Gilmore had fundraiser for Myers with Al Leiter

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Yes, there were hard feelings after the brutal 3rd District Republican congressional primary campaign between Medford Mayor Chris Myers and Ocean County Freeholder Jack Kelly. And yes, Ocean County Republicans weren’t immediately lining up to donate to Myers’s cash strapped general election campaign.

But George Gilmore, the powerful chairman of the Ocean County Republican Party, said that he hosted a fundraiser for Myers two weeks ago with former baseball star Al Leiter, who grew up in Ocean County but lives in Florida.  Leiter is on deck for a distant future political run, possibly for statewide office.

If the fences between the Ocean County and Burlington County Republicans weren’t mended a month ago, they are now, according to Gilmore.

“I know you guys want to keep spinning that there’s this major split between Ocean County and Burlington County and Myers, and listen, we had our squabbles during the primary process,” said Gilmore. “The primary is over and now we’re all marching forward together to get Chris Myers elected.”

Despite being a historically Republican bastion that plays a roughly equally important role as Burlington County in the 3rd District, Ocean County has never had a native son Congressman. But once the large bloc of Republican voters there sees the choice between John Adler and Chris Myers, Gilmore said, there will be no contest.

“When one looks at the choices facing the people of Ocean County, ot’s a choice in the 3rd Congressional District between Chris Myer -- an individual who carries the Republican principles that (retiring Rep.) Saxton utilized to help Ocean County as well as the rest of this district so well, versus John Adler, who one would argue is the most liberal Democrat in the state Senate,” said Gilmore. “I think people in Ocean County are looking for fiscal conservatism, for the size and scope of government to be reduced versus increasing government programs.”

Gilmore said that Ocean County Republicans have always supported Congresmen from outside the county if they earned their support, and pointed to their repeated endorsements of Saxton, who’s from Burlington County, and U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, from Mercer.

Gilmore, however, stopped short of saying that he regretted backing a primary campaign against Myers while Adler went unopposed, raking in huge sums of cash from national Democrats while the Republicans slugged it out.

“I don’t want to say wasted. We spent $800,000 that we didn’t have to spend. It’s regrettable that $800,000 was spent against Republicans rather than being spent against Democrats, yes,” said Gilmore. “Would it have been a much better situation for the Republican candidate for the 3rd Congressional District not to have a primary? Absolutely.”