Ronald Reagan's breaking news

Monmouth Republican blogger Ronald Reagan is reporting that Sheriff Joe Oxley will not run for re-election.

UPDATE

The APP has confirmed the news first reported by blogger Ronald Reagan.

More wrangling in Freehold

From today's APP: Barham, Little tangle at meeting

and the editorial: A medal for mettle

I'll refrain from my usual flip snarkiness. It's total unnecessary at this point. The tempers in Monmouth County have boiled to a level I didn't think possible. There's no need for my little blog to fan any flames.

Everyone breathe.

Fun with ELEC

It's been a long time since I've fiddled around with my trusty highlighter and ELEC documents. So I figured now was as good a time as ever to embark on some early spring cleaning.

I'll be diving into the reports of Monmouth's ruling Republican Party and publishing what I find. Do contractors still contribute in spite of pay-to-play regulations? Are PACs and municipal organizations being used by the county GOP to navigate around pay-to-play regulations?

Let's start with the easy stuff.

Middletown

The Middletown Republican Committee received $7,200 from T&M Associates on October 2, 2006.

How this is not a blatant violation of the state's Pay-to-Play law is beyond me. This nifty little chart from ELEC tells me: "At the county-munic level, contributions of over $300 made to candidates holding office at the time of the awarding of the contract and to the political party committee to which such a candidate belongs in the year preceding the award of a contract are illegal."

T&M is once again Middletown engineering firm in 2007.


Aberdeen

I have to thank an anonymous tipster for pointing out the following information, which all bore true in the reports.

The Aberdeen Republican Committee received $7,200 from T&M Associates on October 23, 2006. (It is completely legal for the Aberdeen GOP to receive money from T&M since there are no Republicans currently serving on the Aberdeen Township Council and therefore couldn't vote on an engineering appointment for the town.)

Curiously, the Aberdeen GOP contributed $5,000 to the Monmouth GOP on October 24, 2006. That's right - the day after T&M contributed over $7K, $5K was wheeled over the county.

I say "wheeled" because T&M is an engineering firm for the county. They could not legally contribute to the Monmouth GOP (even though that didn't seem to stop the firm when it came to doing business in Middletown). Sending the money through the Aberdeen GOP's account essentially cleans the money, allowing T&M and the county GOP to violate the spirit of the pay-to-play regulations, though not the law.

Also of note is a contribution of $2,000 by Gibbons, Del Deo, Griffinger & Vecchione on November 11, 2006. (Gibbons, Del Deo is the county's bond counsel. Aberdeen Republicans can legally take money from Gibbons, Del Deo, but the county GOP cannot.)

Why might Gibbons, Del Deo be contributing to the losing Aberdeen GOP after the Nov. 7, 2006 elections, you might ask? I'd be curious to know that as well. What we do know is that the Aberdeen GOP was generous enough to put down a $3,000 deposit on December 23, 2006 for the county GOP's 2007 Lincoln Day dinner at the Addison (formerly the Garden Manor).

Interestingly enough, the contributions by Gibbons, Del Deo and T&M were the only major contributions received by the Aberdeen GOP last quarter. And, aside from $1,000 for what appears to be a municipal event, the only major expenses by the Aberdeen GOP were the Lincoln Day deposit and the contribution to the Monmouth County GOP.

Monmouth Photo Blog

This blog has been around for awhile, but I just stumbled on it the other day.

It's got some great photos of Monmouth County: http://monmouthdailyphoto.wordpress.com

Here a blog, there a blog, everywhere a Monmouth GOP blog

Ronald Reagan is posting again here: http://monmouthrepublicans.blogspot.com/

And there are two new bloggers:
http://datruthsquad.blogspot.com/
http://concernedmonmouthrepublican.blogspot.com/

So is Monmouth Mitt Romney central or something?

A lot of familiar Monmouth faces and sides of faces in this video (via TVJersey.com:



So what does it say about Mitt Romney's presidential campaign if his base is the rapidly imploding Monmouth GOP?

It doesn't seem likely that Romney will win the nomination (or even make much of a dent in Jersey where even Republicans veer pretty left) so what's with the joined-to-the-Monmouth-hip phenomenon?

Will we see some interesting New England campaign contributions flowing into Monmouth coffers in the near future?

As the Monmouth GOP continues to implode...

