State Sen. Christopher Connors (R-Lacey) doesn’t think former Ocean County Republican chairman George Gilmore is doing the county party any favors by raising funds outside the party apparatus.
“I think the county chairman has made it clear that having a number of fundraising efforts can tend to have a competitive nature about it so that it might minimize or hurt the organization as a whole, and I respect that opinion,” Connors said, referring to current chairman Frank Holman. “I agree with that opinion, and I would think that Mr. Gilmore would if he were county chairman.”
Connor’s rebuke is the second to come from an Ocean County state senator this week.
On Tuesday, State Sen. James Holzapfel (R-Toms River) issued a similar rebuke of Gilmore’s independent fundraising operation.
The former Republican chairman sat at the head of the Ocean County GOP for 23 years before resigning after he was convicted on federal tax charges.
Like Holzapfel, Connors did not attend a fundraising breakfast Gilmore hosted last week.
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Doing the same siphoning in Morris County are former Chair John Sette and Rob Zwigard with their “Victory PAC” that drains money away from the County Party under the pretext of “Party building.”
Many grassroots Republicans recognized what Sette and Zwigard were doing, however — which is among the reasons Zwigard lost the last Chair race in Morris. (“Why elect Chair of the Party a guy who deliberately undermined it?,” Republicans said.)