NJGOP: A balanced approach or a cult of personality?

By Rubashov

There’s a reason why cults habitually target the young. The young look for easy answers and for heroes to lead them. Youth is most open to certainty.

Hard experience makes people into skeptics, cynics even, and leads to the understanding that even heroic figures are a mixed bag. That nobody should be worshipped. With experience we learn that principles, as opposed to personalities, are the standard by which we should measure the words and actions of men.

We’ve been observing an interesting phenomenon since gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli’s defeat last November. Despite Ciattarelli’s insistence that he wants to be the candidate in continuum through to 2025, the young people who administer the Republican Party in New Jersey appear to have found a new “rock star” upon which to focus their enthusiasms… NJGOP Chairman Bob Hugin.

Bob Hugin owes his job to Jack Ciattarelli. It was Ciattarelli who appointed the socially liberal Hugin in June 2021, after Ciattarelli captured the Republican nomination for Governor with a plurality of the vote. Hugin closely matched Ciattarelli’s social liberalism on issues like illegal immigration, the Second Amendment, and abortion.

Hugin ran a heavily self-funded campaign for the United States Senate in 2018, which he began by embracing socially liberal positions on issues like abortion. He lost that campaign but went on to create or help to create a number of funding platforms (PACs or SuperPACs and such) which are designed to or function to “remake” the New Jersey Republican Party into a more “woke” political institution.

For example, an independent expenditure committee controlled by Hugin called Women for a Stronger New Jersey spent around $30,000 on direct mail, text-messaging, robo-calls, and social media in an attempt to defeat a conservative State Committeewoman in Mercer County and replace her with what would have been the first transgender State Committeewoman to represent the GOP. The effort ultimately failed, but one can only ask why such resources – scarce in the best of times – would be wasted on such a silly primary, for such a silly cause. Surely, with so few legislators and counties in the GOP column, $30,000 would be better used to defeat Democrats.

Ideologically, Bob Hugin could not be more different from the last two men at the helm of the NJGOP. Chairman Mike Lavery – the man Hugin replaced and who defeated Hugin in a head-to-head vote by the State Committee just half-a-year earlier – was an unashamed conservative. Chairman Doug Steinhardt, who Lavery replaced, championed issues like the Right-to-Life, the Second Amendment, an end to rewarding illegal immigration, tax cuts, and traditional values.

The presence of someone with the “woke” prejudices of a Bob Hugin might be a problem for the Right-of-Center voters who dominate the New Jersey Republican Party, if the Chairman of the NJGOP was the only leadership figure in the party. Fortunately, that is not the case, and so the party should be able to avoid an open schism.

The way it works is this. In the absence of a Republican Governor, THREE figures constitute the leadership of the New Jersey Republican Party. They include the ELECTED Republican Leader of the State Senate and the ELECTED Republican Leader of the State Assembly – in addition to the appointed (and confirmed by 42 State Committee members) Chairman of the NJGOP.

The Republican Leaders who head their respective legislative caucuses are both solid conservatives – particularly social conservatives – whose records share the values of Republican voters on issues like Right-to-Life, the Second Amendment, illegal immigration, and Medical Freedom. So, there is balance in the leadership of the Republican Party in New Jersey.

But you wouldn’t know this from the NJGOP website. The young folks who run it appear to be in full cult-of-personality mode. Under “leadership” there is just one photograph, one godhead – Bob Hugin. The two other members of what should, properly, be a triumvirate, have been erased – Orwell style.

https://www.njgop.org/leadership/


In fact, when you click on the “State Senate” and “State Assembly”, there is no mention of either Legislative leader. In fact, the legislators listed reflect those from before the November 2021 election. It is a thorough, comprehensive dismissal of the NJGOP’s ELECTED leadership as irrelevant. Such is the thought processes of these young cult-makers.

https://www.njgop.org/leadership/state-senate/

https://www.njgop.org/leadership/state-assembly/


Going back to the “leadership” page – the one featuring Bob Hugin alone – there is displayed a revealing window into the minds of those who administer the NJGOP. Instead of placing the photos and offices of the ELECTED Republican leaders of the two legislative chambers, the logos of four Washington, DC-based organizations are listed: the RNC (Republican National Committee), the NRSC (Republican National Senatorial Committee), the NRCC (National Republican Congressional Committee), and the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC).

