Two educated takes on Election 2015’s GOP Assembly shipwreck

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

donohue murray
Donohue (left) and Murray (right)

I promise you, Save Jerseyans, we’re going to spend a lot of time on Election 2015’s results and what went so terribly wrong in the days ahead. Top to bottom. You can count on it.

Losing three (?) seats on this map isn’t a bad night. It’s a symptom of deeper problems. N.J. Democrats just won their largest Assembly majority in 36 years. Click here to check out results in all 21 counties and 40 legislative districts in case you missed’em.

For now (while I try to caffeinate and recover from Election Night), ’cause I didn’t want to leave you hanging, here are two interesting reactions from last evening which nicely cover the two major storylines.

The first reflection was e-mailed out by our friend, Cape GOP Chairman Mike Donohue, who witnessed first hand how Democrat independent expenditure groups changed the landscape in legislative races like LD1, even in his own Republican reddish backyard of Cape May County:

I want to congratulate Sam and Jim on running a good hard race. But they were up against nearly insurrmountable odds. There’s an old saying about bringing a knife to a gunfight. We as Republicans better wake up to the fact that we are unlikely to be able to compete with the Democrats outspending us 20-1. As much as we hear them complain about the Citizens United decision, they have taken full advantage of it and we have been left in the dust. Hopefully, we can level this playing field and begin to compete again.”

The second? Celebrated pollster Patrick Murray of Monmouth University chimed in via social media with some blunt talk about New Jersey’s GOP leadership struggles and what lies ahead, none of which will make you feel any better: 

Big loser of the night is Jon Bramnick and the New Jersey GOP. There is a price to pay for letting the governor treat you with contempt and we saw the first signs of it tonight. Bateman and Beck are on the chopping block for 2017. And it’ll be at least a decade before the the party can rebuild from Christie’s destruction of it. That means the Dems get to call all the shots without the check of a credible opposition. And that is not good for New Jersey!”

What say you? Let’s get the conversation going… if not here, where?

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Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8618 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.

25 Comments

  1. How has the NJ GOP been any different than the DNC in this state. The majority of them are no different. They are controlled by the party bosses and the people know it. There are no real choices and they keep Conservatives at bay. Why do think voting participation is so low. And nobody really knows much of anything about them. The biggest problem however is our Governor and his lack of support. He is a disgrace.

  2. In all seriousness, Christy must become persona non grata, even while he remains governor. If not, we will lose the governorship in two years, and when that happens, New Jersey becomes Detroit because there is nothing in the legislature to stop the next Democrat governor from raising taxes too ridiculous levels and driving what remaining wealth is left in this state out.

    We need to stop funding Christie’s vacations. We need to stop funding Christie’s campaign. We need to cut off all money to him starting now and put it back into the state. We need to find a candidate for governor who can win. The search must begin now. I cannot wait another day.

  3. Bramnick is useless. He should go back to his comedy. NJ Republicans need a leader who stands for something and leads. Republicans need to make a case that taxes are too high because too much money from the affluent suburbs goes to the Democratic machine controlled failed large cities.

  4. Become ULTRA conservative!!!! That is what people want!! Address a broken and over generous pension system. North Carolina is changing “welfare” into “workfare”—-no work, no check! Jesus….do you really need to be told what needs to be done? Isn’t it obvious? How many corporations have left NJ in the past decade because our real estate taxes are so high!

    Enjoy being out of power. You are only a shade to the right of the democrats in Themis state so you offer very little practical differences in your leadership.

  5. Maybe start advertising? Did anyone in Hudson County even know there was a GOP? Did we run anyone for major office? Did we stand out on any issues facing NJ voters? Was there a difference between our positions and the Democrats positions? Did we even try to defeat them?

    NJ GOP is full of the same mealy-mouthed wimps currently running the show in DC. Clear them out and we’ll start making progress.

  6. Would you need to do is save the teachers because if you don’t see the teachers and their jobs then what are the kids supposed to do not learn. We need to do is get rid of Governor Christie he needs to go. What you need to do she need to fix the problems he’s caused so many problems and heart aches in the state that people don’t even want to live here anymore

  7. Said the moron while standing knee deep in sea water. Snag as much loot as you can while gravy train is still on the tracks, Joey – otherwise you will end up under the wheels.

  8. What a crock of BS.
    No one seems to be smart enough to recognize the real problem. It is it that no one wants to take to task the real hard job of fixing this?
    The problem is in the unconstitutional actions taken during the drawing and selection process of the redistricting map after the ten year census.
    The district lines are drawn by the want of The legislators. They DO NOT follow the guidelines laid out in the state constitution.
    Everyone’s worried about losing 3 or 4 seats? Well they should be. But there are more to be lost so long as we let these SOB’s have their way with breaking away from the constitutional boundaries.
    Everyone wonders why we can’t get people out to vote. Everyone knows their vote doesn’t count.
    Yes it is true when disenfranchised people say “why bother, my vote doesn’t count anyways”.
    The systems rigged. The votes are counted before they’re even cast.
    I know, I know, it’s a boring lack luster subject. No lights, no camera and no fame comes from it.
    But it’s the begin all end all reality of this election scam.
    Fix the redistricting process.

  9. It’s time for one of the Republican geldings in the legislature to introduce a bill to abolish public employee unions. Franklin Roosevelt predicted what would happen if public employees unionized, that they would buy off their bosses. That is why he was against it. The bill wouldn’t go anywhere but at least it would show that the Republicans are trying and then they would have a real campaign issue for 2017.

  10. It doesn’t take 10 years to rebuild. The Republican Party has to focus on reforming school finance and educational spending. Emphasize the savings from not building the ARC tunnel. It was a bad campaign in District 11 that cost the Republicans 2 seats that they should have won. Instead of focusing on school finance and the Democrats attempt to triple tolls, the Republicans talked about how expensive it was in New Jersey. When I got the mailer, I wasn’t even sure who they were trying to get me to vote for.

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