Labor Day marked the unofficial end of the COVID summer as well as the unofficial start in earnest of the political campaign season.
The period between Labor Day and Election Day is when voters begin paying more attention to who’s running for which office and trying to catch up on the issues.
Dr. Rikin Mehta was endorsed by the Monmouth County Republican Committee for the GOP nomination to unseat Senator Cory Booker this morning at the committee’s annual nominating convention at iPlayAmerica in Freehold Township.
Mehta bested Natalie Rivera and Hirsh Singh, earning 56% (128) of the 230 votes cast. Rivera won the support of 32% (74) of the delegates and Singh 12% (28). 12 delegates present did not cast a vote in the U.S. Senate contest, according to parliamentarian John Lane.
The pharmaceutical entrepreneur/regulator and attorney is undefeated in County GOP contests after also winning Burlington County’s endorsement this morning. He has previously won the endorsements to the Union, Somerset, Hunterdon and Camden GOP organizations.
Shaun Golden and U.S. Senate candidate Rik Mehta at the Golden Gala
Bill Palatucci, New Jersey’s Republican National Committeeman, was showing U.S. Senate candidate Rik Mehta around the Golden Era Gala on Friday night, which surprised me because Hirsh Singh has been touting the Republican National Commiteeman’s endorsement for the nomination to take on Senator Cory Booker for months.
“I’m trying to get Eli Manning to run,” I told Palatucci when he asked me if I knew Mehta. Bill laughed and without missing a beat said, “Is that going to happen? Just it case it doesn’t, you should know Rik Methta.” Read the rest of this entry »
NJ GOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt and U.S. Senate candidate Rik Mehta. photo via Mehta’s facebook page, cropped by MMM
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rik Mehta’s campaign owes “a significant amount of money from the Primary with no plan to deal with it,” according to a leaked confidential email from Ron Gravino, the campaign’s former treasurer.
Now that all the votes that are going to be counted have been delivered, it looks as though Rik Mehta has survived his own embarrasing campaign and a spirited clown show by Hirsh Singh to win the Republican nomination of U.S. Senate.
There are late arriving and provisional ballots yet to be counted, but Mehta’s 11,290 vote margin against Singh will probably hold.
Rik Mehta, a former Food and Drug Administration official. won the Middlesex County GOP endorsement for U.S. Senate in online balloting that was tabulated this afternoon. Mehta’s name will appear below President Trump’s on the ballot in Middlesex in the Republican primary on June 2.
The Middlesex Republican nominating convention, originally scheduled for March 14, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Delegates voted online with balloting closing at midnight on the 14th, GOP Chairwoman Lucille Panos told MMM. The Middlesex GOP Executive committee tabulated and certified the votes today.
Former Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore is continuing the appeals process for his convictions of failing to pay taxes deducted from his employees paychecks to the IRS and for lying on a loan application to Oceansfirst Bank, according to a report at NewJerseyGlobe.
With 87% of the mail-in ballots counted, Monmouth County is one of only 7 New Jersey Counties that voted Republican in 2020.
Early returns in the unprecedented paper ballot election indicated that Democrats had scored an upset in the County that reliably votes Republican despite a registration advantage for Democrats. On Election Night, former Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Cory Booker and the Democrat Freeholder candidates were leading the paper ballot count. Congressman Chris Smith and County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon were the only Republicans leading above the municipal level.
Ross Licitra, Lillian Burry and Christine Giordano Hanlon
Monmouth County Republicans have recovered from the shock of seeing Democrats leading the ballot counts on Election Day and are getting ready to celebrate.
With 296,966 ballots reported at 5:05 on Friday afternoon, Republican County candidates are showing the dominant leads that the GOP has enjoyed in Monmouth for many years.
General election ballots is some parts of New Jersey will be in the mail next week, but Hirsh Singh, a loser in the July 7th Republican U.S. Senate primary, is still fighting to get the Rik Mehta’s nomination to take on Senator Cory Booker overturned.
Singh hasn’t been able to get a Superior Court Judge in any New Jersey County to authorize a recount of the primary results. Yet, this morning he announced that he has filed an official contest of the primary.