PRESS RELEASE: NJ Federation of Republican Women Chairwoman Calls on Hirsh Singh to Denounce Singh Campaign’s Assault on Opponent’s Wife

There is a video circulating online today featuring former beauty pageant winner Hirsh Singh’s campaign consultant King Penna and Jack Ciattarelli’s wife Melinda. We aren’t going to share the video here, but will have more to say about it on the blog this evening. The bottom line is, true to form, Penna decided to pick on a woman because he’s too weak to go at a man. Reader’s may recall Penna once caused problems during a Morris County GOP Zoom meeting shouting at a woman and later, sources confirmed, threatened to destroy Morris GOP Chairwoman Laura Ali.

As to the video currently circulating the NJ Federation of Republican Women Chair released a statement on the matter. Her statements follows:

Today, the Chairwoman of the New Jersey Federation of Republican Women, Angelique Scholl, called on perennial, losing candidate Hirsh Singh to publicly denounce his campaign’s staged attack on the wife of his opponent during the gubernatorial debate.

“Once again, the Singh campaign has hit a new low.” said Chairwoman Scholl. “Spirited debates between candidates are a good thing. But I was horrified this morning when I watched that during the debate the Singh campaign barged into Mrs. Ciattarelli’s green room to launch a pre-planned and secretly recorded verbal assault on their opponent’s wife." 

“That Singh supporters have since tried to use the incident to publicly embarrass Mrs. Ciattarelli is even more offensive,” Scholl continued. “Conveniently clipped from the post circulated online by Singh supporters this morning was his campaign operative’s initial obscenity-ridden tirade against not only Mrs. Ciattarelli’s husband, but also her family and her children - including a son on active duty in the military. Frankly, I applaud Melinda for her restraint.  She had every right to go back at Mr. Penna and put him in his place.  Some of our members I spoke to this morning said they would have needed to be restrained."  

“Hirsh owes Mrs. Ciattarelli and her family an apology and should immediately denounce this cowardly attack," concluded Scholl. “Sadly, Hirsh knew what he was getting when he hired Penna.  In fact, no one should be surprised given Hirsh's own past of slandering women online, joking about rape, and calling women bitches.  The Republican Party can't have trash like this represent us in November."

Now That He’s Skipping A Debate Maybe Singh Can Finish Taking Down The Christmas Lights

Hirsh Singh

By now you all know that former beauty pageant winner Hirsh Singh has pulled out of the second gubernatorial debate.

Just reading that sentence makes me want to insult Singh with a joke about how someone should have pulled out around 36 years ago, but I’ll leave it alone.

But we should try to figure out the real reason Singh isn’t taking part in the second gubernatorial debate. Not the reason Singh is giving, it’s just another one of the lies he enjoys telling because a bunch of keyboard warriors still tend to believe anything he says.

The former beauty pageant winner would have you believe the reason he is not participating in the second debate has to do with “medical freedom” and mask mandates. As usual that’s untrue!

Unless every single political reporter in the state is a liar, the fact is the second debate is cancelled because Singh refused to comply with rules he had already agreed to.

Of course, Singh wants you to believe reporters and bloggers are liars!  His keyboard warriors have been online attacking Matt Rooney over at Save Jersey accusing him of being paid to post negative stories about Singh. I’ve known Rooney since at least 2009, trust me, no one is paying him to post negative stories about Singh. It’s just another lie!

The truth is Singh has been looking for a way to get out of the debate since last week after Jack Ciattarelli’s campaign started hammering Singh over his support of former President Barack Obama’s Cairo speech.

When this attack started I wrote, “Personally, I like the new Ciattarelli campaign ad because I have been sharing a screenshot of Singh’s social media post about Obama’s Cairo speech for over two years, since Singh’s party establishment backed campaign for Congress.”

Shortly after Republicans were reminded of Singh’s past praise of Obama’s Cairo speech they were then reminded that the former beauty pageant winner was a fan of Michelle Obama’s 2016 Democratic National Convention speech.

It was only after Singh’s love for the Obamas came to light that he began whining about the second gubernatorial debate.

Ciattarelli’s web ad reminding voters of Singh’s love of Obama’s Cairo speech launched on May 17. The Michelle Obama speech screenshot surfaced shortly after. Singh started whining about the second debate after those screenshots surfaced:

Look at the date, May 20. After voters were reminded of Singh’s love of the Obamas! It is fact that Singh’s setup to get out of the debate began after attacks he has no response for.

What Singh still has going for him is that keyboard warriors and a few media types are still buying the crap he sells. For example, it was pointed out in 2017, Singh’s first run for governor, that he still lives with his parents, in 2018, when the establishment was backing his congressional campaign, it was pointed out that Singh still lives with his parents. When Singh ran for US Senate last year, it was pointed out that Singh lives with his parents. Never once did Singh utter the words that he lived with mommy and daddy was cultural. Suddenly, in 2021 he says living in his parents’ basement is cultural. And, people believe it!

But, the truth is Singh does not care about tradition. An appearance on One America News Network yesterday proves the point.

As you can see in the screenshot above, Singh still has his Christmas lights up. Tradition calls for the lights to be removed by Twelfth Night, or for Catholics the day after Epiphany. Don’t believe me, here it is from the Chicago Tribune:

As every Chicagoan knows and obeys, the Church of England insists we take down Christmas decorations on Twelfth Night — which was either January 5 or 6, depending on whether you started counting on Christmas Day or the morning after. A lot of traditional Catholics say that January 7 (the day after the Epiphany) is the correct day for tree removal.

Obviously, Singh cares nothing about tradition! So don’t buy the “it’s cultural” crap.

