Free Republic

NEWARK, N.J. — If you need proof that the state Republican movement is in tatters, Save Jerseyans, look no further than an NJTV interview segment with Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R-21) which aired on Saturday’s On the Record with Michael Aron. “When people organize because they dislike Trump so much, that organizes people on the local level and on the county level,” Bramnick told Aron. “They’ve done a really good job taking out Republicans, and a lot of it is based on his personality and his abrasiveness.”

For eight years, the Republican Party in New Jersey revolved around one person: Chris Christie. But the two-term governor is gone now, and the Jersey GOP is in poor shape. Almost irrelevant, really, with Democrat Phil Murphy in the governor's seat and his party firmly in control of the state Legislature. In fact, Republicans are left with their smallest number of state lawmakers in nearly four decades -- 41 out of 120 seats in the Legislature. In Washington, no Republican has been elected to the U.S. Senate since 1972, and Democrats are aiming at picking up a U.S. House seat...

Rep. Tom MacArthur, alone among New Jersey Republicans, has embraced Donald Trump with a full bear hug. Maybe he thought that would work out for him politically, but it's shaping up to be a disaster. He's toast as a statewide candidate in Blue Jersey, where Republicans had hoped he might rise to the U.S. Senate or governor's mansion. And now he has fresh reason to worry that he could even lose his seat in Congress. That reason is Conor Lamb, the rookie Democrat from southwestern Pennsylvania who just stunned the political world by marching into deep red territory and grabbing...

NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt released the following statement regarding the future of the GOP brand in New Jersey: . “While I appreciate Assemblyman Bramnick’s desire to speak out about the direction of our State Party, I think it is important to make clear that he does so as an individual and not on behalf of the NJGOP. Our State Republican Organization is a diverse group of individuals and organizations, with multi-­faceted views on a variety of issues. Still, the core principles of the Republican State Committee are to fight for lower taxes and to reduce the intrusion of government into...

With former Gov. Chris Christie gone and Republicans holding slimmer minorities in the state legislature, Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick tried Thursday to rebrand the New Jersey GOP. “We’re the Republican Party, but we’re not crazy,” Bramnick said. “We are not crazy or extreme. We’re reasonable.” Bramnick (R-Union) was at times more critical of his own party’s president than the newly sworn-in Democratic governor during a news conference inside the state house with other Assembly Republican leaders. He went out of his way to denounce Trump’s tweets and divisive rhetoric but passed on opportunities to attack Gov. Phil Murphy or...

Trenton, NJ – On the day of the swearing in of New Jersey’s new Governor, Phil Murphy, NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt delivered an important message to the people of New Jersey: . “New Jersey is our home and I serve as Chairman of the Republican Party here, because this is where I chose to raise my family,” said Steinhardt. “I made that conscious choice twenty some years ago, because I wanted the same opportunities for my children that New Jersey offered my parents, grandparents, sister and me. I want the best for my family, my community and our state, but...

The first time I asked Gov. Chris Christie a question we were 2,000 miles from New Jersey. I was a year into my first newspaper job in southeast New Mexico. Christie, just eight months into his first term, was there to stump for Susana Martinez's campaign for governor. Noting the candidate's law-and-order record, Christie played up the Jersey shtick that worked so well for him. "We invented pay-to-play," Christie joked to a crowd that treated him like a celebrity. And then I asked the unoriginal question he'd gotten plenty already: You here to lay the groundwork for a presidential run?

I’ve spoken to countless ‘smart’ folks since November’s Republican butt-kicking, Save Jerseyans, and I’ve gotten just as many opinions as to what needs to come next if the GOP is ever going to make a comeback in blueish places like the Garden State. The party hierarchy/establishment consensus is… unclear, and anything but a compelling contrast at the moment. Chris Christie is (all but) gone and we’re entering into a period of chaos and transition. It might last a month or a decade. Stay tuned. The political operative consensus is less ambiguous: get back to “moderate” Republicanism, emphasizing fiscal restraint and...

HACKETTSTOWN, N.J. — The Republican candidate for governor of New Jersey sat on a plush beige couch in the Republican mayor’s condo, surrounded by Republican county officials and politicians, and offered up her plan to stem what is perhaps the state’s most daunting challenge — its deepening property tax crisis. She adopted it, she said, from an unexpected source. “This is a page out of the Democratic playbook, it really is,” Kim Guadagno, the lieutenant governor said, noting that the plan came from a proposal in deep-blue Illinois. With Republicans controlling the White House, both chambers of Congress and having...

