By Matt Rooney
There’s no consensus among the New Jersey Republican establishment over who’s the best candidate for an objectively uphill battle against Cory Booker in November.
Former News 12 anchor Alex Zdan won the Monmouth County slogan on Wednesday night; he also has the county party backing in Cape May, Cumberland, Essex, Passaic, and Salem.
Richard Tabor, New Jersey state trooper, is the endorsed candidate of the Atlantic, Hudson, Hunterdon, Ocean, and Union organizations.
A third hopeful and a frequent candidate for high office – ex-Tabernacle Deputy Mayor Justin Michael Murphy – secured the slogans in Camden, Gloucester, and Mercer.
Why the split?
We’ve entered into a new reality. Some of the diverging results are attributable to a lack of belief that the race is seriously worth engaging, let alone winnable. Booker is sitting on a massive warchest and, at this point, no Republican has won a statewide federal race in New Jersey in 38 years, let alone in a midterm cycle with an incumbent GOP president. But the GOP is also pretty badly as fractured in the wake of the Election 2025 disaster; there isn’t a single organizing figure (or principle) across all 21 counties at present. For most of the past several years, the “end point” was named Jack. No more.
A more interesting question, arguably, is how much these endorsements still matter in extra-county contests. A strong local party still very much matters in down-ballot races. At 30,000 feet? Unclear. Ask Andy Kim (who cleaned a line-less Democrat boss establishment’s clock) or George Gilmore (who failed to deliver Ocean for Bill Spadea last spring).
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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 Saturday evening from 7-9 PM EST.
