Fazzone wants in GOP gubernatorial debate

Former Burlington City Mayor James Fazzone is protesting his omission from the first Republican gubernatorial debate on February 4.

The New Jersey Globe, which is sponsoring the debate, extended invitations to four candidates: Jon Bramnick, Jack Ciattarelli, Ed Durr, and Bill Spadea.  We did not include Fazzone and five other Republicans who have publicly declared their candidacies: Roger Bacon, Monica Brinson, Robert Canfield, Rudy Rullo, and Hans Hersberg.

Debate logistics are complicated, and some subjective qualifications must be used to determine who can take the stage.  Crowded debates filled with longshots who have no viable path to win are not in the best interests of voters.  The concept that anybody can win without county lines might be overstated.

Bacon has already lost ten races for Governor, Congress, and State Senate; it’s unlikely that eleven would be the charm.  Brinson ran for Governor as a Democrat in 2017 and sought the Republican nomination for president in 2024, but never filed nominating petitions to get on the ballot.   Canfield is mounting his fifth bid for public office, including losses for the Brick school board in 2018 and 2019.  Rullo ran for Governor in 2018 and 2021.  Hersberg ran for the State Assembly in the 22nd district in 2021 and received 12.3% of the vote.

Fazzone is arguably between the two tiers: he spent sixteen years on the school board, three as a councilman, and eight as mayor, and he’s a former superintendent of schools. But in the New Jersey Globe’s view, he falls short of earning a spot in the debate.

His local wins were as a Democrat: Fazzone endorsed Gov. Chris Christie for re-election in 2013 and switched parties in 2015, but he received 32% in the GOP primary. Fazzone was the Republican candidate for State Senate in 2023, challenging Majority Whip Troy Singleton (D-Delran) in the 7th legislative district.  He received just 32% of the vote, with Singleton beating him in his hometown, Burlington City, with 73%.

Fazzone has raised just $100 since joining the race nearly six months ago and has not assembled a statewide grassroots organization.

The track record for small-town local elected officials, past or former, is not good; indeed, it’s never happened.  (James E. McGreevey was the mayor of Woodbridge, one of the largest municipalities in the state, when he was elected governor in 2001; he was also a former state senator.)

Typically, those candidates wind up in single digits.

In 1977, Moorestown Mayor William Angus received 3.3% in the Republican primary.  Hamilton Mayor Jack Rafferty won 3.2% in a GOP primary with no line in 1981.   Morris Township Committeeman J. Patrick Gilligan took 1.4% in 1993, and Washington Township (Bergen) Councilman Robert Schroeder received 5.5% in 2005 – three points better than former Bergen County Freeholder Todd Caliguire. In 2017, Nutley Commissioner Steve Rogers received 5.9%, and former Franklin Mayor (and Somerset County Freeholder) Brian D. Levine received 3.3% in 2021.

On the Democratic side, former Glen Ridge Mayor Carl Bergmanson took 8.6% in his 2009 primary challenge to Gov. Jon Corzine.  Tenafly Councilman (now mayor) Mark Zinna won 1% in his 2017 gubernatorial run.

The New Jersey Globe will evaluate candidates one last time on January 12.

Still, the pre-screening of candidates is not an infallible system: Jimmy Carter was polling at 2% when he began his stunning ascent to the White House in 1976.