I came across an interesting forum string at NJ.com posted by what seems to be party insiders.

One poster suggests that the recent attacks on Freeholder Little come from the highest ranks of the party and that there's a movement to boot Little off the ticket and put Andrew Lucas on.

On the other side, a supporter of Adam Puharic's posted the following:

"Adam hasn't taken a moment off since the election and is doing everything he can to ensure that the party gets back to where it should be. Seeing problems before they happen and taking necessary action requires a man of integrity and a willingness to do what is right." [emphasis mine]

What in this wacky madcapped world of Monmouth politics will happen next?

-The ex-Courier aristocrat

Dear APP, what is going on?

PoliticsNJ's rapid post-Kornacki decline brought a tiny little tear to my eye.

The catastrophe that the APP has become leaves me holding my head in my hands. This goes beyond Gannett's tendency to wave an arbitrary wand and go after whichever candidate or party suits their editorial fancy.

I've bit my lip for a while but I can't stand it any more: where in God's name has the APP's reporting gone? The only real news digging I've seen from the paper in the past few months has been coming out of Howell, but that's basically been it.

I mean Middletown is the biggest town in the APP's Monmouth coverage area and I haven't seen a story that wasn't a recycled press release come out in God knows how long. When does it become no-biggie to virtually ignore the biggest town in your coverage area? You don't see the Jersey Journal ever ignoring Jersey City or the Times of Trenton closing it's eyes to Hamilton, so why is it such a burden for actual reporting to get done in Middletown?

So is this just me whining or has anybody else noticed the same thing?

Will Seward's election analysis

Will Seward over at More Monmouth Musings offered his explanation for why Andrew Lucas suffered a setback at the polls:

With no incumbents in the race, McMorrow's victory can be chalked up to name recognition, given that this is her second time out. The APP's endorsement no doubt helped, but was not decisive, as Anna Little's victory proves. The Republicans ♥ BARBARA McMORROW movement, rumored to be supported by both supporters of Joe DiBella and Lillian Burry, also was a factor. Not that the signs made a difference in and of themselves. They didn't. The signs were demonstrations that Republican support for Andrew Lucas was weak and divided.

That Lucas's support was weak and divided is only in part his own doing. He was selected, by one vote, by the reformers of the party, but then embraced the old guard in the chairman's race and continued to dance with both sides throughout the summer and most of the fall. He failed to identify himself as a reformer to an electorate that is still angry over the culture of corruption exposed by Operation Bid Rig. His weak endorsement on Anna Little's position on the county counsel fiasco came too late to be considered anything but pandering. He tried to cruise in by offending neither side. Not a bad strategy for a rookie, but not enough to carry the day in this environment.

Monmouth RastaMan's analysis

The enigma that is Monmouth RastaMan offered this election analysis:

1. Middletown – The strongest GOP town other than Wall Township was in for a rude awakening. Voters rejected the local candidate and decided to be almost split and vote for a Democrat. Well that is bad and who ever was running that local campaign must be one of the worst political operatives in the state of New Jersey. This is like a Democrat losing in Newark. Which never happens! So hats off to the campaign manager and Mr. Sodon for running a terrible campaign.

Fred Niemann and Jack Morris sitting in a tree...

And there comes a time when everything is illuminated...

From today's Asbury Park Press article:
IN TINTON FALLS: Project needs stormwater system overhaul
Development terms made tougher; group won't sue

"Fred Niemann, a lawyer representing Edgewood [Properties], could not be reached for comment."

Edgewood Properties is Jack Morris' company. Jack Morris is a business partner of former Middlesex Democratic boss and future inmate John Lynch. Jack Morris has also been identified as the unnamed developer listed in an indictment brought by the U.S. Attorney's office against an elected official; in the indictment the unnamed developer is accused of bribing the elected official via campaign contributions, including wheeled campaign contributions.

Jack Morris has not been charged by Chris Christie's folks over at U.S. Attorney's office, though the bribery-via-campaign contributions accusation was made public in the indictment several months ago.

For those who forget, Jack Morris and his companies have given over $50,000 in campaign contributions to Chris Christie family friend state Sen. Joe Kyrillos. Former Matawan mayor and current Freeholder Deputy Director Rob Clifton also received money from a PAC that had Morris as a top contributor (some might consider that particular contribution wheeled money and Clifton has since returned it).

