Thursday, February 26, 2009

Two Year Strategy Worth Considering

One and done. If you are a Republican candidate in Monmouth County who loses an election, you are not likely to be considered a viable candidate for future races.

Perhaps that is why there is only one candidate, Eileen Kean, who has announced an intention to run for Freeholder this year against popular incumbent Barbara McMorrow.

Republicans don't have much experience running against incumbents in Monmouth. We haven't had to do so in twenty years.

Democrats have been much more forgiving of their losing candidates. They've treated the money spent on failed races as an investment in building name recognition for future races. McMorrow won her seat in Freehold on her second try. Freeholder Amy Mallet was elected after two failed Assembly races.

As the Monmouth GOP selects a candidate this year to challenge McMorrow, we should consider a quality candidate who can start running against John D'Amico on November 4, in the unfortunate event that we do not unseat McMorrow on November 3.

12 comments:

ambrosiajr said...

I certainly wouldn't consider not winning against McMorrow as "unfortunate" Art. She's proven herself to be a thoughtful and prudent Freeholder who has an independent streak. That's what I liked about Anna Little, and that's what I like about Barbara McMorrow. She's a very capable Director, so why, knowing that you think highly of her, would catagorize a that loss as unfortunate? I think it would be extremely unfortunate if she LOST the race. She does the county proud, and in the end, isn't that what we all want?

Anonymous said...

Good point, why would anyone want some party stooge to replace McMorrow, the best Freeholder we have? If you want a new Republican on the Board ask someone like Burry to resign and replace her with someone who can contribute.

Anonymous said...

She has proven to be much better than Andrew Lucas who lost the seat. With 42% increase in taxes for Manalapan in the last two years, why would we want a Lucas over a McMorrow? We need this DINO!

Anonymous said...

Big picture - McMorrow wins and D'Amico is director next year. It's not about her - it's about control of the county by D'Amico and Mallett and their cronies. Art is right - we need to commit to a candidate for more than one year. We spend a fortune on name recognition, then throw it out the following year.

Hey, I can think of a candidate with name recognition - how about running Curley again? Now that the chairman got his municipal jobs, maybe he can learn to put his candidates first in line for funding support and give John a fighting chance.

Anonymous said...

We created our own problem when we let machine politicians treat Freeholder positions as entitlements. Like allowing a criminally corrupt Larrison run the Freeholders for 40 years, then allowing him to pick Barham to run after he could not even win mayor of his small town. We deserve what we created. It will take a few cycles to wash away the stains we allowed to set in.
-EthicsCount

Anonymous said...

With Chris Chritie at the top of the ticket a Republican has a shot.My pick would be John Curley.He is the hardest campaigner I ever met.There is no candidate out there announced or not announced that has any better chance than Curley.But Old John seems to be on the outs with the party bosses.Pucker up John ,maybe you got a shot.

Anonymous said...

As long as the county is going to allow Manalapan to pull it down, republicans are going to have a hard time winning anything. Lucas is from Manalapan and there are serious questions as to whether he really won the convention. More than a few people saw some things manipulated by McEnery that cause the results (by one vote, if you remember) to be highly suspect. Now we learn that McEnery has had a working deal with Manalapan democrats for several years where he deliberately keeps republicans from being elected by excluding the workers from the campaign, raising no money and never quite getting around to starting the campaign. This is the guy responsible for having Lucas run for freeholder. And what does Oxley do about this? Absolutely nothing. He's too busy figuring out where he can be appointed township attorney. How many mistakes for county chairman are we going to make? Do you realize the last three county chairman lost elections to SCUDIERY for heavens sake. Can't we do any better than that?

Art Gallagher said...

Anonymous 6:54--

Come on already!

What would you have Oxley do? The Manalapan GOP County Committee members elected McEnery chairman. You seem to want to keep fighting that battle here. Oxley has attempted to bring both sides together, as you know.

If both sides won't come together, one of them has to win and one has to lose.

You're right about the GOP needing Manalapan. Help us out and make it a winner for us.

Anonymous said...

Amen to the article! There needs to be a two year investment in good candidates (they are out there) to establish name recognition. I'm sure there are a few that are holding back simply because there aren't assurances by the County GOP in investing for the longer term. Why go all out now and jeopardize your future chances, if they're going to throw you to the side of the road. Also, we need to remember that not everyone has had to run a County campaign to unseat an incumbent before, so it may take more than one try to get it right.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 6:54--
Get over yourself.

What have you done to improve things in Manalapan or the County for that matter? Your answer is tar & feather McHenry and Lucas should move out of town. That is not going to happen.

What have you done to help at the Local level? What have you done to help at the County level? What have you done to help at the State level? There are lots of ways and lots of levels to participate and make things better as a Republican. All you need to do is pick up the phone and be willing to roll up your sleeves. Are you a member of the affiliated organization? That would be a great first step!

Anonymous said...

why to elect people whose only concern is to get themselves jobs. forcing both corrupt parties to constantly fight for control is the best chance we have of halfway honest government. putting either party in control is a BIG mistake

Anonymous said...

Joe DiBella for Freeholder, 2009!..