A Tale of 2 NJ Conventions

On September 15, the Passaic County Republicans held their long-awaited convention to determine who the County GOP would officially endorse for the 2008 Presidential primaries. In principle, this was an excellent initiative aimed to increase transparency and decrease bossism. In practice, it was not optimally publicized and thus missed the mark of attempting to attract more outsiders, but devoted Republicans, to get involved with their local towns' GOP campaigns. Turnout was respectable, but consisted of the same reliable faces that attend all the events and fundraisers. So, all in all, the outreach component of the event fell short, and the local media totally bypassed the event, unfortunately.

Nevertheless, I spoke on behalf of Ron Paul (see below). Also speaking were Pat Kramer for Mitt Romney, Jim Marotta for Fred Thompson, and Rich Goldberg for Rudy Giuliani (whose supporters were out in full force - he won a crushing victory).




Also check out speeches by Joe Pennacchio, Jay Webber, Alex DeCroce, County Chairman Scott Rumana, and candidates Chauncey Brown, Jeremias Batista, Jerry Holt, and Joe Stinziano.

2 weeks later, Conservatives with Attitude, the GOPUSA affiliate run by my good friend and fellow blogger Michael "The Commish" Illions, also known as the wrestler AJ Sparxx, who is known for bodyslamming liberals on a daily basis. This event was well-publicized in advance, and attracted an amazing turnout by Ron Paul supporters - as a result Ron Paul won with 73% of the vote! At this event, Murray Sabrin stumped for Ron Paul, my 2004 congressional challenger counterpart from Distict 12, Bill Spadea, spoke for Rudy Giuliani, State Senator Joe Kyrillos for Mitt Romney, as well as a surrogate for Tom Tancredo.

Looks like "winner take all", which Illions, Kyrillos and I all opposed vigorously, might be more interesting than anticipated!