9 Comments | Post Comment
March 19, 2008 - 5:35pm

Pennacchio not losing supporters in counties he's won

By Matt Friedman
Tags: Phil Morin, Murray Sabrin, Joseph Pennacchio, Henry Kuhl

There’s still no shortage of party leaders scrambling to find alternative candidates to Joe Pennacchio and Murray Sabrin in the Republican Senate primary, but Pennacchio’s support has not seemed to waver the counties where he’s already won the party line.

In Hunterdon County, no doubts have been raised in GOP Chairman Henry Kuhl’s mind about the viability of Pennacchio’s candidacy.

“I don’t see that that will change very many peoples’ minds,” he said. “I think that the candidate Sabrin, in my opinion, would need to properly campaign and sell his ideas to people to be successful rather than take something up that’s 17 years old.”

Union County GOP Chairman Phil Morin said that he hasn’t completed reading A Nationalist Agenda -- the work Pennacchio wrote in the early 1990s that has led to dyspepsia among some party leaders who fear that the documents will leave Pennacchio vulnerable in the general election.

But while Morin said that he won’t pass judgment on Pennacchio until he has finished reading the document, he hasn’t heard from any concerned county committee members or municipal chairs about it, which he typically does when something proves controversial.

Warren County Republican Chairman Doug Steinhardt switched allegiance from Anne Estabrook to Pennacchio before Estabrook dropped out of the race. As of right now, he sees no reason to switch again, and has received no complaints from his county committee members.

The county line will be awarded by the party’s executive committee, and Steinhardt expects that Pennacchio to will win it.

“I haven’t heard of any brush back here,” he said.

Bergen County Republican Chairman Rob Ortiz, whose organization gave Pennacchio the county line earlier this month, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Send tips to matt@politicsnj.com
Article Tools

Comments

When Phil Morin comes

posted by bitaryo

to a conclusion and feedback, the General Election will have passed.

03/19/08 5:47 pm

What Matt doesn't tell you.

posted by RLC Grass Roots

Is that although the county chairs haven't heard any complaints about Pennacchio yet, lets be honest, this just got out earlier this week. Its 94 pages, and to be honest, takes a while to digest.

 Also, I don't think many of the county committee members have read it yet. 

 But whats of real issue here is that county chairs and county committee people make up about 1 percent of the republican party in New Jersey.  They truly don't represent what the average republican is thinking. So to suggest that the "party" is getting behind Pennacchio, how about we be honest, and admit that the "Party Elite" is getting behind Pennacchio. When everyone starts talking to the average "joe schmoe republican" and they get the same answer, then you can claim the party as a whole.

03/19/08 5:55 pm

This is why

posted by SewarenScoop

Kuhl is an abysmal chairman and needs to go. Morin, with his one freeholder candidate that he will sacrifice at the altar of Angel Estrada, shouldnt even be interviewed at this point.

03/19/08 5:56 pm

alternative candidate

posted by GOPconservative

An alternative choice for the GOP this November...

 Garrett for Senate.

No, not conservative Congressman Scott Garrett.  If he ran, we would risk losing one of the best Congressmen in the nation.  Let's run Michael Garrett, the Congressman's brother.

 He is as conservative as his younger brother.

 He is a lifelong NJ resident and lifelong Republican.

He's pro-life

He's pro-second amendment

He's as fiscally conservative as they come.

Best of all, he is absolutely hated by the unions, particularly the NJEA.

With his brother's connections, he would have instant name recognition and an ability to garner financial support nationwide.

I'll be the first to admit that ANY Republican is a very long-shot in this state.  But at least with Garrett we would have a true Republican to rally around.  That would be a real change. 

 I just came up with this idea, and have no idea if he would even consider running.  He probably doesn't even know me, but I'll take this liberty and suggest you go to his family's website and send him some encouragement to run......http://www.ShaleHillsFarm.com

03/19/08 6:58 pm

Since we cant post on the poll today

posted by SJBlue

I would suggest that Murray Sabrin get better help than a few guys that sit around all day and vote in an unscientific poll that shows he will defeat Frank Lautenberg. Murray, Joe, and unnamed candidate will all lose to Frank in November

03/19/08 7:33 pm

Hey SJ

posted by RLC Grass Roots

 And do you suppose that Frank had 5 people in his office click "vote" repeatedly for him yesterday when he was up against Pennacchio?

 Truth is, there are more republicans who come here to just read the lines, and do not comment. They all voted yesterday for Lautenburg because they were not confident in Pennacchio, but today they are voting for Sabrin because they think he can beat the pants off him.

 I too am surprised about the fact that the website will not allow for people to comment on the poll, when they normally do. I wonder why?

03/19/08 8:00 pm

Treffinger's lesson is hard to swallow for GOP establishment

posted by Wiel

I would like to remind you of a case of Treffinger who lined up all counties in 2002 run for the US Senate. He did it running against dream candidates Forrester and Allen. There was also Mattheusen. I personally attended Treffinger's speech on patriotism and the US Senate or why he is running. It was fine until FBI showed up and ended Treffinger's career and candidacy. It also showed us that he was a liar and he deceived Republicans.

Jersey Joke also makees speeches about patriotism and the US Senate. Even better, he wraps himself in the Ronald Reagan cloth without tellling us what he stands for. That's why his "scholarly" thesis from ninetheen years ago are important, because they give us insight into his thinking. Some people already commented here about this, but do you want to have the US Senator,who will explore his inner thoughts in your name creating public policies that are questionable to say the least.

Let us spare the shame of the general elections and the field that Democrats will have with this. It is a joke.

The fact that GOP establishment would not even raise questions about it tells you a lot about why we are in the hole in NJ. Hopeless no less.

03/20/08 9:09 am

frank won

posted by SJBlue

his poll against joe because it is logical to think that a man that has never lost reelection is a democrat running in a good democrat year and has be basically loved by his state will win

03/20/08 1:54 pm

and no

posted by SJBlue

since FL is a veteran pol-he knows the differene between scientific polls and surveys.  Furthermore, most people who post on this site are GOPers who he has no hope of convincing to vote for him regardless. Lastly, he is a United States Senator with much more important things to do (as does his staff) than to assign people to vote on a webpage. Sorry its obvious that Murray puts stake here-another reason why he is a bad candidate and dare I say I agree with Jersey Joe when he says MUrray is fringe

03/21/08 11:55 am

Poll

Untitled Document

SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTERS
Email address

Select State or States
Hold down CTRL to select multiple

PolitickerNJ Partners

RSS Feeds

Syndicate content
Add to Netvibes
Subscribe with Bloglines

Send tips to: politicsnj@aol.com or AIM politicsnj

Most Active Stories

New Jersey Municipal Elections 2008

Quote of the Day

May 16, 2008

"The saying about Dominicans is that we have two things in our blood — baseball and politics. We are passionate about politics, and just about getting involved."

-- Cid Wilson, a Leonia resident and past president of the national Dominican American National Roundtable, on the growing influence of Dominicans in New Jersey politics.

-The Record, 5/16/08
more
PolitickerNJ.com Jobs