There are established Trenton-based GOP political consultants connected with each of these entities, from which they extract millions. So, are these young folks telling us how they see the world, who they intend to answer to? Or is it simply aspirational? Is this how they would like it to be? Is this what they are working towards – cutting out the conservatives, making a cult-figure out of the liberal, but really – in the end – it’s about the consultants who they have worked for in the past and who they will work for in the future?

The group that is particularly intriguing is the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC). Here is what they say their mission is, from the group’s website:

The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) is the largest organization of Republican state leaders in the country and only national committee whose mission is to recruit, train, and elect Republicans to multiple down-ballot, state-level offices. Thanks to our growing network of grassroots supporters in all 50 states, we help deliver wins for Republican state legislators, lieutenant governors, secretaries of state, agriculture officials, and state judges across the country.

It sounds like the RSLC is in direct competition with the Senate Republican Majority (SRM) and the Assembly Republican Victory (ARV) committees run by the two Republican legislative leaders for the benefit of their respective caucuses. And why aren’t SRM and ARV listed on that leadership page?

The RSLC logo on the NJGOP “leadership” page takes you directly to a page where you can donate. Why aren’t the SRM and ARV pages listed? Why is there no link to donate to them?

Well, maybe they don’t employ the right consultants? The RSLC certainly does.

What is needed here is a balanced approach. Nobody is suggesting that Bob Hugin’s photograph shouldn’t be there – just that, alongside the more liberal NJGOP Chairman, should go those of the more conservative legislative leaders. Sure, the GOP is a “big-tent” party, but it is a conservative party too, and the NGOP should reflect that.

Nobody is suggesting that the logo of the RSLC shouldn’t be there. But so should the logos of SRM and ARV – two NEW JERSEY based committees – and links so that people visiting the NJGOP page can donate to the important work that these committees do.

Finally, nobody is blaming Bob Hugin for the NJGOP website. He didn’t design it, he doesn’t administer it, we doubt if he wrote a word of its content. But personnel does equal policy, as Ronald Reagan said. In our opinion, he needs to be firm with the young crew he leads and let them know that it isn’t about him alone but about the entire party. Its entire leadership, working together.

The NJGOP should reflect the New Jersey Republican Party’s entire voting composition, both its conservative majority and “big tent” wings, working to elect more Republicans. That would be the balanced approach.

As there can be no recruitment or voter registration drives without a message -- an annunciation of principles -- here is a short video that expresses the oft forgotten, more often ignored, "first principles" of the Republican Party.

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

George Orwell

NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt: 20 reasons to Vote Republican on Tuesday

Over on the New Jersey Globe website, editor David Wildstein assures us that New Jersey is still a two-party state, with the caveat that the GOP might not be one of those two parties. Wildstein’s words must be taken seriously, for whatever his faults, he has a laudable record as a campaign manager and operative. He even managed to get elected himself.

Under Governor Chris Christie, the New Jersey Republican Party functioned as a kind of cult of personality. If you were around for earlier GOP administrations, you would have recognized the difference. So far as legislative seats are concerned, this didn’t work all that well even while Christie was Governor.

Post-Christie, New Jersey Republicans have suffered from a crisis of identity. This has been exacerbated by two things. The first, of course, is Donald Trump – the face of the national Republican Party. Many New Jersey Republicans don’t know how to explain him or fit even the positive aspects of his hegemony into a local narrative. They got out of the habit of having big vision ideas or policies – so that they can’t even effectively change the subject.

This brings us to the second… the rise of South Jersey Democrats as a kind of opposition party to the Democrats of Governor Phil Murphy. As they did with the so-called “Clean Elections” gambit, they pose as “reformers” who are “pro-business” and “pro-taxpayer” – with watchwords like “efficiency”. In reality, they are an old-world political machine, fueled by crony capitalism and soft corruption (at the very least). Their model is the one-party state, with a relationship between political power and business that resembles something out of Red China… or National Socialist Germany.

But at least they have ideas and policies, many of which are attractive to business, so they occupy an alternative ground to the Murphy Democrats’ collectivist and confiscatory impulses. On social issues they are equally disreputable. Their refusal to post the Human Trafficking & Child Exploitation Prevention Act for a vote shows that they monetize anything to please a supplicant corporate interest. Just keep the money flowing… and suffer the children.

Which brings us to a post over the weekend on Matt Rooney’s Save Jersey website. In it, NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt provides an outline of why voters should choose Republican candidates over Democrats this coming Tuesday.

