Will the County Lines prevail? (and keep the GOP a less-diverse party)

By Rubashov

The GOP establishment in New Jersey likes to talk about “diversity” but in reality their idea of diversity is a package of the same cultural and economic attitudes wrapped in a different skin color or gender or sexuality. The same tired old wine, but in new bottles.

Real diversity isn’t based on surface differences but on different perspectives -- especially on economic realities. A Trenton lobbyist with dark skin isn’t very different from one with light skin. A female corporate executive is much the same as her male counterpoint or, for that matter, a transgendered corporate executive.

In a notable exchange during the last gubernatorial campaign, Jack Ciattarelli and Phil Murphy went back and forth about the goings on at their respective kitchen tables – forgetting that their kitchen tables have more in common with each other than they do with the average kitchen table in New Jersey.

In its by-laws, the NJGOP recognizes the perspectives of just a handful of groupings, noting that the following “may be invited upon invitation of the State Committee and participate in discussions, but shall not have the right to vote… the President of the New Jersey Federation of Republican Women, Inc.; the Chairman of the Finance Committee; the Chairman of the Black Republicans; the Chairman of the Republican Hispanic Assembly; the Chairman of the Republican Heritage Groups; Chairman of the College Republicans; Chairman of the Teen-Age Republicans; Chairman of the Senior Republicans; State Chairman of the Republican Lawyers Association of New Jersey; Chairman of the New Jersey Republican Asian Assembly.”

Designations by gender, race, ethnicity, and age aside; the chairmen representing these individual groupings could all share the same economic perspective – the same “kitchen table” if you will – shared by Jack and Phil. The only employment designation is that of lawyers – hardly representative of an average perspective anywhere in the world.

Nationally, there is a huge populist upheaval within the electorate, with groups detaching from former loyalties and up for grabs. Is the NJGOP ready to knock on their doors and sit down with them to share the vantage from their kitchen tables?

Some of the NJGOP’s designations just don’t make sense. A “Republican Asian Assembly” makes about as much sense as a Western Hemisphere Assembly would for a political party in India – lumping in U.S. expats with those of Brazil, Chile, Haiti, and Canada. Try figuring out what that “kitchen table’ would look like?

Blue-collar trade union workers have an economic perspective the NJGOP should consider with the same importance they give to lawyers. Working mothers have a unique economic perspective (and there are a lot of them, so if you are going to pander…). Parents of school children have an education policy perspective that fueled last year’s upsets in Virginia. Those concerned with medical freedom have a health and civil rights policy perspective. Wouldn’t it be more practical for the NJGOP to have standing organizations to represent groups that are motivated by these issues of the day?

Missing from the current debate over firearms is the divide by economic class – with wealthy suburbanites wanting to get rid of something they don’t need for personal protection because their communities are safe and well-policed. But if you are in a less than safe neighborhood, with rising violent crime and a demoralized police force, perhaps partially “defunded”, with a police response time that would ensure your untimely death if it came to it, then the perspective from your kitchen table might be a bit different. Wouldn’t it serve the NJGOP to have them represented as a group that could “participate in discussions”?

The county party “line” gets in the way of this. The “line” is designed to replicate what exists. Illegal everywhere else in the world, in New Jersey it is a failsafe to ensure permanent establishment hegemony. It prevents experimentation and diversity. It ultimately makes for a grey, dull, boring, and out-of-touch party. Of course, we could be proven wrong… and we are hoping to be proven wrong.

NJ Spotlight News reports on the Lawsuit against the Party Line.

Weiner lawyer: The party “line” is for sale in Bergen County

By Rubashov

Does the Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO) sell its party line in GOP primaries? Apparently, top Bergen County GOP operative Matthew Gilson thinks so. In a 2020 text exchange with congressional candidate Frank Pallotta, Gilson said as much. Here is what he wrote:

"Buy the line... Either give the money now or don't cry to me when u didn't get the line... I negotiated to give u the line if u gave money... All we can do is tell you how to get the line..."

Gilson, an advisor to the congressional campaign of Nick DeGregorio, was recently made a partner at the Weiner Law Group. Two weeks ago, the Weiner firm announced:

Weiner Law Group LLP is proud to announce that Matthew E. Gilson has been named a Partner of the firm.

While Matthew concentrates his practice primarily in redevelopment, land use and municipal law, he also serves as counsel in a variety of roles to municipalities and public entities. Additionally, he serves as the election law attorney handling disputed elections and ballot issues and has been recognized by several publications for his role in the political arena.

The Weiner law firm – formerly Weiner Lesniak – was prominently mentioned in a Sunday “Watchdog” exposé that appeared in Gannett publications throughout northern New Jersey, including the Bergen Record and New Jersey Herald. The article was investigated by an impressive line-up of New Jersey political writers – Ashley Balcerzak, Dustin Racioppi, and Charlie Stile – and titled, “FBI raided home of political operative for info on murder-for-hire and dark money, docs show.”

The article notes: “That federal investigators are being assisted by a veteran operative who has intimate knowledge of the below-the-radar world of political campaign financing has set the tightknit world of New Jersey politics on edge.

And details in the 2019 search warrant are likely to heighten the anxiety. The document indicates that investigators were not only looking into the murder-for-hire scheme, but also the flood of largely-unregulated political cash that flowed through a constellation of accounts linked to 44-year-old Caddle when he was working for influential Democratic state Sen. Ray Lesniak of Union County.”

