Today marks the first anniversary of the Monmouth County Republican Blog. We began the morning after the 2005 Republican Primary, and have been going ever since. For the first few months this site languished at less than 100 hits. After the 2005 election, readership picked up with speculation on who would be Amy Handlin's replacement on the Board of Chosen Freeholders; that position would be filled by Freeholder Anna C. Little.
We began as a pro-Chairman Fred Niemann blog; the first post explains, "I am in support of Chairman Fred Niemann and what he is trying to accomplish with the organization." In the beginning, Niemann showed a lot of promise; sadly, he squandered a lot of goodwill with the rank and file and appeared to rely more and more upon his shadowy executive director, Dan Gallic of Somerset County.
For various reasons, the vast editorial staff here at the Monmouth County Republican Blog made the decision that our county GOP needed new leadership.
There are some who believe that this blog and others like it played no small part in Niemann's impending departure from the Chairmanship. Could be. What we endeavored to do here was not to bring down a chairman or anyone else, but to report the truth and foster honest debate among County Republicans. If that was Niemann's downfall, so be it.
It is said that either Niemann or Gallic started blogging under the name "Ronald Reagan"; the two blogs under that name have been defunct since the April County Convention and were in fact inactive shortly after the February Title 19 Convention. A pity, because those blogs could have been a great venue to get the message out, and could have been an asset not only to Fred, but the party organization. Some have said that the County Organization paid someone to set up those blogs; ironically this was not necessary as Blogger is a free service. Some have also questioned where the income from the ads still running on one of the sites is going. This will be but a miniscule portion of the task ahead of the new county chairman.
Hopefully the new chairman, whoever that may be, will recognize the power and usefulness of the internet and the blogosphere. The Democrats have only just begun what we've had for a year.
Thank you all for reading and commenting and I hope to see you here in the following year.
Tomorrow is the Republican Primary. Polls are open from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm. Check your sample ballot for polling place location, then go vote.
12 comments:
Happy Anniversay Mr. President and thank you for welcoming me to your sandbox.
Well the beat goes on with PACs in Howell Township. Many Republicans received a letter from the Howell Committee "of" Good Government "signed" by the 30th District legislators endorsing Norine's handpicked "signed" by the three legislators says of the candidates "they have supported ME" (not us). This letter was sent out in endorsement of candidates who have NEVER voted in a Republican primary. A conversation with Senator Singer revealed that the legislators did not see the content of the letter before it was mailed, (which begs the question, how was it signed?) and they did not know that they were endorsing people running against incumbent county committeepersons who had really helped the legislators in the past. Perhaps they should have checked before granting Norine's request to "use" their names on an endorsement letter.
Is the HC "of" GC yet another PAC? If so it is not registerd with ELEC. The letter contains no address under the paid for by so it is difficult to know. If it is the same old Neimann created PAC which Norine Kelly chairs here is another disgraceful example of Republican raised money being used against other Republicans for the benefit of a few individuals, as was the case with the Freeholder bid by DiBella.
Howell Citizens for Good Government
Howell Committee for Good Government
Howell Committee of Good Government
Three?!
Well, the third may or may not be a typo for one of the first two, I wouldn't put it past them, after all they already have New Millenium Leadership and the Committee for Small Business Development with no ELEC reports, so one more would be right in character. Makes you wonder just how many PACs Niemanngallic actually have out there.
Whoever the new chairman is, he'll have his work cut out for him chasing down these PACs and the money in them.
Abe:
You started the whole blog thing. Props to Ms. Corley at Bayshore Journalista, but you definitely turned up the heat on the whole deal.
You do it great and you do it with a lot of class. If there's a standard in this thing, then you started it and so did Will.
All of the best and I hope you have a lotta anniversaries ahead of you.
john doe addressed...
"what is the new short list of chairman candidates? "
As far as I know it's still the same...
JIM_PURCELL addressed...
"Props to Ms. Corley at Bayshore Journalista..."
BTW, where is Jackie lately???
BTW, where is Jackie lately???
She's probably power washing
It's not going away Lenny!
Happy Birthday, Honest Ibrahim bin-Tuma al-Linqun!
Nice work. It's been one heck-u-va year.
jackie's trying to get her damn novel finished and off to her agent.
i promise to get back on the blogging track soon.
This just in from a very good source: rumor is that Fred is contemplating holding onto the chairmanship.
Also, Abe, I'm doing a "Best Blogs of Monmouth County" in the newspaper next week, if there's a particular image you want to send over (like the one you use all the time) please send it to: production@thenjcourier.com.
I was hearing similar rumors. Considering that so far nobody has stepped forward strong enough to win who will keep the PACs open, keep Gallic on the payroll, etc., it would be natural for Fred to want to stay.
It means I won't receive any more emails from Norine Kelly telling me I have to ask her permission before I speak or think, or to "show up, sit down and shut up". LOL! I actually predicted back in March that my support of Anna Little and Andrew Lucas would cost George and I our county committee seats, especially since George has laid claim to being the one vote that made the difference. Supporting Anna and Andrew was the right thing to do, and we would do it all over again, tomorrow! And we will be supporting them in their election efforts.
Running off the line is a challenge. Norine poured a lot of wheeled money from the Howell Committee "OF" Good Government into the race. Two years ago a guy named Fred Neimann lost his county committee seat in Wall Township, but was then elected county chair. I am sure "dwight' will be along shortly to report all the other victories/defeats for the other 700+ cGOP county committee seats in Monmouth County.
And it was not 4-1. The results are public record and available on the Howell Township site.
http://www.twp.howell.nj.us/content/58/1377/default.aspx
Candidates running off the line under the Regular Republican banner were elected, in spite very organized opposition.
I still think Jim Gianell is the best choice for chair, although we will not be able to vote for him. I will still offer my opinion from time to time, and, quite frankly, not being on county committee may be quite liberating. I may offer some comments that I would not have otherwise. LOL! Let's see who has the last laugh!
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