It really is a good list, and Matt did a great service publishing it. With due acknowledgement to Matt and to Chairman Steinhardt, we are re-publishing it below:

Screen Shot 2019-11-04 at 2.04.03 PM.png

State Republican Chairman Doug Steinhardt

#20: New Jersey Has The Worst Foreclosure Rate In The U.S.
Phil Murphy and Democrats have had full control of the state house for 2 years now. Their liberal agenda has produced the highest foreclosure rate in the country. New Jersey is too expensive, and Phil Murphy, who said “If … tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state,” is too aloof, for hard working families to afford their homes. This is the danger of one-party rule in Trenton.

#19: Governor Murphy Tried To Steal Money From Firefighter Burial Fund
The NJGOP is proud to fight alongside New Jersey’s first responders, especially after their Governor tried to pay for his laundry list of liberal handouts by stealing $33 million from the Firemen’s Association burial fund. And even though his screwball scheme failed, Phil Murphy’s last second retreat can’t erase his blatant disregard for the hard working men and women who risk their lives to protect our lives. New Jersey voters should be shocked and appalled, but then, hey, this is the same Governor who, last week, said, “If … tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state.” You shouldn’t be our Governor either, and your Party’s policies are killing our State.

#18: New Jersey Has The Lowest Mainland US GDP Growth
Governor Murphy’s job-killing regulations and ever-expanding tax burden is leaving New Jersey’s economy hobbled and lagging behind the rest of mainland America. While the US economy is booming, New Jersey is failing. Trenton needs business-minded conservatives to bring a common sense check to Governor Murphy’s unbalanced budget.

#17: Phil Murphy Blew The Amazon Bid
Just weeks after New Jersey Democrats passed Phil Murphy’s billion plus dollar tax hikes, Amazon passed on New Jersey and put its HQ2 in New York and Virginia. Governor Murphy’s liberal lunacy cost thousands of well-paying jobs and a chance to revitalize our state’s biggest city. But this is the same Governor who maintains, “If … tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state.”

#16: Phil Murphy’s Online Sales Tax
Phil Murphy calls New Jersey a high tax for high value state, but Democrats are squeezing out what little value is left. If it walks, talks, ships, shoots, rides, drives, eats or roots, New Jersey’s daft Democrats devise a devilish way to tax it. Under the Murphy Administration, New Jersey residents now pay an internet sales tax. But, this is the same Governor who says, “If … tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state.”

#15: NJ Transit Fail
If a good executive keeps the trains running on time, Phil Murphy isn’t – good. New Jersey Transit is rated among the least reliable nationally. And even though Governor Murphy has the power to change it, he can’t. That’s because he’s more interested in liberal headlines than commuter wait times. People spend more time commuting than they do with their families. The system is so bad that even Democrats are investigating Murphy’s abject failure.

#14: Hiring Corrupt Officials
We should be throwing corruption out of government, not welcoming it back in. When Governor Murphy hired into his administration a former public official convicted of taking bribes, he called it the new normal. Never! The bar should never be so low. At a time when we should be building the public’s trust in government, Phil Murphy is tearing it down.

#13: Sky Blue Soccer Scandal
Governor Murphy preaches public equality, but fails miserably to practice it privately. As the owner of a women’s soccer team, Phil Murphy oversaw a team that was so badly treated that the Star Ledger equated the player’s conditions to a sweatshop. These professional women were housed in impoverished conditions, played without simple resources, like locker-room showers, and refused payment on their medical bills. That’s not stronger and fairer, that’s weaker and poorer.

#12: Legal Aid For Illegal Immigrants
The NJGOP will not ignore Governor Murphy while he scoffs at federal immigration laws for the sake of his personal political agenda. He has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars into state sponsored legal aid for illegal immigrants while hardworking, middle-class New Jersey residents miss another opportunity for tax relief. But this is the same Governor who says, “If … tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state.

#11: So-Called Free College
Phil Murphy’s promise of free college tuition is the classic political bait and switch. He dangles the feels-good carrot of “free education”, then beats New Jersey’s already battered taxpayers with his tax hike stick. Two years of free tuition for a lifetime of tax increases isn’t a bargain. It’s another bad deal that New Jersey can’t afford. Then again, all this is from a Governor who said, “If tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your State.” That’s not leadership Governor. It’s what millionaires say to the middle class.