Morris also contributed to the Monmouth County GOP and to one of those illustrious legal-but-ethically-questionable Mon. Cty. GOP PACs during the time Fred Niemann was chair.


And no, the Jack Morris-Aberdeen/Matawan
Train Station issue is not going away.

If the Dems can't win this year...

With the APP launching an investigative piece a week before the election, they are posturing for a Democratic victory. My prediction is that the APP will wind up endorsing the Democratic freeholder candidates.

Whatever stutter steps the Democratic campaign initially had, the trickle-down Democratic-sweep effect everyone's predicting this year coupled with the generous boost Gannett has been giving the Monmouth Dems pretty much sets the Democrats up for a win in the county. Then again, that's what everyone said about last year too, so I could be wrong.

I think it's kind of cheap that the APP is putting Anna Little in a position to have to answer for the actions of other freeholders. But then again, the other freeholders made a HUGE, boneheaded move by reappointing Malcolm Carton.

Let me hear your 2006 predictions, folks.

A note on that 'It's a small world' ride...

Turns out I graduated Haverford College with a Republican running for council in Manasquan: John T. Michals.

Haverford is a REALLY small school. Our average graduating class is about 300 happy vegan hippies. I would probably be considered one of the more conservative students, and that's really not saying very much. (Even with all the hippie-dom, it's an awesome liberal arts school with a great history.)

So I don't know what I'm more shocked by: that there's already someone from the class of '04 running for office in Monmouth or that a Republican went to Haverford.

Anywho, best of luck to John T. Michals and any 'Ford entering the political fray.

Monmouth County Post

The Courier's Matt McGrath goes hog-wild on Dan Gallic's new publication:

We at The Courier have one particular complaint to note. The paper stole our advertising disclaimer verbatim from our index. So, far as to mention that "The Courier is not responsible for errors."

The owner and publisher of the newspaper remained a mystery throughout Monday, until we received a call from former Monmouth County GOP Executive Director Dan Gallic.

Gallic said he was returning a call from us, but no one made a call to him, just to the Monmouth County Post earlier that day. The answering machine did not have an outgoing message for the number we dialed so we hung up the phone. I, in turn, called Gallic to apologize for any confusion because no one from our staff remembered calling him, but he said it was about the Monmouth County Post.

Mystery solved.

Who the heck is funding the Monmouth County Post anyway? Is Gallic associated with the Monmouth Republicans still? I know Abe, Will and most of the moderate Republicans were happy to see him go, but is he gone, sort of gone, we're-telling-the-press-that-he's-gone, or what?

Moran column

The Star-Ledger's Tom Moran has a column about those crazy state Democrats.

However, the quote that made me laugh out loud was the one about Monmouth:

"In Monmouth County, where [Republicans] are in control, they've given us as much corruption as the Democrats. It's Hudson County with lawns."

The lawns part killed me.

Monmouth Dems kiss 2006 goodbye

Those wacky GOP bloggers have caused some internal party strife on the other side of the aisle.

Are Inzerillo's unfiled reports an issue? Sure. Are the couple grand left unreported by Inzerillo a bigger deal than the $94,000 quarterly report the Monmouth County Democrats left unreported for a substantial period of time? I really don't think so.

Old unpublished article

A dated Journalista: I wrote the article below circa the summer of 2004 (hence the McGreevey and Kushner references).

I shopped it around town and Al Sullivan used some of my info in an article he wrote for the Hudson Reporter. Al worked on the story for a couple of weeks but we wound up getting scooped by the Ledger. (The link to Ledger story has expired, but WhiteHouseForSale.org sums it up pretty well.)

The $144,000 in donations from the Christies to the New Jersey State Republican committee from 2001-2004 were generally ignored newspaper-wise for the juicier fact that "Since the summer of 2001, Todd Christie (Chris Christie's brother) and his wife have donated more than $400,000 to various GOP coffers. In comparison, the couple had donated less than $12,000 in the time before Chris began lobbying for the U.S. attorney's job." (WhiteHouseForSale.org)

Todd Christie came into $100 million in 2000 when Goldman Sachs purchased his firm, Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, hence his ability to donate large sums of money to the state and national GOP. However, his time at Spear, Leeds & Kellogg has since drawn some controversy. In April 2005, Todd Christie was one of 20 folks charged civilly by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for using "their positions with the New York Stock Exchange to enrich themselves and their companies at the expense of investors".

