GOP flashpoint: DeCroce v. Biondi

Not to be outdone by Democrats embroiled in a senate leadership battle, the lower-house Republican forces of Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) and caucus adversary Assemblyman Pete Biondi (R-Hillsborough) spilled their own brand of backdoor drama into the open this week.

"We should be focused on the gubernatorial contest and getting Chris Christie elected," said Biondi, a sentiment expressed by none other than his GOP caucus rival, DeCroce ally Assembly Minority Whip Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield).

In the meantime, it's a cloakroom imbroglio, Republican style.

A critic of DeCroce, conference leader Biondi has tag-teamed with retiring Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham Twp.) in an ongoing effort to dislodge DeCroce from a leadership job he's held since 2003. The two allies believe DeCroce has sleepwalked through his tenure, and it's time for a change.

"This is not a covert operation," said Biondi, who insists informal caucus polling proves discontent with the minority leader. "We need a message of smaller, smarter government, less taxes and no intrusion of government into our personal lives or personal property. ...We have not increased our caucus numbers since Alex has been there. We're stagnant."

Amplifying the attack, Merkt fired off a letter to DeCroce, dated today, which PolitickerNJ.com obtained.

"Many members of the caucus, including me, have been disappointed in the results of your tenure as leader," wrote Merkt, who gave up his Assembly seat for a third place finish in the GOP gubernatorial primary. "They recognize that our caucus has lost members, credibility, and respect over the past six years; they do not wish to see this trend continue....Critical leadership functions, such as raising adequate campaign funds, recruiting qualified Assembly candidates, and developing a winning campaign strategy for the caucus, have suffered on your watch. Our caucus is now, for all intents and purposes, politically irrelevant."

Merkt took specific aim at Assembly Republican Executive Director Rick Wright.

"This weakness stems in part from your having over-delegated authority to your executive director, whose limitations are evident to caucus members," Merkt wrote. "However, as leader, you bear personal responsibility for the dubious decisions he has made on your behalf."

"Leaders should be judged based on the results they achieve, not their good intentions," added he retiring legislator," Merkt said.  "Your results after six years as Assembly Republican Leader do not make a plausible case for your remaining for yet another term.  It is time for you to gracefully step aside and yield leadership to a new team that can guide the caucus to a more successful future."

But DeCroce's allies say they have written confirmations of support from at least 25 caucus members, and dismiss Biondi's play as the flame-out of a GOP fringe player in Merkt coupled with Biondi's own rattled apprehension of Bramnick wielding sufficient support to dethrone Biondi as conference leader.

Contacted today, Bramnick said, "We are focused on re-electing members, electing new members, and electing Chris Christie governor.

"I fully support Alex DeCroce for leader," Bramnick added, "And I would absolutely be interested in serving as conference leader - with Alex." 

Bramnick's allies deny that the minority whip was gearing up to knock down Biondi, and say it was Biondi who rumbled first about going after DeCroce. With that gauntlet down now, they insist, everything's in play.

"I've been all over the state with Alex working for Chris Christie and the team, we weren't concentrating on an intra-caucus argument," Bramnick said.

Merkt said Bramnick and DeCroce allies were responsible for going public with the rivalry.

"For me, the final straw was yesterday's leak to a reporter in an effort to head off a challenge to your leadership," Merkt wrote to DeCroce. "At a time when you should be concentrating on 1) electing Republicans to the Assembly, and 2) electing Chris Christie as Governor, someone in your inner circle talked to the media, distracting from the governor's race and publicly airing divisions within the Assembly Republican Caucus."

Shrugging off the low grade civil war as an unfortunate distraction, Biondi contends he would be a stronger conservative Republican voice than DeCroce has been, and that Bramnick could be in the event that DeCroce left the Assembly to go to a Christie administration (if Christie beats Gov. Jon Corzine on Nov. 3rd) or if the shame of a Christie loss (in the event Corzine prevails) convinced the caucus that DeCroce should leave his post.

"It's not about personalities, it's about leadership and right now we don't have a message," said Biondi.

Sources close to DeCroce say the minority leader has committed in writing to caucus members that he does not intend to go the Christie administration.

But even if he were forced out, his allies say Biondi's delusional if he believes he would be able to summon more caucus support than, for example, DeCroce ally Bramnick.

Biondi forces fume that Bramnick comes not only from the same legislative district as Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr., (R-Westfield), but from the same town. The idea that both lower and upper house leaders would occupy virtually the same backyard makes no sense, they argue.

"My entire life I've voted for who I have confidence in - not geography," Bramnick shot back. "If I had confidence in Pete and someone else from Hillsborough, I'd vote for them - but I'm with Alex. If that's their best argument, they'd better go back to the drawing board."