#10: Sanctuary State
Phil Murphy can’t pay for his progressive platitudes with the health, safety and welfare of New Jersey families. The Governor and the Attorney General should encourage cooperation between law enforcement agencies at all levels. Instead, they weaponize the Attorney General’s office and are taking aim at our County Sheriffs. Millions of innocent New Jerseyans depend on law enforcement to keep them safe from predators, drug dealers and violent criminals, but Phil Murphy will ignore them for a progressive headline.

#9: Worst Employment Rate In The Region
America’s economy is booming and our neighboring states are thriving, but New Jersey lags behind. Evidence continues to mount that New Jersey is teetering on the edge of an economic meltdown, but Governor Phil Murphy is stuck in a tax and spend trance. He is oblivious to, or simply ignores, the State’s affordability crisis and the crippling effect it’s having on New Jersey families. That was on full display at Rowan College in October, when the Governor let slip, “If tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your State.” If you want more blind, political indifference, elect more Democrats this November, but if you want honest answers to the State’s real problems, vote Republican.

#8: Largest out migration of retirees, businesses and residents
Governor Murphy’s radical, liberal policies aren’t just emptying wallets, they’re emptying nests. More jobs and people are leaving New Jersey than any other State in America. Millionaire Phil Murphy is so disconnected from New Jersey’s working and middle classes that he let slip that, “If tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your State.” Trenton’s Democrats share Phil Murphy’s callous indifference, so if you want honest answers to the State’s real problems, elect Republicans.

#7: Highest property and income tax rates in the US
Phil Murphy inherited a state with high taxes, but he campaigned on a promise for a stronger and fairer New Jersey. In reality, his radical tax hikes and progressive platitudes make us weaker and poorer. His solution is to tell working and middle class families, who can’t afford his high tax agenda, to move. But why move when we can vote? We need leaders in Trenton who will have the courage to reduce the size of state government and create real tax relief. On November 5, vote Republican.

#6: Ride Share Tax
Ride sharing has revolutionized urban and suburban transportation. Innovative new companies like Uber and Lyft provide safe rides home, affordable transportation for people who don’t own a car, and help stop drunk driving. So, how does Governor Murphy reward successful new businesses providing valuable services? He taxes them! That’s Phil Murphy’s New Jersey. If you don’t like it or can’t afford it, he says you’re welcome to leave. Don’t like the choices? Vote Republican instead. We can do better.

#5: Second Amendment Attacks
Governor Murphy’s political obsession with appeasing the radical, anti-gun lobby can’t come at the expense, or from the pockets, of New Jersey’s law abiding citizens for simply exercising their Second Amendment right to own a firearm. In his haste to punish legal gun owners, he’s proven unwilling and unable to deal with the scourge of gun crime, opting instead to criminalize lawful gun ownership. Taxes, fees and laws must have a rational nexus to a legitimate government purpose, and not just be a back channel to pay for feel-good, liberal giveaways. No Governor is empowered to choose which constitutional rights matter and which don’t and where Phil Murphy will trample long standing rights in his quest to replace them, the NJGOP will fight alongside grassroots Republicans to defend those rights.

#4: Shore Rental Tax
This year, among Governor Phil Murphy’s multitude of new taxes, he signed a tax on Jersey Shore vacation rentals. The NJGOP called on the Governor to refund to the moms and pops who were forced to pay it, the money he was so quick to take. In response, he ignored us, and them. It seems this was just another Democrat money grab that hit hardest in communities still recovering from Superstorm Sandy.

#3: Second Most Miserable State
The most miserable state in the Union is California. Governor Murphy has said he wants New Jersey to be the California of the east. So, it’s no surprise we’re number two. Under Phil Murphy, New Jersey is the second most miserable state in America. People in New Jersey are struggling with affordability. We have the highest foreclosure rate, and one in four families goes hungry. So, when our Governor says that, “If tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state,” it hurts. New Jerseyans need hope for a better tomorrow, but they won’t find it in our state’s Democrat Party. This year, vote for the party that still has New Jersey pride and honest answers to our state’s real problems. Vote Republican.

#2: Corporate Business Tax
New Jersey has the worst business climate in America. We lead the nation, not just in the outmigration of residents, but in the outmigration of jobs. We’ve suffered the exodus of leading corporations, like Honeywell and Gerber, who uproot and run for low cost states like North Carolina and Virginia. We even lost the bid for Amazon’s HQ2. When Governor Murphy hikes the corporate business tax by over $1 billion it signals to business owners that they can’t count on New Jersey for stability, predictability or affordability. But then this is the Governor who said, “If tax rate is your issue … whether you’re a business or an individual … we’re probably not your state.

