Ciattarelli will tap Paulsen as GOP state chairman

Jack Ciattarelli has picked former Burlington County Republican Chairman Glenn Paulsen, a member of his inner circle for nearly a decade, to serve as State GOP Chairman if he wins the Republican primary, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.

Paulsen was a fabled leader of a potent South Jersey Republican political machine from 1990, when he replaced the legendary Garfield DeMarco, until he stepped down in 2005; working with his protégé and successor, Bill Layton, Paulsen continued to be a significant force in county politics until Democrats took control in 2018.

The 76-year-old lawyer has strong relationships across the state and knows how to run a party organization.  Republicans held on to Burlington for years beyond what the county’s changing demographics might have permitted, primarily because of Paulsen.

He will replace Bob Hugin, whom Ciattarelli selected after he won the 2021 Republican primary.  Ciattarelli began calling GOP county chairs and other party leaders on Friday to inform them of his pick.

Paulsen backed Ciattarelli for governor in 2017 when he sought the GOP nod against then-Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.  He’s remained one of Ciattarelli’s top advisors and sounding boards.

As a young attorney, Paulsen served in Gov. Thomas Kean’s administration as director of the New Jersey Division of Motor Vehicles – perhaps the last strong leader of a troubled state agency – and as head of the state pension board.

Paulsen will need to secure 22 votes among the 42 members of the Republican State Committee.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Spadea said that Ciattarelli was premature in selecting a state chair candidate.

“Before the first primary ballot is even counted, Jack is again confirming the type of nominee he would be: a slave to the insider Trenton crowd. Just like the lobbyists already pulling Jack’s puppet strings, Glenn Paulsen is an entrenched political insider who has made his entire career off of taxpayer dollars. I didn’t think that Jack’s newest choice for chair could be worse than his guy who drove NJGOP into the ditch for the last four years, but he’s surprised me again,” said Spadea.  “Fortunately, there’s a primary that will give the people of New Jersey a voice before Jack will have a chance to do anymore damage to our party and state.”

Republicans had controlled Burlington County for most of the seven decades before 2018.  Democrats won control in 1958 and held on to it until 1963. Republicans lost control again in 1964 and won it back in 1966. Democrats took back the Board of Freeholders in 1973, and the GOP took it back for good in 1975.

By 2018, the emergence of competitive elections in Burlington had been a long time coming, and most pundits believe that the exceptional political skills of Paulsen and Layton enabled the GOP to last that long. Burlington has become increasingly more Democratic in recent decades. Their edge in voter registration has expanded to 46,57; in 2007, Burlington had 746 more Republicans than Democrats.

The GOP survived some close calls, like in 1989, when South Jersey favorite son Jim Florio carried Burlington by 29,000 votes. The County Chairman, then DeMarco, made sure his Republican Freeholders held on, albeit narrowly. Both parties had their Diane Allen types: Francis “Luke” Brennan, a Democrat who was elected Sheriff in 1958 and went on to serve nine terms; Republican County Clerk Edward Kelly, who beat an incumbent in 1969, survived the Watergate landslide and held the job for 25 years; and Elton Conda, a Republican who was elected Surrogate in 1966 and stayed until his death forty years later. (Conda lived in a nursing home for the last few years, working only in the mornings and taking an occasional nap on his office sofa.)

In 2017, Phil Murphy carried Burlington by a 56%-41% margin.  The retirement of Allen, who had served six terms in the Senate, allowed Democratic Assemblyman Troy Singleton to move up to the Senate easily. That, too, was not Paulsen and Layton’s fault. Allen’s personal popularity was the only reason Republicans held the seat all this time; she was the only Republican to carry the seventh legislative district since 1995.

The big surprise of election night ’17 came in the race for Freeholder. Democrats Tom Pullion and Balvir Singh unseated Republican Freeholders Bruce Garganio and Linda Hughes. Pullion, a former Mayor of Edgewater Park, won by more than 5,000 votes; Singh, a teacher who served on the Burlington Township Board of Education, beat Garganio by 2,246 votes.

Democrats also came close to a stunning upset in the 8th legislative district in 2017, where former Freeholder Joanne Schwartz came within 350 votes of beating Peters for a State Assembly seat. GOP Assemblyman Joe Howarth finished just 645 votes ahead of former Waterford Mayor Maryann Merlino. GOP State Sen. Dawn Addiego was re-elected with only 52%.

Burlington elections became more competitive in 2008, when Barack Obama carried the county by 51,593 votes. Democratic State Sen. John Adler won an open House seat against a weak GOP challenger. Democrats Chris Brown and Maryanne Reinhart upset two Republican Freeholder incumbents, and Democrat Timothy Tyler was elected County Clerk.

Paulsen and Layton won huge praise in 2010 when he convinced Freeholder Brown and another rising Democratic star, Evesham Mayor Randy Brown, to switch parties. Former Philadelphia Eagles star Jon Runyan, a candidate Paulsen and Layton recruited personally, defeated Adler and returned the Burlington-Ocean seat to Republican hands. The following year, he flipped Tyler and George Kotch, who had been elected Surrogate in 2006, and took back Reinhart’s freeholder seat.

Obama (58%) and Senator Bob Menendez (59%) had some coattails in 2012, giving Democrats two more Freeholders: Aimee Belgard and Schwartz, who ousted Garganio and Mary Ann O’Brien. Both lost re-election three years later. Garganio returned to the Freeholder board in 2014 (and lost re-election again), and O’Brien became the Burlington County Surrogate.

While Hillary Clinton won Burlington by fourteen points in 2016, local Republicans held on narrowly. O’Brien won her Surrogate race with 51.9%; Latham Tiver took a Freeholder seat with 51.% %.

However, by 2018, the national political climate and local demographics meant the end of the road for county GOP control; Democrats won two county commissioner seats; they won the fifth seat in 2019 and captured three constitutional offices over the next few years.