Manalapan's Lucas Nominated; Visibly Angry DiBella May Challenge Result.
UPDATE: The freeholder result is now up in the air. Declared a "tie" by Gallic.
UPDATED UPDATE: DiBella concedes to Lucas and won't run, so says the APP.
The following were nominated at this morning's Republican County Convention:
U. S. SENATE: Thomas Kean
4th DISTRICT CONGRESS: Rep. Chris Smith
6th DISTRICT CONGRESS: Leigh-Ann Bellew
12th DISTRICT CONGRESS: Joseph Sinagra
SURROGATE: Rosemarie Peters
FREEHOLDER, 3 Yrs.: Andrew Lucas
FREEHOLDER, 1Yr.: Anna Little
Nominations were done by acclamation for all positions but Surrogate and the 3-year freeholder slot. Peters beat Little Silver's Rick DeNoia for the Surrogate nod.
For freeholder the choice was to select one out of a field of five men: Lucas, Joseph DiBella of Howell, Robert Kleinberg of Marlboro, Brian Reilly of Spring Lake and Terence Wall of Holmdel.
Reilly and Kleinberg were defeated in the first round of balloting and threw their support to Lucas. Then Wall announced his withdrawal from the second ballot and endorsed Lucas. Lucas went on to win over DiBella by one vote.
DiBella is said to be contemplating a challenge to the result.
8 comments:
Let me add my congratulations to Mayor Robert Kleinberg, Councilman Brian Reilly and especially Committeeman Terence Wall. It is never easy to give up your personal dream for the good of an organization, but these gentlemen were a class act in agreeing to unanimously back the candidate that they felt had the best chance to win in November, because in the end that is what it is really all about.
Andrew Lucas is a Princeton University graduate with a degree in Economics who manages a 100 acre cattle farm in Manalapan and a principal in an investment firm. He is a fresh face eager to serve ALL the people of Monmouth County and has accomplished fiscal stability and preserved open space and curbed development during his term on the Manalapan Township Committee. He is the future of the Monmouth GOP, and with Freeholder Little and Surrogate nominee Rosemarie Peters will bring victory to the GOP in November.
I did not know Mayor Kleinberg personally at the beginning of this process, but came to have a great appreciation for what he has accomplished in Marlboro during a very difficult time in Marlboro's history. I knew Brian Reilly slightly through acquaintances and admired his financial expertise and ability to build consensus during his tenure in Spring Lake. By mid week both this gentlemen and Andrew Lucas had committed to throwing their support to the other should they be eliminated on the first round.
I knew Terence Wall through his long involvement in Monmouth County Republican politics. I will tell you I have had differences of opinion on policy issues and some actions he has taken in the past. However, I was impressed by his very personal approach to the selection process. Imagine my surprise to see him come walking down my street last Sunday to personally discuss what were the issues I felt need to be addressed by the Freeholders and what could the Freeholder Board to help Howell Township. We also talked about the "math" and what would he do if he was eliminated or could not become the Freeholder on the second round. He promised he would think about our conversation. I know during the week many others had similar conversations with him.
After the first round of voting, the numbers seemed to indicate that Terence would probably still be in third place, or at best second, after the second round of voting. In an truly statesmanlike action, Terence stopped the second round vote a minute before it was scheduled to start and demanded his name be removed from the ballot and threw his support to Andrew Lucas, Terence, his campaign advisers and Mayor Kleinberg and Councilman Reilly then walked the voting booth lines to ask their supporters to vote for Andrew because they understood it was really all about November and the future of the Monmouth GOP.
Allow me to congratulate Committeeman Lucas, Mayor Kleinberg, Councilman Reilly and Committeeman Wall for their integrity, ethics and sense of what was best for the Monmouth GOP. They built consensus and the big tent. Thank you.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the outstanding campaigns run by Rosemarie Peters and Rick DeNoia. It was a difficult decision for many people and either would have served the people of Monmouth with a great deal of professionalism. Rosemarie will be a terrific candidate and I know Rick will be right there working for her election.
For those of you who have not seen the official results. Here they are:
MONMOUTH COUNTY REPUBLICAN CONVENTION
Surrogate
Rosemarie Peters 233
Rick DeNoia 222
Freeholder - 2nd Ballot
Andrew Lucas 230
Joseph DiBella 229
Freeholder - 1st Ballot
Joseph DiBella 222
Andrew Lucas 101
Terence Wall 82
Brian Reilly 40
Robert Kleinberg 38
Cheaters said...