The article contains this interesting tidbit…

In addition to murder-for-hire evidence, during the 2019 raid on Caddle’s home federal authorities wanted “documents, records, correspondence, memoranda, and notes” since 2013 related to Lesniak’s former law firm, Weiner Lesniak, his gubernatorial and campaign accounts, and a handful of independent political groups linked to Lesniak.

…Lesniak’s former law partner, Paul Weiner, declined to comment on authorities seeking information between the firm and Caddle.

Federal authorities also were looking for records tied to nearly two dozen campaign funds and political party accounts, two unions, a town department of finance, Caddle’s consulting firms and more. They demanded information from Caddle about a Harrison-based treasurer named Gianni Donates, who formed a majority of the super PACs and nonprofits linked to Caddle, and his tax preparation firm, ATG.

There are a lot of investigative journalists from a lot of media outlets working on this story so, as always, stay tuned…

“In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
George Orwell

Did BCRO violate FEC rules?

By Rubashov

The Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO) has sent out a number of potentially problematic election communications recently.  Several mass emails blasted out on behalf of the BCRO by members of its leadership failed to note who paid for them, in apparent violation of Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules.
 
The BCRO also sent out an expensive mass direct mail piece that appeared to suggest that the candidates on the BCRO “line” were part of a ticket sanctioned by President Donald Trump.  An operative with the President’s campaign denied this, stating that being on a local party ticket that is endorsing the President does not mean that the President is endorsing the other candidates on that ticket.  The endorsement goes up, not down, the ticket.
 
FEC rules on communications like this are very restrictive.  From the FEC website:
 
“A state or local party committee may prepare and distribute a slate card, sample ballot, palm card or other printed list naming candidates for any public office. The payments are not considered contributions or expenditures on behalf of any federal candidate listed, as long as the following conditions are met:
 
The list names at least three candidates running for election to any public office in the state in which the committee is organized.
 
The list is not distributed through broadcast stations, newspapers, magazines and similar types of public political advertising (for example billboards). Direct mail, however, is an acceptable method of distributing a slate card or sample ballot.
 
The content is limited to the identification of each candidate (pictures may be used), the office or position currently held, the office sought and party affiliation. Additional descriptions, designs, images and photographs must not provide supplemental biographical information, descriptions of candidates’ positions on the issues or statements of party philosophy. Certain voting information, however, may be given, such as time, place and instructions on voting a straight party ticket.”
 
Curiously, some of the BCRO email blasts contain appeals to Ronald Reagan’s so-called “11th Commandment” (“Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican”) and accusations that the candidates opposing the BCRO-endorsed John McCann for Congress were running “negative” campaigns.  Hypocritically, the authors of these emails failed to mention the BCRO’s own negative campaign on behalf of John McCann in 2018.
 
That was the year that Steve Lonegan, the father of the conservative movement in New Jersey, was on the receiving end of a campaign unprecedented in its level of sustained hatefulness.    That campaign caused many conservative donors to simply give up on New Jersey Republicans, to this day sending their money to candidates elsewhere.  This drain of conservative money to campaigns outside New Jersey affects the ability of state Republicans to secure and hold elected offices.  Bergen County has particularly suffered.
 
The political consultant brought in to run the campaign against Lonegan was a brilliant tactician named Kelley Rogers.  He came up with a series of fiercely negative campaign advertisements.  It is worth noting that John McCann’s consultant was not around to direct his 2020 primary campaign.  Last year, Kelley Rogers pleaded guilty in federal court.  Politico covered the story (09/18/19):
 
In one of the first Justice Department cases of its kind, Maryland political consultant Kelley Rogers pled guilty to wire fraud on Tuesday for operating multiple fraudulent political action committees that raised money from donors for conservative causes but kept much of the funds for Rogers and his associates.

Rogers’ arrest and indictment took place shortly after Politico and ProPublica investigated one of Rogers’ PACs, Conservative Majority Fund, which since 2012 has raised close to $10 million — mostly from small-dollar donors, many of them elderly -- while giving out just $48,400 to politicians.
 
The BCRO appears to have a love affair with John McCann, despite his history of campaign losses – including the biggest defeat in the history of CD05.  For his part, McCann exudes a quirky charm and a combativeness that often gets him into trouble…
 

THERE ARE NO STUPID QUESTIONS, ONLY STUPID POLITICIANS- Congressional candidate John McCann to a woman asking a question- that's a stupid question.

Nevertheless, the BCRO leadership’s faith in John McCann appears unshakeable.  Despite his historic loss in 2018, BCRO boss Jack Zisa awarded McCann the party “line” without a vote of his membership.  That is, of course, an entirely different discussion for another day.
 

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.”
(Karl Marx, author and philosopher)

The BCRO's strange fundraiser: Any rules broken?

We have written before about the GOP establishment's creep into conservative institutions like GOPAC.  Once this group was a vital source of grassroots activism.  Today, the establishment squats on it like it was a prime piece of property on a monopoly board.

Recently, GOPAC held an event, but it was it a GOPAC event?

How could Kim Guadagno and Congressman King be the guests at two different events held at the same place at essentially the same time?

Why is there no disclaimer on the BCRO invitation?  And what is the Bergen County Republican Finance Committee?  It isn't filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJELEC)?  It doesn't appear to be associated with a Federal PAC. 

In promoting the event, the BCRO would later adjust the time to more precisely fit the GOPAC speakers event.  How could the speakers be in two events at the same time?

Both these events were heavily promoted by the BCRO and GOPAC.  So whose event was it really?  Who got the money?  And to what account did the money go... federal or state?  How was the money used?  On behalf of which candidate?

Questions for the FEC or NJELEC?