Curtis Bashaw, a 63-year-old real estate developer and hotel owner from Cape May County, is expected to join the race for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, the New Jersey Globe has learned.
A former executive director of the New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Authority, Bashaw is a co-founder and co-managing director of Cape Advisors and Cape Resorts Group, where he led the restoration of the landmark Congress Hall hotel and other hotel projects.
Bashaw has informed some Republican insiders of his intention to get in the race.
This sets up a Republican primary with Mendham Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner, a former Bush administration official with solid connections to former President Donald Trump, and possibly Alex Zdan, a former News 12 New Jersey political reporter.
Melinda Ciattarelli, the estranged wife of GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, is also mulling a Senate bid.
Contests of organization lines begin soon; in Hunterdon and Somerset counties, the deadline to submit a letter of intent to compete in the county convention is this Friday, January 19. Hunterdon’s February 7 convention appears to be the first in the state.
There are also three minor candidates on the Republican side: Daniel Cruz, a former member of the Andover Regional School District Board of Education; perennial candidate Gregg Mele, the 2021 Libertarian nominee for governor; and small business owner Michael Estrada, who won 1% of the vote in an independent State Assembly bid six years ago.
The winner of the GOP primary faces an uphill fight to flip the seat: New Jersey has not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since 1972; since then, every other state but Hawaii has done so.
The three-term incumbent, Democrat Bob Menendez, has not yet said if his indictment on federal corruption charges will end his re-election bid.
Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) and First Lady Tammy Murphy are facing off in the Democratic Senate primary for Menendez’s seat. Former Newark school board member Lawrence Hamm and activist Patricia Campos-Medina are also in the race.