Ronald Reagan

WEBBER FOR ASSEMBLY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 26, 2007 CONTACT: (908) 267-1613

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT . . .

"Assembly candidate hopes for Reagan magic," Fred Snowflack, The Daily Record, February 25, 2007

"Jay Webber's first Ronald Reagan Day was held in a Parsippany firehouse and drew about 50 people at most. His most recent tribute to "Dutch" was held last week at the more spiffy Zeris Inn in Mountain Lakes and drew almost 200. What’s going on? Is fondness for Reagan increasing among Republicans as time passes, or is Webber's stock on the rise?

One part of that question will be answered in the June primary where Webber is seeking an Assembly nomination in the 26th District.

Larry Casha, his primary opponent, made it to the Reagan celebration. That seemed a bit odd, but Casha said simply, "I'm here to support Ronald Reagan."

. . . .

Speaking of the Casha-Webber campaign, Casha on Friday boldly released another roster of supporters. This list included only 16 names and was considerably smaller than one made public a few weeks ago.

For Casha’s sake, we hope this list was vetted a little better than the last one. The other list included two officials who turned out not to be Casha supporters, one man who was dead and one supporter identified as a man who was really a woman."

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Paid for by Webber for Assembly

Locricchio Calls for Abolishing "Puharic Plan"
Freeholder Anna Little Says Plan "Borderline Unconstitutional"

Date: For Immediate Release
Contact: Joe Locricchio
Patriot0328@aol.com

After a recent Asbury Park Press editorial rebuking the Monmouth County GOP plan to charge candidates $1,000 or more to have a background investigation conducted on themselves before a "vetting process" is conducted by hand-picked supporters of the County Chairman, State Senate candidate for the 12th District and Manalapan Township Committeeman Joe Locricchio confirms his plan to shun the biased and questionable plan, and says it must be abolished.

"From the start I have been against Mr. Puharic's hand-picked selection process. The Asbury Park Press compared the Puharic plan to a Communist concept used in the former Soviet Union. That is not what the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan stands for. The Constitution of the United States allows for representatives to be chosen by all the people, not by a back-room vetting process decided by a dozen of Puharic's loyalists. I call on Mr. Puharic to allow the people to make their own choices."

On Monday, Monmouth County Freeholder Anna Little announced her concerns for the Puharic Plan, calling it "questionable at best and borderline unconstitutional," and the plan to charge candidates at least $1,000 for a background check "unusual."

Locricchio says Mr. Puharic in one breath has called his plan "voluntary" and "recommended," however has stated "Only those approved by the screening committee may participate in a Republican county convention."

"Mr. Puharic calls this 'voluntary,' but if you don't submit to the Puharic plan or pay to be a part of it, you can't be a part of the election process. I call on Mr. Puharic to remove what has been called his 'Orwellian scheme' and place the election process back in the hands of the people."

When Gerald Ford decided to run for a full term as President in 1976, he picked Thomas Kean, the Assembly Minority Leader and the son of a former colleague (Robert W. Kean served with Ford in the House from 1949 to 1959( to run his New Jersey campaign operation. In his contest for the Republican nomination with Ronald Reagan, Ford won every New Jersey delegate. (Reagan opted not to run in the New Jersey primary, and a group of his supporters ran for Delegate under the "Former California Governor" banner. One New Jersey delegate, Thomas Bruinooge of Bergen County, wound up voting for Reagan.) In the general election, Ford won New Jersey over Jimmy Carter by a 65,035 vote margin.

Five years later, Ford returned the favor when he endorsed Kean, who was one of eight candidates for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. The former President traveled to New Jersey on April 2 to campaign for Kean and headline a fundraiser on his behalf. Former Presidents rarely become involved in contested primaries; Dwight Eisenhower declined to support his former Secretary of Labor, James Mitchell, until after he won the 1961 gubernatorial primary.

WEBBER FOR ASSEMBLY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 20, 2006 CONTACT: (201) 602-4468

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT . . .

Eugene Liss, a former two-term Mayor of Little Falls who served as U.S. Marshal for New Jersey under President Ronald Reagan, has emerged as a leading candidate for Passaic County Republican Chairman. Liss has the support of outgoing GOP Chairman Michael Mecca, several Republican Municipal Chairs, and six GOP Mayors. He will face Wayne Mayor Scott Rumana.

LITTELL CALLS FOR NAMING ROUTE 15 AFTER RONALD REAGAN
Will Push Senate Version of Assembly Bill to Honor Late President

Senate Republican Budget Officer Robert E. Littell (R-Sussex/Morris/Hunterdon) announced today that he will introduce legislation to name State Highway Route 15 after President Ronald W. Reagan, who died two years ago today at age 93 after a battling Alzheimer’s disease for nearly a decade.

