process.

Both Hirsh Singh and Rik Mehta worked the room, both were cordial to everyone, including me. Natalie Rivera was there, she worked the room, perhaps not as aggressively as Singh and Mehta, but she put in the effort.

The rules were simple. Incumbents got to speak first, which made sense, it got CD2 and President out of the way quickly. Candidates were given five minutes to speak. The order for the Senate race was the order in which the candidates signed in.

First up, Congressman Jeff Van Drew spoke for President Trump as the President did send a letter to the county party informing them he would like the opportunity to take part in the process to win the organization’s slogan.

After speaking on behalf of the President Van Drew spoke for himself. I have to be honest, every time I hear him speak he sounds more and more like he’s been a Republican all along. No doubt he’s more conservative than the last Republican to hold the seat.

Then came the Senate candidates. First up was Rivera, then Singh and Mehta went last. Tricia Flanagan was invited, but wasn’t there.

Committee members voted by secret ballot. According to the rules a candidate needed a majority to win on the first ballot. The first round of voting was 18 Mehta, 13 Singh and five votes for Rivera. That put Mehta one shy of a majority so they went to a second round between the top two vote getters. Both Mehta and Singh did work the room in an attempt to secure additional votes for round 2. The tally was 21 Mehta and 15 for Singh. Candidates and one member of campaign staff were allowed to observe the vote count.

That’s it. A straightforward process with no way for anyone from the “establishment” to influence the results.

Kudos to Salem County GOP Chairwoman Linda DuBois for running a fair and open process and a huge thank you to the person who baked the chocolate chip cookies, they were awesome.

Good job candidates – you kept things professional.

The award for longest drive for someone who didn’t have to be there goes to Jack Ciattarelli. The guy is everywhere!

Finally, while Salem has no line, winning the convention gives Mehta the organization’s slogan, his 12th convention win and he regains the momentum going into this week’s contests.

US SENATE: Singh Won Ocean. Does This Mean We’re Done With The ‘System Is Rigged GOP Establishment’ Garbage?

Hirsh Singh

Big surprise the other night! Someone other than Rik Mehta won a county line in the Republican U.S. Senate race. Despite Mehta having the recommendation of the screening committee Ocean County Republicans voted 106-77 to give the line to Hirsh Singh. New Jersey Globe reports Natalie Rivera received 5 votes and Tricia Flanagan couldn’t even get someone to second her nomination.

As Mehta was winning 11 straight county lines other candidates and/or supporters of the other candidates were complaining about the process and blaming the “GOP establishment” for their candidates’ losses.

Hopefully, with Singh’s win in Ocean County the whining and crying about the process and the “GOP establishment” is over. Singh relied on help from the establishment to win the line. Don’t take my word for it, here is what the Asbury Park Press had to say:

Currently, a power struggle is underway within the party between Frank B. Holman III, the current chairman, and its longtime kingmaker and former chairman, George R. Gilmore, who still retains the loyalty of many in the party’s leadership.

Gilmore, a master vote-counter, who resigned his formal leadership role after he was convicted in April of three federal tax counts, had worked to wrangle votes for Richter and Singh ahead of Wednesday night’s convention. Gilmore also accurately predicted to a reporter the outcome of the convention more than a week ago.

Former Ocean County Chairman George Gilmore “worked to wrangle votes for Richter and Singh…”

Folks, you can’t get much more “GOP establishment” than George Gilmore in Ocean County!

I couldn’t help noticing no one is crying and whining about the “GOP establishment” after the Ocean County convention. I suppose things are different when you learn how to work the system and win a convention WITH THE HELP OF THE ESTABLISHMENT.

To be fair, because the Asbury Park Press went out of its way to put it out there that Gilmore collected votes for Richter and Singh I got a comment from Singh. Singh assured me, by voice and by text, that he “did not work with Gilmore or Holman. This was from just hard work.”

I’m not going to take issue with the Asbury Park Press or Singh and leave it to the readers to decide.

My issue is with all the people who have been crying “the system is rigged” and complaining about the “GOP establishment.” I want to know what happened to all the crying, whining, complaining people now that someone other than Mehta has won a county line.

I’ll wait!

Note: Hirsh Singh called me at 12:27PM to clarify that “the Singh for Senate campaign Ocean County effort was led by Joe Rullo who beat Chris Russell and did not work with any establishment or county chairman.”

CAMPAIGN ACTION: Meissner Drops Out. Patterson Still Campaigning, But No Longer Taking Part In Screening/Convention Process

The US Senate race is down to four candidates after multiple sources reported that Stuart Meissner has dropped out of the race because he says his “narrow path to victory in the Republican primary by seeking the party lines in each of the counties does not afford us a chance to success in such efforts based on recent events.”

I’m assuming “recent events” are Rik Mehta being 7 – 0 in securing county lines.

Meissner’s exit leaves frontrunner Rik Mehta, former gubernatorial and congressional candidate Hirsh Singh, former independent Senate candidate Natalie Rivera and the other former independent Senate candidate Tricia Flanagan still in the race.

Moving on to CD2, based on a report by New Jersey Globe it appears CD2 Republican congressional candidate Bob Patterson is still running, but not competing in the screening/convention process.

I’ve been on the road a lot lately and haven’t been able to pay attention to what was going on in the campaign world, but as usual the New Jersey Globe report was right. Based on the number of times it was forwarded to me, Patterson made it crystal clear he is not taking part in the process via a campaign email.

I get it, Patterson is angry and who knows, maybe it’s a good idea for him not to compete in the county conventions and focus on getting on the ballot and run his primary race, but maybe it’s a bad idea.

The reason I think it is possible that Patterson’s strategy of skipping conventions is a bad idea is that it really is difficult to rig a county convention.

In a previous blog post I used the 2008 Murray Sabrin example that even if you believe the deck is stacked against you that with hard work you can still win conventions. Don’t forget, more recently never-Trumper Bob Turkavage won the Cumberland County convention in 2018, I’m not suggesting there was a fix, just that he worked hard and pulled off a win, I think people are still trying to figure out how he did it.

I don’t know if Patterson’s strategy is a good one. I know it’s hard to believe, but I’m not judging. Patterson did use the word “apparatchik” in his email, so I’ll give him bonus points for a large vocabulary.

We’re still a long way from June 2nd and a lot can happen between now and then. I’ll just sit back and watch.