Why would Pappas & Marks choose a Liberal group to host a debate?

Harry Pappas is the former chairman of the Union County Democrat Party machine. Martin Marks is the former Mayor of Scotch Plains. They are candidates for two Assembly seats in a six-person race in District 21.

Some have said that Pappas and Marks are acting in concert with far-Left Democrat candidates Lisa Mandelblatt and Stacey Gunderman. They say that Pappas and Marks want to skim enough Republican votes away from incumbents Jon Bramnick and Nancy Munoz so that the Republicans lose.

The latest thing to raise an eyebrow or two is the debate that Pappas and Marks agreed to participate in with the Democrats. Pappas and Marks say they’re “conservative” – but why would anyone calling themselves “conservative” agree to a debate hosted by a Liberal group like the League of Women Voters?

The League of Women Voters (LWV) hasn’t hosted a Presidential debate since 1984, when Democrat Walter Mondale faced-off against incumbent Republican Ronald Reagan. That’s because the LWV isn’t only concerned about getting more people out to vote – it takes ideological positions on controversial issues.

The League of Women Voters is a pro-abortion, anti-Second Amendment, pro-illegal immigration, pro-ObamaCare organization. Here is just a sampling of what you will find on the group’s website:

League Joins Amicus Brief in Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission: The case involves a bakery in Colorado which refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple citing religious objections. The brief that the League joined argues that allowing the bakery to refuse service violates public accommodations laws and opens the door to discrimination of other groups.

League Urges U.S. House to Pass Clean Dream Act: Members of the League's Lobby Corps will be visiting with members of the U.S. House urging passage of the Dream Act of 2017. The legislation will ensure that the 800,000 "dreamers"--young immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. by their parents--can establish legal residency within the country.

We believe that the proliferation of handguns and semi-automatic assault weapons in the United States is a major health and safety threat to its citizens… Strong federal measures to limit the accessibility and regulate the ownership of firearms by private citizens is necessary for consumer safety.

The League of Women Voters United States (LWVUS) and the League of Women Voters of Oregon (LWVOR) filed an Amicus Brief in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Juliana et al v. United States. The Leagues continue to support the 21 young people from across the United States who have filed a landmark constitutional climate change lawsuit against the federal government, via the Eugene, Oregon- based organization, Our Children's Trust.

“Besides Planned Parenthood, the bill has drawn opposition from groups such as the Pennsylvania Medical Society, the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Pennsylvania League of Women Voters.”

To mark the 41st anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade, the League of Women Voters of Texas guest blogged on the new abortion restrictions in their state.

So why are Pappas and Marks participating in a debate hosted by such a biased Left-wing organization? If they truly are conservatives, like they claim, they will demand a neutral host. But if they are shills for the Democrats… well, we will know soon enough.

Martin Marks is a strange kind of “conservative”

The NJGOP is in an existential fight for its very survival.  The fighting confidence of its flag officers has been shattered and its field officers are rattled.  Nothing they have tried has worked.  Too often they are saved by chance and the victories won are by means less unconventional.  The commanders at NJGOP HQ need to re-think their assumptions, come up with a new strategy, and re-tool their tactics.

Conversely, morale is high amongst the troops.  In some ways, it has never been higher.  Thousands of registered Republicans and ideological conservatives, libertarians, and Trumpian populists engage the machine Democrats and socialist left each day on social media.  They do this on their own – without prodding or direction from their leaders.  They are keen for battle and ready.

What the NJGOP lacks is an NCO class.  It lacks on-the-ground leaders in towns, neighborhoods, parishes, churches, gun-clubs, PTAs, taxpayers’ groups, and community associations to take the message from the generals to the troops, focus them, and then get it done. 

So the job of any thinking conservative who genuinely cares about the future of the Republican Party and the conservative movement in New Jersey is to help mold that new strategy, the new message, and then to motivate and train a new corps of grassroots NCOs.  This is what must be done and we need everyone focused on doing it.

But people are naturally selfish and cannot be relied upon to set aside their ambitions to do what so desperately needs to be done.  Even in the midst of a crisis, some will continue to  grab for whatever remains to satisfy a swollen ego. 

And so we have the madness of Martin Marks, of late the Mayor of Scotch Plains and someone who likes the activity of running for higher office.  Having failed to achieve it as a Republican, he has announced that he will run as an Independent or Third Party candidate.  Yes, you heard that right:  Unable to accept defeat, he seeks annihilation. 

The annihilation of such a once promising candidate would be sad.  He could be an asset to his party.  But it is worse than that, because Martin Marks intends to run against the Prime Sponsor of the Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Prevention Act, Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz, and in doing so Martin Marks will almost certainly ensure her defeat by a machine Democrat or Democratic Socialist. 

In consciously choosing this path – to be on the November ballot, ripping votes out of the heart of the Republican coalition, to the benefit of some Leftist – Martin Marks will most assuredly and consciously be participating in the election of some rabidly pro-illegal immigration, pro-human trafficking, pro-criminal, pro-abortion, pro-Planned Parenthood, anti-law enforcement, anti-Religious Liberty, anti-Second Amendment, anti-First Amendment, anti-Bill of Rights, anti-Constitution scumbag.  Why would any thinking person who claims to be a “conservative” do this?

In stories printed elsewhere, Martin Marks has claimed that he is a supporter of President Donald Trump and that he is running because others within the NJGOP have expressed their concerns about the President’s tone and policies.  Some have noted, for instance, that the President’s tax cut plan passed last year ended up putting congressional Republicans – and, by extension, the NJGOP – on the wrong side of the property tax issue.  There is no disputing that the Democrats seized upon it to campaign to the right of Republicans on property taxes.  In New Jersey, that is deadly for any Republican candidate.  And it was.

It should be noted, that Martin Marks himself was a critic of Donald Trump, even after Trump was assured the nomination.  Marks went out of his way to write a column in SaveJersey that pissed all over Donald Trump:

“I am not happy that Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party for President. In a field that at first rivaled the size of your typical Kentucky Derby, Trump was my last choice. “ (Martin Marks)

Having said that – which, of course, is his right – why would Martin Marks then use others’ concerns with Donald Trump as an excuse to assure the election of a machine Democrat or Democratic Socialist?

There is a job for Martin Marks to do and it is an important one.  If he wants to show that he can motivate and lead, there is something that he can do this year that will unite Republicans and conservatives around him.  Recent changes to the law now allow candidates for school board in New Jersey to bracket together and run as a team.  They don’t run as Democrats or Republicans, these are non-partisan elections, but they can run as pro-taxpayer or pro-traditional values.

People like Martin Marks can be leaders in the NJGOP fightback by going school district by school district in his county and recruiting like-minded people to run for school board.  Then he can provide direction and guidance to see them through to victory… his victory and a victory for our movement.  Instead of destroying, he will be building.  

The school board is everything.  Every day we hear people complain that kids don’t know the Constitution, they don’t know their history, geography, the process of government, and their responsibilities as citizens.  Well take the school boards over and teach them!  Children only know socialism because they have only been taught socialism.  That’s our fault… but we now have this great tool to recruit, run, and take it back.  What we lack are people with a working knowledge of campaigning who are willing to set aside their own egos and spend a cycle or two building the party.  After 2021, the districts will all be different again and new opportunities will be present, only now you will have built something. 

Conservatives seek to C-O-N-S-E-R-V-E the institutions that are the vessels of our values and hopes.  The Republican Party in New Jersey is in an existential fight for survival.  For better or worse, it is the best political institution we have to conduct the fight from the right.  Don’t work to weaken it.  Don’t kill it.  If you do, your soul will regret the part you played in doing so.