Eye On The Prize

There is no question that Joe Oxley has his “eye on the prize.” The prize being winning back control of the Monmouth County Freeholder Board, re-electing our Monmouth County Assembly delegation and winning the Governor’s office.

It will come as no surprise to Oxley when he checks in here that I disagreed with his decision to fore go a county convention. He has heard that from me personally.

As an outspoken critic of the previous two chairmen for their undemocratic practices, I find myself ironically supporting a chairman who on the surface would appear to be even less democratic. As an outspoken voice of the reform movement of the party, I find that I am in the strange position of still being that voice, but with a seat at the table. By virtue of the fact that the Highlands GOP committee members asked me to be their chairman last week, I am one of the leaders that Oxley invited to his screening committee meeting.

Bill Barham and I were the first two people to arrive at the meeting yesterday. We were approaching the door of the Molly Pitcher from opposite directions at the same time. We were both about a ½ hour early and spent the time together having a very cordial conversation. During the course of the meeting, Adam Puharic publicly advised Oxley to have a convention in much the same manner I had advised Joe privately. Long term readers will appreciate what a weird morning I had yesterday. When I told my wife about these encounters she said, "Are you sure that wasn't a dream? I can see your mind coming up with something that crazy."

Maybe this is what the beginnings of party unity looks like.

Oxley said on several occasions said that the last three conventions did not have a quorum and that we lost control of Freehold as a result. It took me a while to get it, but as I try to look back on those conventions through fresh eyes, I can see his point. Going back to 2006, those conventions were not driven by selecting the best candidates; rather they were driven by competing power brokers for control of the party. The candidates were secondary to the dominance of the competing power brokers and the infighting continued throughout the election seasons, resulting in defeat. Now we are on the verge of having the State Democratic chairman running Monmouth County. The Democrats have seen our weakness and are salivating to reap our spoils.

After almost two decades of paternalistic control of the Monmouth GOP under Bill Dowd and Harry Larrison, many county committee seats were vacant, and remain so today. With over 800 county committee seats, it was rare that a convention under Fred Niemann or Adam Puharic's leadership had more than 400 people show up. Less than 300 was not unheard of. More than 500 was unheard of. Of those who did show up, many had no clue about the candidates they were voting for and were simply following the instructions given to them by their municipal chairperson. The convention system is unfortunately vulnerable to shenanigans. It should not be this way, but it is. The results have not been good. Oxley is to be commended for taking a different course, albeit a potentially controversial and unpopular choice.

I don’t believe that Oxley is taking us back to the days of a paternalistic system. The leaders he has selected to advise him come from all factions of the party. They have vastly different points of view and competing self interests. None of them are shy. They all share a common commitment to good government and Monmouth County’s extraordinary quality of life.

While Joe is leaning on those who have established themselves as leaders to steer the party in the short term, he is simultaneously working to build the party from the grassroots up in the long term. He is developing a training program curriculum for elected officials and political activists that should bear fruit in the form of new and competent leaders both in the short and long term. The seminars for municipal officials and chairs start next month.

As an undecided voter for Governor with a great deal of respect and admiration for both Chris Christie and Steve Lonegan, I was looking forward to watching them compete for Monmouth County’s line. But regardless of how that turned out, there would still be the primary where the race will ultimately be won. The outcome of a contest for the gubernatorial line in Monmouth County would not have been the deciding factor in our local races come November.

Let us keep our eye on the prize.

We need to re-elect our Assembly members and elect a Freeholder this year. I’m unaware of any challenges to our Assembly candidates and so far we only have one declared Freeholder candidate.

Previous conventions have left us divided. Collectively we have lacked the maturity to unite after those hard battles. Joe says he has a better way. Let’s give it a try rather than fighting over what didn’t work anyway.

This year, there is little to fight over. There is a great deal to fight for, together.