Gop chairman seeks to decertify toms river gop club at county convention

TOMS RIVER, NJ – Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore is purging the Republican party of anyone who opposed his return to power after a federal tax conviction. Gilmore has already worked to remove any elected official who supported Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy, who ran against him in an election for the position in 2022.

On Wednesday, Gilmore will seek to decertify the Republicans of Toms River, to which nearly all elected GOP officials in Toms River at the local, county, and state levels belong. Instead, he will seek to certify his own Toms River Regular Republican club with just one elected official as a member.

The plan might work because Gilmore wields fear and influence over those who are going to vote on the matter at Wednesday’s GOP convention. Additionally, Gilmore is trying to ban voting members of the Republicans of Toms River from casting their vote to tip the scales in his favor.

The unfortunate part of Gilmore’s plan is that most of the voting members, including mayors, council members, and party chairpeople across the county, live in fear of Gilmore. Most of them have public jobs, appointments, and positions that rely on Gilmore’s blessing to keep. Most of their family members work in local government or benefit from the fruits of local taxpayers.

Fortunately for Gilmore, weakness and vulnerability prevail at all levels of the Ocean County GOP. It is by his own design.

Party leaders here are typically weak-minded when it comes to challenging the whims of their keepers. They are more concerned about keeping their public jobs and families employed and less about right and wrong.

A victory on Wednesday will solidify Gilmore’s iron-fisted return to power and will end many who opposed him, including Ocean County Commissioners Virginia Haines and Gary Quinn. It could also mean the end of Sheriff Michael Mastronardy.

Gilmore has already removed Commissioner Joe Vicari, Assemblyman John Catalano, Assemblywoman Diane Gove, and others as he hashes his new plan to show the party he’s back in charge.

A loss for Gilmore on Wednesday will send a clear message to the chairman that the party is tired of living in fear of the party chairman. People who once quaked in their boots before Gilmore now feel pity and grief as he continues his legal battles against the IRS, creditors, and others seeking to cash in on unpaid financial debts.

Whether or not Gilmore wins on Wednesday, the brutal civil war being waged within the Ocean County GOP shows no end in sight, and the only real losers are the people who live in the county.

If he wins, it will continue the dangerous precedent set by his predecessor Chairman Frank B. Holman who used the decertifying process as a way to inflict punishment upon his enemies.

Gilmore is upset with many in the party for supporting a lifelong lawman for his seat before a man who Trump on federal convictions had just recently pardoned. While many in the party expressed their desire to end the civil war and move on, Gilmore has his sights set on intensifying the battle.

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