SEASIDE PARK-As he stood up in front of nearly 100 county Republican elected officials, committee members, and professionals, Ocean County GOP Chairman Frank Holman congratulated the winners of the 2020 election in which the organization won every race except in Brick Township.
As he looked forward to 2019, announcing candidates for governor, congress, and senate, two things were missing.
Neither the chairman nor any other speaker at the event gave notice to the 2020 re-election of President Donald J. Trump and despite declaring “The women are our future”, the chairman continues to hold out against former Burlington County Freeholder Kate Gibbs for Congress.
We’re on the cusp of one of the biggest Presidential elections in our nation’s history where it’s a clear battle between the radicalized left in versus the rest of America. The President deserved to be recognized at such an event.
Holman also didn’t pay tribute to the slain police officer in Jersey City and the attack against Orthodox Jews in our state, knowing that Ocean County is home to the largest population of Orthodox Jews in America and are not only the ones who propelled him to power, but year after year the community comes out to support Republican candidates at the local, county and state levels. Even our President acknowledged the tragedy last night.
Holman announced his close ally, John J. Novak as the candidate for Congress, with “NOVAK” business cards placed at every table, but stopped short of an endorsement.
Ironically, Holman who has been known in his short term to punish and penalize his opposition freely embraced Novak who ran against the Republican party in 2016 where he declared there was no public trust within the Ocean County GOP freeholder board and tried to oust Freeholders Jack Kelly and Virginia Haines.
He accused the all-Republican board of freeholders of keeping information from the public and creating a sense of wrongdoing, yet here is the man who now rules the party through fear tactics and retribution so easily giving a pass to his pal Novak who broke from the party and is now looking to get the endorsement for, of all things, Congress. We already have one anti-Republican in Congress, his name is Andy Kim. We don’t need another.
For that reason, Holman needs to stop playing the wait-and-see game, hoping another good old boy from his stable pops up and once and for all endorse Kate Gibbs for Congress. She brings a new dimension to state politics. She’s young, smart, accomplished, popular and offers the party the diversity it needs to compete against Andy Kim if it is serious about winning.
Novak represents all that is wrong with the Ocean County GOP right now. He’s a grey-haired good old boy who just isn’t going to win votes in Burlington County and last time he ran in Ocean County he failed to get any votes here either. Mr. Holman needs to do what’s right for the people of CD-3 and not what’s right for his hunting pals and teams of well-funded insider professionals.
Holman needs to stop wasting our time with a candidate who got just 2.75% of the Ocean County vote in the last election he ran in and start thinking about joining our fellow Republicans in Burlington County and begin working on the removal of Andy Kim today!
Phil Stilton is the editor of Shore News Network and an elected member of the Ocean County Republican Committee. The views here do not represent Shore News Network or its partners.
