JACKSON TOWNSHIP, NJ – The battle over who will control the Jackson Republican Club and who the club will choose as the nominee for the mayoral candidate in town is scheduled to take place tonight at Jackson VFW Post 4703.
While the battle inside the meeting room won’t be anything like the combat these brave veterans at the post witnessed in the jungles of Vietnam, the deserts of Iraq, or the mountains of Afghanistan, it will be a heated contest that could end up with another call to the Jackson Police Department.
It will be more like a bunch of angry, unhappy, vindictive, and spiteful people bickering over how their own personal interests will be served depending on who the club chooses to run for office.
The forces allied behind Michael Reina, including the Orthodox Jewish majority “Republicans for Jackson” will square off against longtime residents allied behind longtime local business owner Clara Glory to determine who will be selected to run for the next mayor of Jackson.
Many longtime Reina allies have dropped support for the Mayor this year. In return, Reina forged a political alliance with the large and growing Orthodox Jewish “Republicans for Jackson” team.
So far, for Reina, that alliance has been met with losses after an early victory to unseat dozens of longtime Jackson residents from the powerful municipal Republican committee. Unfortunately, for Reina, that takeover fell short when the new Republican organization failed to deliver the necessary votes to unseat Glory and install Reina as the chairman of the county committee in Jackson.
After that loss, Reina and his allies were dealt another blow when they lost the race for GOP Chairman, despite an overwhelming 71-9 majority to elect Sheriff Michael Mastronardy to be the next chairman of the Ocean County GOP.
That vast majority was erased as the rest of the county committee members voted for George Gilmore, with a whopping 100-vote margin of victory outside of Lakewood and Jackson.
To make matters worse, Reina woke up this week to find out his former long-time party members had backdoored him, creating a political action committee that raised over $40,000 to support the campaign of longtime Jackson business owner Marty Flemming.
Deals are not to be had tonight, of course as in Jackson politics, nearly everything is always on the table for horse-trading. One possible scenario could see Reina bumped up to jockey for the vacant New Jersey Assembly seat since the passing of Plumsted politician Ron Dancer in exchange to allow Flemming run unopposed.
Another scenario could see Reina essentially booted from all political power in a move that would elevate Alex Sauickie to Assemblyman and Flemming to Mayor. In that unfortunate scenario for Reina, he would end up serving out his 5-year patronage contract at the Ocean County Bridge Department where he earns $139,000 per year, after receiving a $30,000 raise this year.
A third scenario could see a fractured Republican party run dueling tickets in November, which could give Democrats an opportunity to seize control from the feuding Republicans who appear now to be divided between a religious Jewish contingent behind Reina and a non-Jewish contingent behind Flemming.
In a party that believes in freedom of religion, in Jackson, religion has become the forefront of the 2022 race at this point, at least among the divided Republicans.
Last week, the Lakewood media launched a smear blitz campaign against Glory and Flemming in an attempt to sow discontent among their supporters and to intimidate the pair from moving forward with plans to toss Reina to the curb.
In the end, as they always do, the feuding factions might even be able to make a deal that benefits the personal interests of all involved to ensure they don’t leave the door open for a Democrat victory in November.
GOP Chairman George Gilmore would not publicly comment on the matter, except to say that he would support whichever side the members of the Jackson Club endorse and that anyone is free to support whichever candidate they prefer in the election.
A shift from his predecessor Frank B. Holman who exacted revenge against Republicans who disagreed with the party lines and faction-endorsed candidates.
Holman, after resigning as GOP Chairman this year retreated to Florida where he has since taken up permanent residency.