JACKSON, NJ – Thursday night was another victory for the Clara Glory aligned faction of the Jackson Township GOP in their battle against the “Republicans for Jackson” subsect of the party led by Mayor Michael Reina.
On Thursday, Jackson Councilman Alex Sauickie defeated Plumsted Councilman Dominick Cuozzo 106 votes to 44. Former Jackson Councilman Scott Martin received just 3 votes in the election.
Cuozzo was backed by Ocean County Chairman George Gilmore but fell short after Dancer’s widow campaigned extensively this week in Monmouth and Middlesex County for Sauickie. Glory, seen as the leader of the Jackson GOP worked for Dancer during his tenure.
Now, Glory and her team will focus on the November election behind her team of Marty Flemming for Mayor, Andy Kern for Council, and a yet-to-be-named candidate for council to replace Sauickie. A last-minute effort by the Republicans for Jackson and nefarious bloggers to brand Sauickie as an anti-semite fell on deaf ears during the election in which just over 150 Republican county committeemen and women participated in Thursday night in Freehold.
The loss is also an upset for Gilmore who backed Cuozzo, but also a victory as Gilmore fended off a possible challenge by Monmouth and Middlesex Counties to take the historically Ocean County seat. That seat now remains an Ocean County seat under Sauickie who is no friend of Gilmore’s. Sauickie remains closely aligned with the anti-Gilmore faction of the shore area Republican party.
Now, Ocean County Republicans set their site on this year’s non-partisan municipal election, sure to be a bloodbath between forces aligned with Gilmore and those aligned with Glory.
Sauickie was also nominated to be the GOP candidate in November’s general election to finish out the remaining year in Dancer’s unfinished term.
At this point, the odds are in favor of the Glory faction of the fiercely divided Jackson GOP to win this year’s election behind Flemming as mayor.
Reina has not yet announced his running mates, but small business owner Jennifer Kuhn has been discussed as a possible candidate to run with Reina in November. Reina’s team is yet undecided on their third candidate, but have been making calls to longtime community leaders seeking a third candidate.
Retired Jackson Police Officer John Pojowski is rumored to be the replacement for Sauickie on the town council and could possibly be the fill-in candidate to replace Sauickie on November’s ballot.
At this point in time, a ticket of Flemming for mayor, joined by Councilman Andy Kern and Pojowski would be most likely garner the most support from the general public. Pojoswki worked as a school resource officer for the Jackson School District for many years and is beloved by many in the community.
A last-minute desperate blogging effort to smear Sauickie in the public eye failed to make any difference in the outcome of the election after being posted in a largely unread hyper-partisan, ‘political [censored]’ blog site. In recent months that site has been on the losing side of nearly every Ocean County election and the editor has shown signs of mental fatigue and anguish in light of those back to back to back defeats.