#1: Rain Tax
A rainy day fund used to be what responsible government collected for emergencies. Not anymore. Not in New Jersey. And not under Governor Murphy. Today, it’s just another Democratic property tax and Trenton money grab. Instead of feeding your families, Phil Murphy’s rain tax scheme drains money from your pockets and pours it into Trenton’s coffers, to feed Murphy’s liberal agenda. None of that should come as a surprise, since the Governor let slip that, “If tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state.”

Please visit the Save Jersey website here: https://savejersey.com/2019/11/vote-republican-new-jersey-assembly-election-results-november-5th-doug-steinhardt/

What happens after Tuesday will determine whether this is a first step on the road to an actual party platform… or if it was a one-off, albeit a very strong and persuasive one. Stay tuned…

The NJGOP is broadening its base under Steinhardt

In last week’s column comparing the state fiscal rescue plan put forward by Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-03) with the tax-cut plan backed by Republican Assembly Leader Jon Bramnick (R-21), we wrote :  “This situation might be different if New Jersey Republicans had taken the time to build a base of small dollar donors and activists.  But as fundraiser Ali Steinstra noted at the March NJGOP Leadership Summit, broad-based Republican fundraising can only be accomplished by appeals to the party’s conservative base.   

The GOP establishment in New Jersey is barely on speaking terms with its base, so the ground has not been prepared.  We have no equivalent to what the NJEA and the Norcross super PACs will throw against us, so pissing on a hornet’s nest probably isn’t a good idea.  At this moment in time, it is more likely to motivate the kind of turnout that will cost us another four or more seats in November.

Assembly Leader Bramnick has a sensible, Republican plan that addresses the problem of spending and taxation.  It avoids drawing fire from well-organized, well-funded interest groups.  Those on the ballot this year have a choice to make.”

Apparently we had failed to notice that under the leadership of Chairman Doug Steinhardt, the Republican State Committee (NJGOP) has been pioneering new methods of grassroots fundraising, including the use of “investor reports” to set goals and inspire donors.  The idea of investor reports was summed up by Chairman Steinhardt:  “You don’t invest in a business without a prospectus or something else that lets you know it’s a good investment. We created these with the same idea in mind. It’s been very successful.”

 Some highlights of the NJGOP’s success:
- There were just 68 active donors when Chairman Steinhardt took over.
- As of March 30th, there were more than 1800 active donors. 
- Of these 79% were small dollar donors (under $200).
- There has been a 29% increase in new donors in 2019.
- 2019 had the best first quarter fundraising since 2015 (accomplished without a Governor in office and after the set-backs of 2018).
- The NJGOP team of 3 full and 2 part time employees have logged 20,000 miles to grass roots events as of April 30 vs 25,000 in all of 2018.

Chairman Steinhardt noted that that the NJGOP was “reconnecting with Republicans and it’s showing.”  Kudos to the Chairman and his team.

In New Jersey, does “Republican” equal “conservative”?

Unfortunately, not even close.

After years of ignoring its base – and a series of losing election cycles – the New Jersey Republican Party is in the process of figuring out who it wants to be.  It doesn’t have a lot of time, because it faces yet another legislative election in which it will likely be at a disadvantage in terms of financial resources and motivated grassroots manpower.

There is a ready-made model.  It is called the Republican Party – the Republican Party that the rest of America believes in.

The Republican Party – in which the NJGOP participates through two National Committee Members – has a wonderful, ready-made, polling and focus-group tested, set of principles for American renewal.  Here they are:

CONSTITUTION

Our Constitution should be preserved, valued and honored. 

ECONOMY

We need to start growing America’s economy instead of Washington’s economy so that hard-working Americans see better wages and more opportunity. 

BUDGET

We need to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, make government more efficient, and leave the next generation with opportunity, not debt. 

HEALTHCARE

We need to start over with real healthcare reform that puts patients and their doctors in charge, not unelected bureaucrats in Washington. 

VETERANS

Our veterans have earned our respect and gratitude, and no veteran should have to wait in line for months or years just to see a doctor. 

SECURITY

Keeping America safe and strong requires a strong military, growing the economy, energy independence, and secure borders.  

EDUCATION

Every child should have an equal opportunity to get a great education; no parent should be forced to send their child to a failing school. 

