The race for Republican National Committeeman from New Jersey has morphed into a contest between former President Donald Trump and former Gov. Chris Christie, forcing party leaders to pick sides, albeit likely by secret ballot, in a race between one of Christie’s closest friends and a candidate endorsed by Trump.
Christie is expected to attend tonight’s Republican State Committee meeting in Woodbridge to whip votes for one of his closest friends and allies, incumbent Bill Palatucci.
Palatucci, a fierce critic of Trump, finds himself in a suddenly close race for re-election after Trump publicly endorsed his opponent, Atlantic County GOP Chairman Donald Purdy. An RNC member since 2010, Palatucci might be a slight favorite to win re-election.
Trump has teased a play for New Jersey’s fourteen electoral votes, but as he prepares to debate Joe Biden less than three hours after the Palatucci vs. Purdy vote, he risks an embarrassing loss if New Jersey Republicans reject his endorsement for the second time in less than a month. In the June 4 primary for U.S. Senate, GOP voters picked Curtis Bashaw, a moderate businessman from Cape May County, against the candidate endorsed by Trump, Mendham Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner.
Palatucci supported Trump until Christie broke with the former president after the 2020 election. He has not yet endorsed Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee; RNC rules will allow Palatucci to be removed if he refuses to endorse Trump publicly.
He backed Christie in his bid for the 2024 presidential nomination and chaired Christie’s super PAC. After the former New Jersey governor exited the race, Palatucci actively participated in discussions about Christie mounting a general election White House bid as an independent as the “No Labels” candidate.
He was among a small group of national committee members who opposed a resolution censuring Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois) in 2022 for their involvement in an investigation of the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Kinzinger endorsed Biden on Wednesday.
The politics of the national committee race are both regional – Purdy is expected to have the votes of most, but not all, state committee members from South Jersey – and connected to next year’s GOP gubernatorial primary.
Allies of Jack Ciattarelli – and quietly, Ciattarelli himself – are backing Purdy. State Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) is supporting Palatucci, and so are key supporters of conservative Bill Spadea, who are expected to support Palatucci in a defensive move to block the ascension of Purdy. Spadea is an unabashed Trump supporter.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), Trump’s New Jersey campaign chairman, is backing Purdy. The New Jersey Globe has learned that a Van Drew staffer has been calling Republican leaders in a bid to flip some Palatucci votes to Purdy.
There is also speculation that the Trump campaign is wielding the threat of withdrawing its support of some Trump delegates to the Republican National Convention if there is evidence that they backed Palatucci.
New Jersey does not yet have a full delegation after losing 40 delegate seats for violating a Republican National Committee rule that required delegate selection to be completed by May 31. Trump, who can approve a waiver, will make the final decision on whether to seat 36 district delegates elected in the primary.
Instead, in a 34-0 vote, the state party rejected an ill-fated plan to cancel the 2024 New Jersey Republican presidential primary and replace it with a state convention where roughly 650 party insiders would elect the delegates.
Several people who attended that meeting confirmed a dust-up between Palatucci and GOP State Chairman Bob Hugin. Palatucci had initially been supportive of the primary-for-convention switch, but after it became apparent before the vote that the convention idea was dead, Palatucci spoke out against it.
That annoyed Hugin, who called him out for knowing about the issue since March when Palatucci, a member of the RNC Rules Committee, voted in favor of the May 31 deadline, knowing New Jersey’s primary was set for June 4.
Christie now finds himself in the awkward position of begging for the votes of a state party he once ran.
Trump’s choice for Republican National Committeewoman, Janice Fields, is unopposed. The 20-year incumbent, Virginia Haines, is not seeking re-election.
Fields, a Trump supporter, has been a state committeewoman since 2014 and was elected to the Bernards Township Committee in 2019, serving as mayor in 2021. She is running on a ticket with Purdy.
Each county, regardless of size, has two state committee votes. Assuming every vote or proxy is counted, that makes the magic number 22.
Not all members of Christie’s inner circle like Palatucci. Another close Chrisie friend, former New Jersey attorney general David Samson, couldn’t stand Palatucci and frequently referred to him in meetings as “Giovanni.”
Christie’s apparent decision to show up at a Woodbridge hotel tonight to push for Palatucci is reminiscent of his move during the 2011 legislative redistricting process. Christie showed up at a New Brunswick hotel and personally pushed the court-appointed tiebreaker, Rutgers political science professor Alan Rosenthal, to accept a Republican map. Rosenthal was unpersuaded.
Months later, Christie used his line-item veto to cancel Rosenthal’s fellowship program at Rutgers.