Tom Wilson

Former Bergen County Republican Chairman Rob Ortiz has landed as the Republican State Committee’s new finance chairman.

Ortiz, who was ousted two weeks ago as the Republican chairman in Bergen County, wrote an email to his friends and supporters announcing the news, and said that he would make Bergen County one of his fundraising priorities.

“As the largest county with the largest number of registered Republicans in the state, Bergen is crucial not only to reinvigorating the GOP from the grassroots up and identifying future candidates, but is also a crucial must-win county in any statewide campaign effort,” he wrote. “As such, Bergen will remain a key concern for me — as it should for every Republican around the state.”

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.

If the GOP’s long march of self-combusting U.S. Senate candidates failed to inspire a lot of rank and file Republicans, the brief flirtation Princeton businessman John Crowley had with a June Senate primary run held for some the more lasting promise of an "it" factor party champion.

The lineaments of the Crowley narrative were indeed compelling for Republicans.

Son of a cop who died in the line of duty; Naval Intelligence officer; Successful CEO; Young and devoted father who founded a biotech business to create a disease cure to save his children; Hollywood movie subject with a movie apparently due out next year, according to Republican sources.

Crowley’s would-be entry into the race had come under the radar, as Andy Unanue prepared for his return to New Jersey from the ski slopes of Colorado intent on claiming his party’s in absentia nomination.

Speculation about who would run for lieutenant governor on a ticketGOP State Chair Tom Wilson with potential GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie amounts to a parlor room game, according to State Republican Chairman Tom Wilson.

U.S. Attorney Christie has not said publicly that he intends to challenge Gov. Jon Corzine in 2009, but the lawman who has a sterling record cracking down on public corruption remains the party’s superstar.

Gender. Geography. Ethnicity. All of these factors come into play when Republicans consider who could strongly stand with Christie as a candidate for lieutenant governor.

But ultimately, said Wilson, "If Chris is the nominee, his running mate for lieutenant governor has to be someone who shares his priorities and his sense of ethics."

After being defeated in his reelection bid for Bergen County Republican Chairman, sources say that Rob Ortiz is likely to be the Republican State Committee’s next finance chairman.

Ortiz, an attorney from Ridgewood, raised about $200,000 for the Bergen County Republican Party, helping it emerge from $40,000 in debt. But his support for the candidacy of his friend and client Andy Unanue, along with several other missteps, cost him that job.

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.

After a protracted legal battle, Mercer County Superior Court Judge Paul Innes today ordered Gov. Jon Corzine to release about 740 pages of email correspondences between him and union leader/ex-girlfriend Karla Katz.

But don’t expect to see the emails any time soon. Attorney General Anne Milgram, who respresents Corzine in the matter, has vowed to appeal the decision with the state Supreme Court and will seek a stay on the release of the documents.

Judge Innes ruled that only 45 pages were not subject to disclosure.

Today’s decision is the outcome of a lawsuit that has started just one day short of a year ago. On May 31, 2007, Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson filed suit to force the Corzine Administration to release the emails, which they suspected contained discussions about a contract negotiation between the state and Katz’s union, Communications Workers of America Local 1034.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg was called a "swamp dog" by his 1988 Republican challenger, Pete Dawkins: Getty Images Photo
Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson  faxed an angry letter to Democratic U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg this morning, accusing his reelection campaign of being the source of today’s Star-Ledger story that quoted a lawsuit related to an intra-family business spat that led to Senate candidate Andy Unanue’s ouster as Chief Operating Officer of Goya Foods.

“It is telling that after nearly 25 years in office, the best you have to offer the people of New Jersey is a tired, old gutter campaign replete with sleazy personal attacks,” said Wilson. “Frankly, the legal proceedings from Andy's family business dispute are no more relevant or appropriate campaign fodder than your divorce proceedings.”

The four year old testimony quoted in the article alleged that Unanue showed up to work drunk. In his own testimony, Unanue disputed that, but admitted that he had come to work hung over.

Wilson went on to outline past Lautenberg campaigns where he said he smeared his opponents, like the campaign against Republican Millicent Fenwick that launched his Senate career.

United States Senate candidate Murray Sabrin hasn’t wasted any time in going after his new rival, Andy Unanue.

Less than 24 hours after Unanue decided to enter the Senate race, Sabrin put out a press release calling him a “playboy nightclub owner” and criticizing members of the Republican leadership for recruiting him.

Sabrin also challenged Unanue to a debate sometime this week.

U.S. Ambassador to Brazil Cliff Sobel is a possible Senate candidateRepublican State Chairman Tom Wilson hasn’t reached out to any other potential candidates to fill in for Anne Evans Estabrook, but he doesn’t think having other people running would be a bad thing.

Wilson said that he’s heard several names pop up, including United States Ambassador to Brazil Clifford Sobel, who has been named as a desirable potential candidate by Republican sources.

“I don’t generally get into the business of getting people into things. Joe Pennacchio’s got some momentum and clearly is touching a chord with people. If others want to get into the race, they should do that,” said Wilson. “I’ve known Cliff (Sobel) for a number of years and would be happy to talk to him about it if it’s something he’s interested in. There are a lot of things about him that are very attractive and he certainly has a record of caring about public service.”