George Ajjan

It's almost a month after the primary, but former Republican Senate primary candidate Murray Sabrin's unorthodox campaign continues to produce reverberations.

James Hogan, who ran for the Republican congressional nomination on Sabrin's slate in the 6th District, wrote a blog entry
excoriating the campaign for its unusual strategy and press release blitzes, which he said ultimate hurt both Sabrin and his down-ballot candidates.

Hogan placed third in the primary with a little over 1,000 votes, behind Robert McLeod, the winner, and Peter Cerrato.

Still, Hogan professes no bitter feelings towards Sabrin - just a slight feeling of bamboozlement.

Claiming to have nailed down the likely identity of someone who pretended to be him in email correspondence at the height of the Republican Primary, State GOP Chairman Tom Wilson today sent out a message to Republicans fingering a key supporter of Senate candidate Murray Sabrin.

"Efforts to trace the source of the emails were hampered by the inability of the Internet service providers to provide the details necessary," Wilson told Republicans in his email message sent today.

"However, the account was re-opened at some later point and was successfully traced to the former residence of Patrick Donohue, who owns Max Consulting in New York City," Wilson said of the early April transmissions.

Max Consulting is listed on Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports as having received more than $123,000 from the underdog campaign of Sabrin, who confirmed Donohue was the campaign’s fund-raiser.

Sabrin for Senate spokesman George Ajjan won 29% of the vote against Rep. Bill Pascrell in 2004
If Murray Sabrin’spress releases from the primary campaign were to be taken literally, the New Jersey political scene would have been even more of a Bizarro World than it already is.

Republican Senate nominee Dick Zimmer would have been under federal investigation. Sabrin would have been endorsed by Gannett, or rather, the corpse of newspaper mogul Frank Gannet. Joe Pennacchio would have been a fascist. Tom Wilson would have resigned in disgrace from his post as Republican State Chairman. Chris Christie would not be the favorite potential GOP candidate for Governor next year. And Sabrin, who ultimately got 14% of the vote on primary day, would have been the clear frontrunner throughout the Republican Senate race and would have won every debate he participated in.

“Throughout this campaign we employed a creative strategy to try to cut through in a race where the press was paying very little attention to Murray Sabrin,” said George Ajjan, a former Republican kamikaze congressional candidate and frequent Republican pundit/blogger who worked as Sabrin’s communications director.

Ajjan was the operative who devised Sabrin’s unorthodox communications strategy that was at times clever and funny – like the time that Sabrin managed to get a blog entry on the Wall Street Journal’s Web site for letting $20,000 in campaign contributions ride in a 20-1 shot in the Kentucky Derby – but also earned ridicule from members of the Republican political establishment who bore the brunt of many of Sabrin’s press releases.

Ajjan won’t call his communications strategy misleading. He prefers the term “creative,” and notes that the press releases went out to the press and political insiders, as opposed to the general public, which saw a polished, mild-mannered candidate with a good grasp of economic issues.

Senate candidate Murray Sabrin was presidential candidate Ron Paul’s biggest advocate in New Jersey.  And tonight, Paul, a Texas representative, returned the favor by visiting the self-proclaimed Republican frontrunner for a fundraiser at the Hilton next to Newark’s Penn Station.

The event, which attracted about 100 supporters, cost $250 per head and $100 for the under 30 crowd, who made up about a quarter of the audience.  Though the campaign wasn’t certain exactly how much they made tonight, spokesman George Ajjan announced with great fanfare that the campaign has raised a total of $500,000 so far. 

The general theme of the night was an impending economic collapse if the government doesn’t radically alter its fiscal policy.  But Paul, Sabrin and economist Peter Schiff – Paul’s economic advisor --  all said that the Paul’s presidential campaign ignited a movement that has continued with Sabrin’s Senate candidacy, which Paul referred to as “the strategically most important Senate race that’s going on in the country.”

Their candidates are not expected to win in New Jersey, but Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul supporters are preparing for different kinds of victories.

Huckabee state campaign head Peter Kane spent part of the day working the phones and handing out flyers at supermarkets. He’ll hold a victory party tonight at the Scotchwood Diner in Scotch Plains.

Dr. Murray Sabrin, a longtime friend of presidential candidate Ron Paul, has entered the race for U.S. Senate

Yesterday may not have been the most ideal time for Ramapo College finance professor Murray Sabrin to announce his Republican candidacy for the U.S. Senate.

Sabrin, who ran for the Senate as a Republican in 2000 and for governor as a Libertarian in 1997, is a friend of presidential candidate and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, and has been one of his most visible New Jersey supporters. Sabrin even kicked off his campaign yesterday with a personal endorsement from Paul.

For a candidate who garnered low votes during his last two runs for statewide office -- 5% in his gubernatorial campaign and 13% in the 2000 Senate primary -- the Paul connection could prove beneficial. If Sabrin can attract even a small fraction of Paul supporters, who raised $6 million for their candidate in a single day last month, then he may be able to raise enough money to have a significant impact on the Senate race.

State Senator Gerald Cardinale’s latest attack on Democratic state Senate candidate Joe Ariyan has drawn sharp rebukes by some Jewish Democrats as well as at least one Republican.

Last week, Cardinale accused Ariyan of having ties to the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), an advocacy group whose former communications director, Hussein Ibish, has made some controversial remarks in the past. Ariyan's law partner and campaign donor, Hani Khoury, served as president of the group’s New Jersey chapter in 2005 and 2006, and is still a member.

Recently, Cardinale sent out a campaign mailer saying that Ariyan has allowed “his firm to defend numerous illegal aliens detained by the federal government after 9-11 for suspected terrorism,” and noted Ariyan’s relationship with Khoury. Of the ADC, it said “This group has instructed its members to right (sic) letters in support of radical and extremist Palestinian attacks against the Jewish people and Israel.”