But, if nothing else, based on the tress outside the window in the screenshot, if that is Singh’s parents’ house, it looks like they let him out of the basement.

At least skipping tomorrow night’s debate gives Singh time to finally take down the last of his Christmas lights.

Could This Guy Be Murphy’s Willie Horton?

Phil Murphy

Last week I saw headlines about a guy charged with killing two people at a South Jersey birthday party. I ignored those headlines!

Then I saw a Burlington County Times headline that blared “Prosecutor criticizes early release of inmate now charged with double homicide.” I stopped ignoring the headlines and read in the Burlington County Times article:

In the wake of a court hearing Wednesday, Prosecutor Scott Coffina criticized a policy that allowed Paden to be released early as a pandemic precaution.

The policy allows sentences to be shortened when an inmate has less than a year remaining to be served.

Paden was released from a sentence, imposed in June 2018, for aggravated assault and a weapons offense, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Coffina said the policy allows inmates to be freed "without any individualized consideration of the crime for which they were convicted or the risk that they will resume their criminal activities."

He said a risk assessment "should be done for people who actually have been convicted of a crime, especially a violent crime."

Coffina said what many of us were thinking back in October 2020 when Governor Phil Murphy triumphantly signed the bill to release inmates in the name of COVID-19.

You may recall, Murphy and his allies made sure the “first wave” of inmates were released after the election. From NJ.com:

Gov. Phil Murphy signed a first-in-the nation bill Monday reducing sentences in a prison system with the highest coronavirus death rate in the country — a move that will release at least 2,000 inmates beginning next month.

The law (S2519) takes effect in 16 days, meaning the first wave of releases will happen the day after Election Day. About 2,088 people are expected to be freed Nov. 4, according to an estimate from the governor’s office. Around 1,000 more will also be released ahead of schedule in the following weeks through January, sources previously told NJ Advance Media.

While many of us complained this was a bad idea, state Senator Michael Testa reminded us in a press release last week that he and others warned Murphy this was a bad idea. From Testa’s release:

“The Governor has blood on his hands again,” said Testa (R-1). “Murphy’s handling of the COVID era has been an unmitigated sham. We warned the administration last year that releasing massive amounts of prisoners during a global pandemic would endanger the safety of New Jersey residents. Sadly, this tragic killing proves our point.

“The killer should have remained locked up where he couldn’t hurt anybody, but Murphy chose to open up the cells and let criminals go free,” continued Testa. “It was a recipe for disaster, and everybody knew it except the Governor and his team.

Apparently, Murphy and his people chose to ignore those warnings. More from the above mentioned NJ.com story:

More than 800 of those set to be released the day after Election Day will be on parole, including more than 240 who do not have a safe place to live, according to Murphy’s office.

“We’ve been working closely with our department of corrections and the state parole board, as well as nonprofits and advocacy groups to ensure that inmates will have access to housing and social services,” Murphy lawyer Parimal Garg said Monday during the governor’s coronavirus press briefing in Trenton.

Murphy added that housing was one part of a broader effort to help people reenter society.

“You cut down dramatically on recidivism, you cut down dramatically on life’s challenges if you’ve got a plan that’s wholistic, including where somebody’s gonna live,” Murphy said. “Recidivism” is when somebody convicted of a crime breaks the law again.

But the NJ.com piece ends by showing there was no real plan to ensure those released had a place to live:

The majority of people set to be released Nov. 4 will not be under state supervision, meaning more could be at risk of homelessness. Reentry organization, churches and other groups have been preparing for weeks to help.

Testa is right! Murphy choosing to let criminals go free was a recipe for disaster.

I’ll go a step further and say anybody with half a brain knew it was a recipe for disaster!

But, here’s the thing, Murphy isn’t the first Democrat governor in our nation’s history to just let dangerous criminals walk the streets. Former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis also thought it was a good idea – until he didn’t after 175 stories ran in the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune about the Massachusetts furlough program.

Just for background, Massachusetts passed a weekend furlough program for jail inmates in 1972, the program excluded first-degree murders. Some idiot complained and eventually the Massachusetts Supreme Court decided first-degree murders had to be granted furloughs because the law did not specifically exclude them. The state legislature fixed that by passing a law that excluded first-degree murders, then Dukakis vetoed the new law because it “cut the heart out of efforts at inmate rehabilitation.”

Those of us who are old enough to remember know the Massachusetts furlough program became an issue in the 1988 presidential campaign.

Shockingly, the issue was first raised by a Democrat running in the primaries against Dukakis. Then-Senator Al Gore used the weekend furlough issue in a debate before the New York primary.

After Dukakis won the nomination Republicans were happy to finish what Gore started. Thus, the country was introduced to Willie Horton, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole was let out of prison for the Massachusetts weekend furlough program. Horton decided not to return from his furlough and went to Maryland where he committed assault, armed robbery and rape. Maryland Judge Vincent J. Femia sentenced Horton to two consecutive life terms plus 85 years and refused to return Horton to Massachusetts saying, "I'm not prepared to take the chance that Mr. Horton might again be furloughed or otherwise released. This man should never draw a breath of free air again.”

While Massachusetts only allowed prisoners to go free on weekends and Murphy threw caution to the wind and just let prisoners go free, both Dukakis and Murphy were both warned releasing dangerous criminals was a bad idea – Dukakis by a newspaper and Murphy by elected Republicans – neither listened and the end result was disaster.

So, it is more than fair to ask if Ronny Paden, Jr., the alleged shooter in the recent Edgewater Park murders, who was released from prison in November 2020 under Murphy’s policy to stop the spread of COVID-19 among prison inmates is Phil Murphy’s Willie Horton.

Or put another way, will Republicans make Ronny Paden, Jr. Phil Murphy’s Willie Horton?