POVERTY

The best anti-poverty program is a strong family and a good job, so our focus should be on getting people out of poverty by lifting up all people and helping them find work. 

VALUES

Our country should value the traditions of family, life, religious liberty, and hard work. 

ENERGY

We should make America energy independent by encouraging investment in domestic energy, lowering prices, and creating jobs at home. 

IMMIGRATION

We need an immigration system that secures our borders, upholds the law, and boosts our economy.

SOURCE: https://www.gop.com/principles-for-american-renewal

On its website, the Republican National Committee offers a survey that asks which of the above eleven principles are most important to the individual taking the survey.  Notice the tone and language used.  It is a very proactive message:  “This is what we believe in… where do you fit in?” 

Top of Form

When RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel laid out her vision for Republican leadership, she outlined the Principles for American Renewal.

These are the core principles that unite and drive the Republican Party. These are the core principles that inform and inspire our policymaking. And these are the core principles that we need to get our country back on track. 

SOURCE: https://www.gop.com/principles-for-american-renewal-survey/

Now compare it with the survey on the NJGOP website.  Notice the difference in tone and language…

The NJGOP is a diverse group of individuals and organizations, with multi-­faceted views on a variety of issues. As we develop a winning strategy for all 21 counties and 565 municipalities, we want to hear from you. Take our brief survey and let us know what issues are most important to you!

What issues are most important to you? (Select all that apply)

Top of Form

Controlling government spending and reducing the debt

Improving health care

Strengthening New Jersey’s economy and protecting jobs

Improving education

Fighting crime and improving public safety

Keeping property taxes down

Improving New Jersey’s roads, bridges, and highways

Protecting the state from threats of terrorism

Protecting the environment and open space

Reforming government to make it more transparent and accountable

Other

SOURCE: https://www.njgop.org/issues-survey/

Instead of “this is what we believe in… where do you fit in” there’s a laundry list of “concerns”, most of which would be just as suitable on a Democrat Party website.  Instead of a unifying message and focus, it is as if the NJGOP were appealing to voters to “tell us who you want us to be.”

X

Improving health care

Strengthening New Jersey’s economy and protecting jobs

Improving education

Fighting crime and improving public safety

X

Improving New Jersey’s roads, bridges, and highways

Protecting the state from threats of terrorism

Protecting the environment and open space

Reforming government to make it more transparent and accountable

Other

In contrast, the message of Governor Phil Murphy and the New Jersey Democrats couldn’t be clearer.  New Jersey Democrats have the sense of who they are that the NJGOP lacks.  In the video on their website, the Governor lays out the Democrats’ message – point by point, no bullshit.  Murphy nails it when he says, “We are who we told folks we would be.”  That is being straight with the voters and they are looking for that.

SOURCE: https://njdems.org/

New Jersey Republicans have fallen far since 2001 and are now in an existential crisis and a battle for survival.  The next three years will determine whether or not the NJGOP continues as a viable alternative to the Democrats – the Legislative elections of 2019, Congressional elections of 2020, and Gubernatorial election of 2021.  It’s life or death.  Time to be bold.

Are NJ Republicans heading for civil war?

By Rubashov

Remember the great culling of 2007?  That's when a bunch of young up and comers like future Bridgegate figure Bill Baroni, future LGBT lobbyist Tom Wilson, and a number of individuals associated with the Chris Christie project decided that some incumbent legislators had been there too long.  They were members of the Great Generation, had fought our nation's wars, and had rebuilt our party after the Watergate debacle.  But the youngsters said they were old, their time was up.

And so they set upon them and worked from within and without to push them, unceremoniously, from office.  Guys like Senator Bob Littell resisted such rude attentions, so they circulated rumors about his health and attacked him on blogs like the old PoliticsNJ.  In fact, the genesis of this blog can be traced from those efforts to defend that old gentleman. 

It is a decade later, and another culling is afoot.  Only this time, it is being led by the fag end of a depleted and demoralized party who strangely believe that the road to salvation is to become as close to the Democrats as possible on issues like abortion, LGBT, the Second Amendment, climate change (or global warming or whatever they are calling it this week), crime, Abbott Districts, COAH, and pretty much everything except a few balance sheet issues and the hobby-horses of this lobby group or that.