Former McGreevey press secretary Paul Aronsohn says he has raised about $200,000 (with about $130,000 cash-on-hand) for his campaign against Republican Congressman Scott Garrett -- which puts him a long way off of his goal to spend $2 million. Aronsohn has spent most of the last year raising money (he has had several high profile fundaisers headlined by Demcorats like former Clinton Press Secretary Mike McCurry, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and former Ambassador Richard Holbrooke) and is still not on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's target list; the DCCC Chairman, Rahm Emanual, came to New Jersey last week to help Linda Stender, who is running in the seventh district against Michael Ferguson, not for Aronsohn.

One of the legendary scams in Bergen County politics came in 1984, when Republicans were considering candidates to take on newly-elected Democratic Congressman Robert Torricelli. Torricelli had won the seat two years earlier, when he ousted three-term GOP incumbent Harold Hollenbeck by a 53%-46% margin. The political climate in 1982 (and congressional redistricting in the 9th) favored Democrats and Torricelli leveraged the national contacts he made working for Vice President Walter Mondale and running Jimmy Carter's 1980 re-election campaign in Illinois to help him raise $266,000 -- about $70,000 more than Hollenbeck had.

Ronald Reagan's popularity heading into the 1984 election, and a new congressional map (the '82 redistricting plan was tossed by federal judges), gave Republicans reason to believe Torricelli could be beaten. The 9th district went strongly for Reagan, giving him a 59%-41% win over Mondale -- a plurality of almost 47,000 votes.

Party leaders had several attractive candidates, including newly-elected Assemblyman William "Pat" Schuber and Bergen County Sheriff William McDowell, but decided to go with a unknown insider, Neil Romano, who had served as Executive Director of the New Jersey Republican State Committee in the late 1970's. Romano appeared before the Bergen GOP screening committee and sold them on his ability to raise money -- saying that wealthy family members and politically connected friends would provide him with a hefty campaign warchest -- the type of money a challenger would need to take on Torricelli.

The problem for the Bergen GOP is that they were scammed. Romano had practically no capacity to raise money and the personal wealth he pledged just wasn't there. The lethargic Romano raised just $89,166 -- giving Torricelli an almost 6-1 edge in fundraising. Torricelli won a second term with 63% of the vote, with Romano running more than 60,000 votes behind the top of the ticket.

Bergen County Republicans are fighting over Ronald Reagan, with both sides invoking the name of the late 40th President on a nearly daily basis Republican County Chairman Guy Talarico has a new e-mail address -- Chairman@BCRO-ReaganTeam.us -- and a recent press releases titled "Returning to Reagan" and "The Reagan Republicans Speak Out" both featured large color photographs of the Gipper. Not to be outdone, the rival faction that is backing Kathleen Donovan for County Executive, has touted support from Thomas Bruinooge, who was the Co-Chairman of the 1980 Reagan campaign in New Jersey. And Talarico's rival in the June contest for County Chairman, Alan Marcus, may be the true Reagan heir: he wrote a personal check to the Reagan campaign before the contest for the '80 GOP nomination was over.

President Ronald Reagan's legacy was Republican unity.
Let's remember that.

As a life long conservative I was outraged to read the recent letter “Returning to Reagan, the Caliguire Ticket,� by BCRO Chairman Guy Talarico. Talarico desperately exploits President Reagan’s name as he attempt to scare Republicans into thinking this is a Conservative vs. Liberal countywide race. This divisive approach is a slap in the face to all Republicans who hold true the memory and legacy of one of the greatest presidents to hold office -- Ronald Reagan.

Most Americans have their own special memories of Ronald Reagan. His class, strength and stoic leadership in good times and bad made so many of us feel like we were all one, all Americans. I often recall his inspiring quote “I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead�.

To use Ronald Reagan’s name to divide Republicans clearly violates President Reagan’s basic principles as he always appealed to our best hopes, not our worst fears and our confidence rather than our doubts.

The upcoming primary in June is about change and moving the Republican Party in the right direction. We can no longer continue to lose to the Bergen County Democrat machine. We have had great candidates and ideas but for the past few years we have failed the voters of this county by not providing our county and local Republican candidates with the necessary financing and organization to get our message out.

This year that can change. The Donovan ticket -- proven winners -- will return Bergen County to the “days of -- lower taxes and a smaller government that will promote prosperity and opportunity for all.� The last time the Republicans won in Bergen County was when Kathe Donovan and Lisa Randall headed the ticket!

This letter is in no way intended as a personal attack on Chairman Talarico. I know him and I know that his intentions were sincere in the past. But sincerity did not win elections.

I do agree with Chairman Talarico on one point: “We Republicans must give the voters the option to vote for genuine change in Bergen County for Victory in 2006�. He’s right, but that change is a change in the status quo. We must all join forces and support the Donovan ticket in June; it’s our only hope for a bright dawn ahead in Bergen County.

Sincerely I remain,

Rita Kirk
Ramsey NJ

Dear Bergen County Republican:

Party Chairman Guy Talarico and his hand picked candidates are trying to paint the supporters of Kathe Donovan, Jae Kim, Lisa Randall and Ed Trawinski as liberals. I support the Donovan Team, but calling me a “liberal� is ludicrous.