The New York Times' editorial from April 16, 2005 included this interesting bite: "We can't help but note that Todd Christie, the brother of Christopher Christie, the United States attorney for New Jersey, was among the 20 stock traders charged. But while 14 of the traders were charged with criminal fraud, Mr. Christie, a major donor to Republicans and the youngest brother of a prosecutor who has specialized in rooting out political corruption, faces only civil penalties and fines. ... Mr. Christie ranked fourth in the S.E.C. complaint among the 20 traders who earned the biggest profits at customers' expense. The top three were indicted, as were 11 traders lower down. We don't know whether this is a case of how nice it is to have big brothers in high places. But it doesn't look good."

Anyway, here's the thing I wrote in the summer of 2004. It wasn't written for Courier; it was a piece I was shopping around. There are a number of stylistic things I would change if I had written it today, but I'm not going to start nit-picking now.

Chris Christie's money trail

By JACKIE CORLEY

New Jersey's U.S. Attorney, Christopher J. Christie, has achieved a reputation as the Garden State's chief crusader for justice, racking up convictions against corrupt politicians and party fundraisers.

Recently, Charles Kushner, Governor Jim McGreevey's top Democratic money-maker, felt the sting of a Christie-led investigation. Kushner pled guilty in federal court on August 18 to 18 charges, including retaliating against a federal witness, violating campaign finance laws and filing false tax returns.

Christie has also been a vocal opponent of New Jersey's notorious pay-to-play political tactics in which campaign contributors are rewarded with jobs, tax breaks and other lucrative deals. Christie called such practices a hidden tax on residents.

While investigating shady political deals and fighting pay-to-play campaign donors, however, Christie has failed to discuss the $144,000 in campaign contributions he and his family have made to the New Jersey State Republican Committee (NJSRC).

Christie learned on September 10, 2001 he would receive the Presidential appointment and was sworn into office January 17, 2002. Early on, many New Jersey politicians questioned the selection, citing Christie's lack of experience: Christie had never tried a criminal case before becoming New Jersey's U.S. Attorney.

Despite early criticism, Christie struck out on such a fierce campaign of battling corruption that his name is currently being touted in Garden State Republican circles as a possible gubernatorial candidate in 2005 -- or earlier, should McGreevey bow to GOP pressure and resign immediately so a special election can take place this November.

New Jersey Republicans certainly have a lot to be grateful for in Chris Christie, and not just in the investigations that have whittled McGreevey's poll numbers down these past few months.

Campaign finance records from the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) reveal that before 2001, Christie made two contributions to the NJSRC, totaling a mere $800. From 2001 until 2004, however, Christie and his family donated $144,000 to the committee.

In May and June of 2001, at a time when state Republicans were still deciding who would become New Jersey's next U.S. Attorney, Christie and his family, including his brother Todd Christie and his sister-in-law Theresa Christie, donated $74,000 to the NJSRC.

A month after Christie took the oath of office for U.S. Attorney, his brother donated another $20,000 to the committee. Todd Christie would continue the trend in 2003 and 2004, donating $50,000 to the NJSRC during that time.

Todd Christie was the chief executive of Goldman Sachs' New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) specialist arm, Spear, Leeds & Kellogg. On March 21, 2003 he was nominated to the NYSE's board; in less than a week, he was ousted from his position at Spear, Leeds & Kellogg and withdrew his nomination to the exchange's board. No public explanation was given for the sudden departure.

In addition to the direct contributions from the Christie family, business associates of Christopher and Todd Christie have donated generously to the NJSRC and its chairman, State Senator Joe Kyrillos (R-Monmouth) over the past few years.

Members of Christie's former law firm, Dughi, Hewitt and Palatucci, and Todd Christie's former investment firm Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, contributed $11,000 to the New Jersey State Republican Committee in 2001.

On October 21, 2001, 17 employees from Spear, Leeds & Kellogg donated a total of $14,000 to Kyrillos' campaign coffers. During his three-year tenure as committee chair, Kyrillos has received $30,850 from the Christies and their associates for his local campaigns.

While state U.S. Attorney positions are appointed by the President, leading state party officials hold the cards as to what names get sent to the White House, according to an aide at the Governor's Office who would not release his name.

