Republican National Convention

GOP State Chairman Tom WilsonMINNEAPOLIS - A floor blanketed with white faces at the Republican National Convention doesn’t mean the GOP - or their presidential nominee - lack a universal message, argues State Republican Chairman Tom Wilson.

Coming off their convention in Denver last week, Democrats urged observers to note the contrast between their ethnically diverse party and the Republicans.

"When you have a quota system, it guarantees the result you saw in Denver," Wilson shot back. "Look, you have one million Republicans in New Jersey, and 52 New Jerseyans sitting on the floor, representing them. These 52 people are there day in and day out doing the hardcore party activism.

"Our hardcore party activists are predominantly middle class, white New Jersey," Wilson added.

MINNEAPOLIS - It was a case of lights, camera, no-show last night at the City of Orange Council meeting.

Upset that Mayor Eldridge Hawkins wants to tape meetings without their approval, four council people refused to attend the regularly scheduled Tuesday night meeting.

"As the mayor, he has to come through the council," said veteran Councilwoman Tency Eason, one of the governing body boycotters, along with Council President Lisa Perkins, Councilman Rayfield Morton and Councilman Elroy Corbitt.

"Enough is enough," said Eason, who lost to Hawkins in Orange’s mayoral election in May.

"He got a letter from the council president telling them to cease and desist," Eason said of Hawkins. "We apologize but we can’t allow the mayor to just go off and tape a council meeting without our approval."

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.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- State Sen. Sean Kean said he hasn’t thought about being tapped for Lieutenant Governor, but he’d be interested in the prospect if it arose.

“I would certainly entertain it. I haven’t thought too much about it, but it would be interesting,” he said.

Kean (R-Wall Township), a freshman state Senator, said that he’s “advocating and urging” U.S. Attorney Chris Christie to run for governor next year.

“He hasn’t talked to me about it, he hasn’t asked me,” said Kean.

Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce at the breakfast meeting this morning.: Politicker photo 

MINNEAPOLIS - Last Friday, two veteran legislators sat in a Somerville restaurant and talked about the future of the Republican Party in New Jersey, and mutual efforts to gain the majority in a state that George Bush year-by-year drove farther into the arms of the Democratic Party.

With a political enemy out there that is bigger and better organized, Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany-Troy Hills) wanted to make sure the party stays focused on the Democrats, and puts down those internal uprisings that might distract the GOP from that objective.

He gave Assembly Conference Leader Pete Biondi (R-Somerville) a simple piece of news regarding his interest in a fourth, two-year term as minority leader.

"I’m running again," he told Biondi, and then asked if he could depend on Biondi’s support.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Mark Meyerowitz had a brief glimmer of hope last year.

He was the only Republican legislative candidate in District 27, running for Assembly against a ticket headed up by Senate President Dick Codey – the most popular elected official in the state. But then Codey’s running mate, Mims Hackett, was arrested on corruption charges. And for the brief period that Hackett remained on the ticket, it looked possible that Meyerowitz could actually win.

That didn’t last, of course. Hackett resigned, and the party settled on Mila Jasey to replace him. She beat Meyerowitz by more than a 2-1 margin.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Hunterdon County Republican Chairman Henry Kuhl said this morning that the sheer amount of votes his county will deliver for Republican congressional candidate Leonard Lance will easily trump Democrat Linda Stender’s huge fundraising advantage.

“I don’t know the actual number of votes, but we’ll deliver about 70% of the number of votes for Leonard,” said Kuhl, who expects Hunterdon to vote about 65% for both Senate candidate Dick Zimmer and presidential candidate John McCain.

The 7th district is comprised of Hunterdon, Union, Somerset and Middlesex Counties – the last of which makes up just a small portion of the district.

“Fundraising is very difficult whatever you are: a candidate, county organization or municipal organization. Everybody has fundraising problems,” said Kuhl.

MINNEAPOLIS - Republicans' build-up of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in the hours before her Republican National Convention speech tonight, prompted State Democratic Chairman Joseph Cryan out of his foxhole in New Jersey.  

"Sarah Palin's is a Bush conservative disciple, pro-gun and pro-life, whose position on issues is the opposite of mainstream New Jersey," Cryan said in a release. "The picture of her with the AK-47 says it all, and her selection will help Barack Obama win New Jersey this November."

MINNEAPOLIS - It was all about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at the GOP breakfast meeting this morning.

She’s speaking tonight at the Republican National Convention, and State Party chairman Tom Wilson has brought in Republican strategist and New Jersey native Kelly Anne Conway to pump up the troops.

Owner of The Polling Company, KellyAnne Conway, Conway objected to the press coverage of the Palin story, and press coverage of politics in general.

"They’ve asked ridiculous questions like who you would rather have a beer with," she complained. "We have had a campaign focused in large part on like-ability rather than leadership."

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – Former Gov. Christie Whitman said that it’s a sad state of affairs that she was the last New Jersey Republican elected statewide.

“This is kind of sad. I’m the last Republican to carry New Jersey. That’s not where we want to be as a state, and we have an opportunity to change that,” she said at the state’s delegation breakfast this morning.

Whitman is far from the most popular Republican in New Jersey, but she received a standing ovation after her remarks, in which she said that she’d never experienced so much enthusiasm at a Republican convention and that John McCain could potentially lead Republicans back to statewide control.