"Respectfully, you are lying. Also, more people voted on the second ballot then the first, which is very suspect. "
RESPECTFULLY ---- the total number of voters on the SECOND was 459, the total number of voters FIRST was 483! How is that more than than 459?????
numbers_guy said...
"Here is the challenge to ALL Republicans in the county: are you able to put aside your differences, work with Fred, and do whatever it takes (within the law, LOL) to help Anna and Drew win in November. If you cannot answer yes to that question, then we have lasting problems.
Hopefully, the drama is behind us. We HAVE to come together now, for the sake of the candidates, and more importantly, Monmouth families."
That's a great idea numbers guy, but should we just forget that we have a Chairperson's election in June?
If Fred wins in June, even by one vote, I will get behind him. Until then I will work hard to make sure he doesn't win. The events of the last 24 hours, not to mention the last 22 months require nothing less.
will joe sinagra accept donations from jack sinagra's pac??
well, jack sinagra is related to john lynch. why isn't that a big surprise?
numbers guy,
It is nice to disagree like gentlemen.
While there's no doubt that some of Fred's detractors are operating out of their own self interests, the same can certainly be said for Fred's supporters, and probably a greater percentage of his supporters than his detractors.
It is true that Fred has been Chairman at a very difficult time in our history, given Operation Bid Rig and what will soon be a complete turnover on the Freeholder board. However, I think it is overly generous to say Fred provided leadership or steered us to victory. The 2004 victory could very reasonably credited to President Bush's coattails in Monmouth County and you're practicing fuzzy math, numbers guy, if you don't think the APP and Unger didn't give us victory last year. Many in our party complain about the APP, but what they did last year saved our butts, big time. And that favor will carry over to this year as the public's anger over Operation Bid Rig fades. The Dems lost their chance to get real traction last year.
Fred is just not up to the task and the rank and file is fed up with him. For three elections now his candidate was not chosen. What ever moves Fred has tried to control the party have failed. The harder he tries the worse it gets. He lacks leadership and management skills. People are not going to rally around him, and even if he had $2 million, he's never taking over New Jersey, despite his protests to the contrary.
Let's take an unscientific but informed look at our two most recent conventions. Looking at the numbers only and assuming that Anna and Andrew got the anti-Fred vote and that DiBella got the pro-Fred vote, one might think that our county party is very evenly divided, with only a slight anti-Fred tilt that he could easily over come if he did the right things between now and June.
However, if you look deeper it is really much worse for Fred than that. Who knew Anna Little before January? Who knew Andrew Lucas before Ted dropped out? They are both very unknown and come from small towns. Could either Anna or Andrew have won without the anti-Fred support? No way. Without the anti-Fred support they are Antonucci and Reilly. Let's be generous and say they each brought 25% of their votes to the table without the anti-Fred voters.
DiBella on the other hand is much better known than both Anna or Andrew. He's a better speaker and has a more impressive resume. He comes from the largest town in the county. While Howell hasn't been unified of their support of him, I think its safe to assume that at least half of Joe's votes came from his own supporters, and we can generously say that the other half were pro-Fred voters.
That leaves Fred with support from only 20% of the county committee voters, and 60% very anti-Fred. The other 20% like Joe DiBella and might think Bill Dowd is still Chairman. Try as he might to change the complextion of the committee between now and June, Fred will be following his partner into the sunset.
How do you like those numbers?
All we need now is a leader, not a boss. A popular and compelling man or woman with the character to rally the troops, even the ones who lose their county cars, contracts and appointments.
The degree of acrimony amongst the party between now and June is really up to Fred. He has already lost, and if he is honest with himself he knows that.
Fred's "investors" are probably realizing that as well and are starting to make other plans.
If he continues to fight, it will get ugly, because that is how Fred fights. (ask Anna Little and Andrew Lucas and their supports how they spent the rest of this weekend if you want an example of what I'm referring too.) The best thing that Fred could do for our party is to announce that he will not be seeking re-election as Chairperson. Maybe we could have Mrs. DiBella talk to him.
Numbers guy has a point, Some of Freds detractors are mad because he has supported reforms others are mad because he has not instituted reforms.
The later may be mollified by his formation of an exec committee and a bylaws committee.
I know it makes me feel better.
numbers_guy said:
"I just hope this thing gets done peacefully."
Me too. It's nice to agree as gentlemen too.
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