TRENTON -- Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, the early Republican front-runner for governor, told NJ Advance Media on Tuesday she would slash New Jersey's notoriously high property taxes by up to $3,000 a year for homeowners who pay more than 5 percent of their household income on school taxes. Guadagno said her proposal -- which she plans to officially roll out Wednesday morning -- would cut property taxes by $1.5 billion annually across New Jersey and aims to benefit those "who need property tax relief the most," such as younger residents, middle-class families, and senior citizens. "It's the kind of plan...

Let me confess: I really like New Jersey. No joke. My earliest memories are living on Alpha Avenue in Old Bridge, New Jersey. When I was eight, in the summer of ’68, my family moved. Today I live in Virginia, but just last year I detoured while driving to New York City and darted over to see the old Old Bridge neighborhood. It was nice. I enjoyed the scenery. And, thankfully, I didn’t have to pay their highest-in-the-nation taxes. Or contemplate their latest corruption scandal. I’ve been thinking about New Jersey because, like Virginia, the state holds its governor’s race...

As a small-town mayor, Steve Lonegan won both admirers and enemies across the state by trying to have English declared his community's official language, announcing he wouldn't support civil unions for gay couples, fighting rate increases on toll roads and suing the state government over how much money it was borrowing. But it wasn't making noise about those conservative values that first took him to borough hall.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie made a brief campaign appearance today in Sussex County to pick up the endorsement of county GOP elected officials and leaders. "They do it the right way here. They keep taxes at a reasonable level and actually reduce spending in the budget," Christie said at a ceremony in front of the historic county courthouse in downtown Newton. Christie's remarks were followed by brief speeches made by the county's five Republican freeholders in a show of unity for the former U.S. attorney. Sussex County Freeholder Harold "Hal" Wirths said he was supporting the former Morris County...

The United States of America is pretty friendly towards homeschoolers. Many early presidents were homeschooled. Every homeschooling case brought up has been defended by the courts, federally and locally, and Congress (Wisconsin v. Yoder, California’s In re Rachel L., etc). Now, though, it looks like opponents of homeschooling are trying a new method: the state legislatures. New Jersey’s pending A3123 is a perfect example.

If you lie in District 31 or 34, call Sheila Oliver or L. Harvey Smith (the sponsors) and tell them what you think.

“Wilson and DeCroce Must Step Down in wake of 2005 debacle.” Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan said today that the massive ten-point Corzine landslide victory over Doug Forrester coupled with a minimum one seat Assembly loss was a message that the state Republican Party needs to rebuild with new, conservative leadership and said the first step were resignations from State GOP Chair Tom Wilson and Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce. “The Republican Party faced a humiliating defeat in last night’s elections because the party leadership went out of its way to tell conservatives to ‘shut up and sit in the back...

Republicans' liberal use of Mafia metaphors has angered some Italian-American activists who weighed in on the contentious campaign for the governor's office Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Forrester enjoyed some unexpected praise from environmental leaders who are at odds with his Democratic opponent, U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, over preservation of a Delaware River island. The Italian-American activists gathered in Trenton to demand an apology from top Republicans, who have repeatedly compared Corzine and his allies to mobsters in an effort to underscore his links to the party's most controversial figures. "To actually have a party organization that...

The Great Thing About the Truth...IT SPEAKS FOR ITSELF FACT: Jon Corzine has passed no bills into law and has accomplished nothing as a U.S. Senator. FACT: Jon Corzine has been called "An Enemy of the Taxpayer" by Americans for Tax Reform. FACT: Jon Corzine receives a lifetime "F" rating from the National Taxpayers Union. FACT: Jon Corzine promised not to raise taxes....but voted 133 times for higher taxes. FACT: Jon Corzine is the biggest spender in the United States Senate. FACT: Jon Corzine financed the group trying to overturn the state's pay-to-play ban. FACT: Jon Corzine's retired school teacher...

TRENTON – Campaign workers are spending the final hours before Tuesday’s primary working the phones and sending out e-mails in an effort to gain precious votes. Those working for Republican candidates Doug Forrester and Bret Schundler say votes will be critical based on recent poll numbers. According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, Forrester holds 35 percent of the vote with Schundler coming on strong at 33 percent. Campaign staffers know their voter outreach blitz could make the difference for their candidate. Despite reminders from campaign staffers, political experts say turnout at primaries is usually low. Out of 850,000 registered voters,...

Jury probes effort to smear GOP Testimony focuses on State Police files and McGreevey's campaign A state grand jury is hearing testimony into allegations that former State Police officials and a former state senator conducted a covert operation that used confidential files in an effort to smear Republicans and help James E. McGreevey run for governor four years ago. ...A key witness in the investigation, retired State Police Lt. Vincent Bellaran, said in an interview this week he has testified three times before the grand jury in Trenton. In return for his testimony, Bellaran said, prosecutors who report to state...