Letters from our In Box…

A few of the dozens of correspondence we get each week…

Message: Please contact me about working together.

Message: I noticed your article about xxxx xxxxxx. I beg someone in your organization to call me about a recent article he wrote...

Message: My wife and I are registered Dems in NJ. However we want to switch our party to REPUBLICAN. Can you help us with that? Thanking you in advance for your assistance.  Semper Fi
 

Message: Below is a letter I would like to submit (in an ideal world) anonymously. I tried submitting it in the contact box on your site but used an old email address of mine that I no longer can access, unfortunately it was hacked. I live in Bergen County and am tired of the status quo but if I speak openly about it I will be persona non-grata in the GOP there and the usual attack dogs will come after me the same way they do to everyone who disagrees with them… Thank you.

The Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO) is in dire need of a course correction. Newly elected BCRO Chairman Jack Zisa is himself a dose of much needed change from the past backstabbing and infighting that resulted in an underfunded and understrength county party. Yet the BCRO Executive Director Giancarlo Ghione is a holdover from the failed Chairmanship of Paul DiGaetano, specializes in creating bad blood within the party, has failed to deliver on any of his promises, and should be let go.

First and foremost is the fact that Ghione was involved in the divisive intra-party county war that ousted former Chairman Bob Yudin. That Yudin was replaced would not be an issue except for fact that the wild promises of the DiGaetano boosters made went unfulfilled. Despite assertions that they would turn the party around after the coup led in part by Ghione, the BCRO has continued to come up short on the county level and in the state legislature races.

Second, and related, is the fact that Ghione appears to fight internal battles within the party, in its organizations and primaries, with a vigor he does not bring to bear in general elections. Can anyone say Ghione, or the small cabal of mostly Young Republicans he leads, fought for Republicans in the last general elections as hard as he fought against fellow Republicans in the past primary? Has he and his clique ever applied the same energy they used on booting Yudin, electing DiGaetano Chairman, or preventing Steve Lonegan from getting the congressional nomination, on getting a Republican elected mayor, assemblyman, freeholder, or other elected office?

Third, Ghione may one day put the BCRO in the same legal danger as he has the NJ State Young Republican Federation which is under investigation by the National Young Republican Federation board and is endanger of being de-chartered. Approximately 2 years ago Ghione, and co-conspirators xxxxxxxxxxx  and xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, decided to play fast and loose with the rules in order to take over the State Young Republicans. Despite doing so, he and his cronies have failed to hold a single State Young Republican Committee meeting in further violation of their legal obligations.

There are many more accounts of Ghione's penchant for negative, divisive, and possibly illegal actions. He has led his small group of political soldiers to be loyal to him over any party organ and the party itself. His type of self-aggrandizement shouldn't be tolerated by the BCRO and if unaddressed will ultimately harm it. For all those reasons, Ghione should be let go from his job as BCRO Executive Director.

NOTE:  This letter was submitted by an individual who requested that we publish it anonymously.  We have his contact information, but have complied with his request.  While Mr. Ghione is a public figure, as executive director of the BCRO and his other titles, two other individuals mentioned in this letter might not be.  We have erred on the side of caution and have blacked out their names.  This website takes no position on the opinions expressed regarding BCRO Executive Director Ghione, and we of course offer him the use of this website to publish his own response or correction to this letter, or indeed his thoughts on any matter he wishes to address.