Timothy A. White, political director of the NJSRC, denied that the committee has any influence over federal appointments, saying the NJSRC focuses its efforts strictly on campaigns at the federal and municipal.

However, Michael Drewniak, public affairs officer for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark, acknowledged that closed-door politicking influences how the state's U.S. Attorney post is chosen.

"Honestly, there's a lot of deal making involved," Drewniak said.

When asked directly if state politicians and organizations have a say in the appointment, Drewniak said, "I don't want to go there."

Puharic should take a closer look at his associates

In Bayshore Journalista chairman opinion news...

Former Freeholder Ed Stominski and Mel Hood are wonderful men. However, they do not have the votes to win the chairmanship. Their base of votes will pull from Jim Giannell's, and thus elect Adam Puharic chairman. It will be unfortunate if their legacy becomes that of spoilers in one of the most important elections the Monmouth County GOP has faced.

And then the news that Adam Puharic may be considering Scott Broschart as MC GOP executive director. Jim Purcell reported it first, but I heard it from a different and highly reliable source as well.

I find this greatly disturbing for a number of reasons. One of which happens to be allegations about Broschart's campaign financing, which were investigated by the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office, though Broschart was never charged with any crime or violation.

But there is also an incident I never put out there in the public record that I feel compelled to reveal now.

During the time I was a reporter, I received a tip that Broschart had allegedly been stalking two Democrats who were possibly in a relationship.

I readily admit to a certain level of deception in what happened next, but I felt it was necessary to uncover whether stalking had or had not occurred. I called Mr. Broschart under the auspices of having an interest level in the nature of the two Democrats' relationship.

Mr. Broschart said he had done "some investigating" into the matter and sounded pretty eager to show me what he had in possession.

The next day Mr. Broschart came to Courier with photographs of the woman's car at her home as well as two letters disparaging the individuals. Mr. Broschart said he had not taken the photographs or written the letters himself, but had received them in the mail from an anonymous source. I found this difficult to believe, as did others at the office.

The two individuals involved -- who were not in elected office -- suffered other indignities by a correspondent or correspondents who remained anonymous. The nature of these would turn your stomach, but for the sake of preserving the identity of these individuals, I can't go into specific details.

This story is pretty well known among party leaders.

If one of Adam Puharic's first decisions as GOP leader is to select Broschart as executive director, the party is on the road to total disaster. And it speaks a great deal to Adam Puharic's fitness as a potential chairman that he would allegedly associate with such people.

On losing one's blogging inspiration... and getting it back

I got to hand it to the Monmouth Republicans lately. As Fred's reign waned and it looked like grassroots reform was actually on the horizon, you guys got down right boring to blog about. And the Monmouth Democrats? Well, when they arrive out of their perpetual press paralysis perhaps they'll be interesting to blog about some time soon.

But I've found my blogging inspiration again, folks, with visions of future ELEC reports dancing in my head.

Given Adam Puharic's statements to PoliticsNJ, the TRT and the general county bees buzz-buzzing around, it looks like we're in for Fred redux (and I somehow think that Gibbons, Del Dio will be reaping the bond benefits into infinitum. Municipal marinas for everyone, darlings!).

There's an inherent elitism in dismissing the recent grassroots voting by the county committee in favor of a return to executive committee-only voting, and I find it greatly disturbing. The only ones who stand to benefit from such a position are those whose mortgages and mansions are tied up in county and municipal jobs.

And the only way to effectively support such a system is a return to questionable fundraising tactics, of the developers and engineers and attorneys and contractors paving the way and having the say so.

But it looks like this is the road the Monmouth GOP is destined to stay on. The reform-minded will vote for Ed Stominski and Jim Giannell, effectively splitting their vote and diffusing any chance of actual change.

I respect Ed Stominski and Mel Hood a great deal but I believe Jim Giannell has proven he can organize the party and bring solid candidates to the forefront and should be the county's next chairman. I believe that Ed Stominski and Mel Hood can serve a vital role in fundraising for the party and should be a part of any new executive committee.

However if some compromise isn't reached among Ed, Mel and Jim, I believe all three will be left out in the cold, as well as a significant portion of the dedicated county committee members.

But if my premonition is correct and the committee goes for Fred redux, I have a feeling I won't be at as much of a loss for my future Monmouth blogging.

Giannell's in the race

Giannell enters race for Monmouth County GOP chairman (APP)