The voices in favor of this culling are not just limited to the metro-sexual wing of the Young Republicans.  Younger party leaders, some quite powerful, will assure you in all seriousness that the future of the Republican Party is about identities instead of ideas.  They earnestly believe that we must compete with the Democrats in having our very own LGBT or Muslim contingent.  Some will insist that only a set of breasts and a fashionable haircut will win the day.

As with any culture brought up on watery advertising, they eschew data and have developed myths and mythological figures.  Chief among these is the "soft Republican."  They will tell you that we must ignore all those old-timers who still judge people by their ideas and conduct, instead of their identity or surface appearance.  "Soft Republicans" (limp dicks?) is where it's at.  These softies -- in both mind and groin -- constitute a great untapped vein of young voters.  "They are the future!"  Or so we are endless told.

So here is a wake-up call for the metros who seem to run the party these days.  The data is in, and you are going to have to wait awhile for that coming day of the 57 genders.  The old f*cks aren't dying off quick enough and they'll dominate the party until some of you are well into middle age.

Nearly half a million registered Republicans, 43 percent of all Republicans in New Jersey, are aged 60 or older.  Another 31 percent are middle aged -- 45 to 59.  10 percent are 35 to 44.  9 percent are 25 to 34.  With just 6 percent 18 to 24.  The Democrats are not so much a young party as a middle aged one, with their two youngest groups coming in at just 8 and 13 percent, respectively.  37 percent of their voters are aged 60 or older.

The truth is that young people really don't like political parties.  They don't trust them.  So if you really want to appeal to the young -- quit party politics and organize a group around an issue that matters, like human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children.

Political party organizations are about as exciting as newspapers and about as relevant.  Except for the BCRO, whose website currently features a couple in a rather explicit situation.  But old people like them -- political parties and newspapers, that is -- and so for the next few more years we will have them.  But nothing is following.  There will be no GOP metro-sexual new day.  There will be something else, but it won't be a party as we know it today.

Now don't all you metros go running to the lavatories at once.  Your sperm counts weren't that much to begin with.  Have a good cry on your best mate's shoulder and buck up.  Because the old f*cks are still here... and so you still have a party.  But you are going to have to cater to them.  Or lose even more than you lose now.

Will the NJGOP adopt the RNC platform?

How far does Governor Chris Christie's support for Donald Trump go?  Does it go far enough for Christie to allow his vassals at the NJGOP to formally adopt the platform of the Republican National Convention that nominated Trump?

If the NJGOP is permitted to adopt the Republican Party platform, it will be the first such action since Chris Christie won the GOP nomination for Governor in June 2009.  Shortly after Christie won the Republican nomination, he and the NJGOP were asked by members of the State Committee to embrace the platform of the national Republican Party that was debated and passed at the Republican National Convention in 2008.  Christie declined to endorse that platform and the State Party Chairman -- Assemblyman Jay Webber --  promised to put a committee together to draft a "statement of principles" for the NJGOP.  That was in 2009.  That committee has yet to meet.

Another Republican National Convention came in 2012 and an updated party platform was debated and passed by the assembled delegates.  Governor Christie was the keynote speaker at that convention.  Nevertheless, he did not endorse or to allow his state party to adopt the platform that was democratically chosen at that convention.

In 2013, the NJGOP went a step further and launched a campaign to defeat sitting members of the State Committee who supported the national Republican Party platform and candidates who said they would do so.  They used state party funds, supposedly under the control of the State Committee, to defeat sitting members of the State Committee, without any formal vote allowing them to do so. 

One of their chief targets was Gloucester County State Committeeman Rob Eichmann, a conservative who was hospitalized, suffering from cancer, and who was in no position to fight back.  The NJGOP ignored pleas to take this into consideration and launched an aggressive and negative campaign to defeat Committeeman Eichmann using the State Committee's own money.  Eichmann was defeated along with the other conservatives who supported the Republican Party platform.  Rob Eichmann died a few months later, aged 48.

Now it's 2016 and yet another Republican National Convention has come and gone.  The NJGOP has still not formally adopted the platform of the national Republican Party as its own.  The candidates being recruited to run next year have no guidance as to the principles and policies that inform their party.  Without a written explanation of what the Republican Party stands for and what it means to be a Republican, our ability to recruit and train others to recruit new members is limited.

It is time for the NJGOP to declare what it is and what it stands for.  If it is informed by the principles of the national Republican Party and the platform of Donald Trump, then say so.  If it is not, then please explain what it is that you stand for and the policies that you intend to pursue if elected.  Simply having the word "Republican" in your name is not enough.