Support for Team O’Toole Grows in District 40 After Face off Last night

May 1, 2007

For Immediate Release:

Contact: Matt Kazmierczak(201) 274-9831 

THE BERGEN COUNTY CONSERVATIVE REGULAR REPUBLICANS  

Support for Team O’Toole Grows in District 40 After Face off Last night

   Mahwah - Assemblyman Kevin O’Toole made it clear last night why he is best candidate for the District 40 Senate Primary race when he impressed a group of about 50 local Republicans at a candidate’s forum last night in Mahwah, said Matt Kazmierczak, freeholder campaign manager for The Bergen County Conservative Regular Republicans.  

“Kevin O’Toole is polished, he knows the issues and he knows how to win. His message last night was well received. He left little doubt about who would be the better Senator from District 40,� says Kazmierczak, who is managing the freeholder ticket of Vince O’Brien, Oakland Councilman Pat Pignatelli and Councilman Scott Pruiksma of Midland Park.   

O’Toole is running for District 40 Senate seat that is being vacated by incumbent Sen. Henry McNamara. O’Toole is heading a legislative slate that includes Assembly David Russo and Wayne Mayor Scott Rumana running for Assembly.  

The opposition slate is headed by Todd Caliguire, who lost his race for county executive last year. 

 O’Toole spoke of the need to elect a Republican state senate so the state can begin the work that must be done to create real tax reform. O’Toole has said on numerous occasions, “Democrats promised us tax reform, but instead have given us another election year gimmick that will do nothing but push off the legislature’s ability to deal with the state’s growing financial crisis.� 

 O’Toole has offered a number of measures the state should be embracing to create financial reform which would result in cutting some $2 billion from the state’s bloated $33.5 billion budget. 

 Caliguire, said Kazmierczak, offered few suggestions on how to cut state spending. As a county executive candidate last year, Caliguire called for moving most of the cost of county government to the state, thereby creating a bigger, more costly state government.  

“I don’t think people want a bigger, more expensive state government,� said Kazmierczak, a former Oakland Councilman.  “They want just the opposite.� 

ELECT CONSERVATIVES

 About the only thing Caliguire said that Kazmierczak and his ticket agreed with is the need to elect conservatives.  “Mr. Caliguire is correct; the Republican Party needs to elect more conservatives.

 To do that we need to nominate candidates like Kevin O’Toole who has a proven track record of winning campaigns,� said Kazmierczak. 

 “As I recall, Mr. Caliguire lost the county executive election last year by 53,000 votes – one of the most devastating losses the Bergen County Republican Party has suffered in its history,� said Kazmierczak. “He didn’t even get 40 percent of the vote (39.3 percent).� 

 In his failed bid for Governor in 2005, Caliguire took $517,000 in state matching funds and managed to finish dead last in the Republican Primary with just 7,463 votes statewide.  He finished next to last in his home County of Bergen with just 1,800 votes.

 “Kevin O’Toole is a fiscal conservative who has proven he knows how to win elections. He has won seven legislative elections in a row and has represented District 40 for six years.  If Republicans want a conservative leader in the legislature, they have one in Kevin O’Toole,� added Kazmierczak.   

As a member of the Assembly Budget Committee, O’Toole led the GOP fight in identifying over $2 billion in specific spending cuts to Corzine's budget. And as a member of the Pensions and Benefits Committee, led the effort in identifying over $1 billion in salary and benefit reforms to save taxpayers money.

 CALIGUIRE RUNNING WITH DEMOCRATS  

Kazmierczak added that if Caliguire is so determined to elect conservatives, “he should explain why he is running on a ticket that features two former liberal Democrats from Oakland, who have received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Democratic organization in Bergen County and New Jersey including a PAC directed by former State Senator and convicted felon John Lynch. 

“Mr. Caliguire has made no effort to distance himself from his running mates in Oakland, who as little as a month ago were Democrats trying to beat our Republican mayor,� said Kazmierczak, a former Oakland councilman. “We are waiting for him to say why he is calling himself a conservative but is running with Democrats. 

“There’s a lot more to being a conservative than simply saying you are. I don’t think Mr. Caliguire realizes that,� said Kazmierczak.  “Kevin O’Toole has been in the trenches fighting the fight for fiscal conservatism.   Mr. Caliguire hasn’t been able to even get elected.�  

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