TOMS RIVER, NJ – U.S. Congressman Chris Smith doesn’t like to have election opponents. In fact, most of his elections since taking office 40 years ago have been unopposed, but with redistricting of New Jersey’s Congressional Districts, Smith finds him in the uncomfortable spot of being at the top of the Republican ticket in Ocean County, where a GOP civil war has been raging for over three years now.
Smith’s campaign was dealt a blow when his opponent Mike Crispi got the column A line in both Monmouth and Ocean Counties and this week, the pool against him thinned down to two viable candidates.
Mike Blasi withdrew from the election, and Smith’s political allies in Ocean and Monmouth County are refusing to take him off the in-person voting ballot. Citing voter disenfranchisement and a violation of his rights, Blasi has signaled that he will be suing both Ocean County and Monmouth County to remove his name from the in-person ballot.
That legal challenge could be decided days after the Blasi campaign formally files its lawsuits against Ocean County Clerk Scott Colabella and Monmouth County Clerk Christine Hanlon.
When asked why the moderate Republican candidate isn’t supporting a fair and open election next month, Smith’s team refused to answer Shore News Network’s inquiry.
If successful, Smith will face his toughest election challenge since his initial congressional campaigns way back in the last century, in the 1980s.
Smith has become a relic of the Jersey Shore, but after former President Donald J. Trump called upon primary challenges against him, several candidates threw their names into the ring, but after the departure of Tricia Flanagan and Blasi from the race, Smith is up against the Column A Trump-aligned team across his entire district.
Ocean County Clerk Scott Colabella has thus far rejected Blasi’s request to be removed from the election he is no longer a part of.