Phil Morin

Yesterday, Union County Republican Chairman Phil Morin faxed a letter to the president and the communications head of Union County College to ask why they were making an exception to their own policy in order to host Bill Clinton’s rally for Democratic Congressional candidate Linda Stender tomorrow.

So far, he has not heard back from either of them.

So today, Morin fired off an email, this time to Trustee Edward J. Hobbie, complaining that the college’s staff was avoiding him.

“In your capacity as a member of the Board of Trustees and vice chair of the Board of Governors of the College, I am requesting that you inquire why they are ducking me and the media on this issue and why they are allowing partisan political activity on campus when the facility use rules and regulations specifically prohibit it,” wrote Morin (Hobbie’s brother Mark responded immediately to Morin, saying that he would try to reach Edward).

Union County Republican Chairman Phil Morin has challenged the right of congressional candidate Linda Stender to use Union County College’s facilities for her rally with former President Bill Clinton on Saturday, and further charged that the school was discriminating against Republicans.

In a letter to the college’s president, Thomas H. Brown, Morin said that hosting the rally was a violation of the school’s facility rental guidelines.

"I was taken aback today to discover that Union County College was hosting a rally promoting one Democratic candidate to the exclusion of her Republican opponent, Leonard Lance.  To my knowledge, there was never any offer of this event being an “open public debate of political issues” as this rally was apparently orchestrated without contacting the Lance campaign,” wrote Morin.

Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) in Summit on Friday.: Politicker photoSUMMIT - Coming off a train station rally here for presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer and state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) convened a town hall meeting at the high school, where they brandished their fiscally conservative credentials in a room of about 50 voters.

Now in a race with Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) to represent the 7th Congressional District, Lance the veteran legislator underscored his tenacity fighting bloated government, including the administration of disgraced former Gov. Jim McGreevey.Former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer addresses voters in the Summit High School Library as GOP organizer Kelly Hatfield looks on: Politicker photo

"I am the ‘Lance’ of Lance versus McGreevey," the senator said of his suit against the former administration to curb borrowing to balance the state budget.

The New Jersey Supreme Court in 2004 allowed McGreevey to borrow $1.9 billion, or nearly 7 percent of what was then a $28 billion budget, but forbade the governor from borrowing in the future.

Talking to Summit voters Friday evening in the high school library, Lance took pride too in noting how his proposed Constitutional amendment to ban borrowing without voter approval will appear on the Nov. 4th ballot.

Union County Republicans have chosen Union Township Board of Education President Linda Gaglione to challenge Assemblywoman Annette Quijano in the 20th Legislative Direct.

Gaglione unsuccessfully challenged State Sen. Ray Lesniak last year, getting 4,478 votes to Lesniak’s 9,760.  She was unanimously chosen to challenge Quijano at a county committee meeting on Tuesday night in Kenilworth. 

Quijano was recently sworn into office after being narrowly chosen by the Union County Democratic Committee last month to replace Assemblyman Neil Cohen, who resigned after child pornography was allegedly found on his legislative office computer.

Union County Republican Chairman Phil Morin today asked that funds for Assemblyman Neil Cohen’s reelection campaign be frozen, along with a joint campaign account Cohen held with Assemblyman and Democratic State Chairman Joe Cryan.

“As the investigation of child pornography allegations apparently continues against former Assemblyman Neil Cohen and election laws mandate that a special election be held this November as a result of the legislative vacancy, the Union County Republicans are calling for both his individual and joint legislative campaign accounts with Assemblyman Cryan to be frozen until the investigation is complete,” said Morin in a statement.

If the allegations against Cohen prove true, Morin said, he Cohen and Cryan should contribute the funds to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Union County Republican Chairman Phil Morin said he takes no delight in the troubles of Democratic Assemblyman Neil Cohen, who’s under investigation for child pornography that was allegedly found on his legislative office computer.

But knowing  that a resignation from Cohen could come soon -- which would bring about a special election in the 20th Legislative District come November -- Morin does have a few potential Republican candidates in mind. 

Union County Republican Chairman Phil Morin will likely go unchallenged tonight for re-election. 

Former freeholder candidate Patricia Quattrocchi had considered challenging Morin late last year, but decided not to run based on health issues and a cautious sense of encouragement about the direction of the party.

“I think we’re kind of on the way to making some changes and getting the organization united,” she said.  “I’m just relieved at this point.  Let’s just go forward. I’d love to see the republicans statewide come out and support the candidates elected on primary day.  And to the committee people, come out and do your job.”

There’s still no shortage of party leaders scrambling to find alternative candidates to Joe Pennacchio and Murray Sabrin in the Republican Senate primary, but Pennacchio’s support has not seemed to waver the counties where he’s already won the party line.

“I don’t see that that will change very many peoples’ minds,” Henry Kuhl, the GOP Chairman in Hunterdon County, said. “I think that the candidate Sabrin, in my opinion, would need to properly campaign and sell his ideas to people to be successful rather than take something up that’s 17 years old.”

Assemblyman Jon Bramnick, Assemblyman Eric Munoz, Sen. Thomas Kean, and U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson soak in one of the speeches.

WESTFIELD - The word going into that first round of voting at the Union County Republican Convention on Saturday was that former Summit Councilwoman Kelly Hatfield and Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks would require a second showdown.

"This is going to a runoff between the top two candidates," said John DeSimone, commissioner for the county Board of Elections as he waded into the crowd of delegates. And that’s exactly how it went down at Westfield High School, where Hatfield eventually prevailed over Marks with 60% of the vote in the Union County GOP’s pre-primary battle for the line in the 7th District Congressional race.

WESTFIELD - State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio beat businesswoman AnneState Sen. Joseph Pennacchio Evans Estabrook at the Union County GOP Convention here today, winning 191 votes to Estabrook's 151 votes in their Republican pre-primary contest for U.S. Senate.

"They think you have to be advertising, but you have to be out there and that's what we've done," said Pennacchio. "We knocked on doors, we called elected officials. We walked Clark, Summit and Cranford."

Pennacchio and Estabrook went head to head in a second round of machine voting after neither candidate earned the requisite 50% plus 1 in the first round, while eliminating economics Prof. Murray Sabrin.

First round voting went as follows: Pennacchio gained 178 votes, Estabrook 170 votes, and Sabrin, 17 votes.