Anna Little

Inzerillo defends Freeholder Little in "Rastaman" controversy

On the county level this election cycle, Democrats are on the offensive.

The biggest battlegrounds this year are Monmouth and Atlantic Counties, where beneath competitive legislative races in the 12th and second districts, control of county government is up for grabs. The former is also seeing a competitive race for Sheriff, and the latter for County Executive.

In both counties, Republicans are left defending their territory, while Democrats are also looking to bolster their minorities in Burlington and Somerset Counties, with the potential to put them in play next year.

Monmouth County may be the one place Democrats can benefit from Christopher Christie’s recent corruption busts. Several of the “Operation Bid-Rig” defendants, most of them former Republican public officials, are scheduled to be sentenced this week. State Democrats are taking special notice of the district, hoping to turn the tide by delivering a message that the Republicans’ grip on power has led to widespread corruption of the type seen in Operation Bid rig.

Republican Anna Little will not seek party support in her bid for re-election to the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders, and could run against the organization in the June primary, or even as a Democrat, according to an e-mail to party leaders from GOP County Chairman Adam Puharic:

Tonight, I received word from the Asbury Park Press that Anna Little has decided not to seek our great Republican Party endorsement, and instead is considering to run off the line in a primary or has even hinted at switching parties. Switching parties? This is an outrage to every good Republican -- over 550 of us who attended Lincoln Day last night -- that she would betray our hard work, use the election victory we all worked towards together, and throw all of it away for her personal glory.

As a result, I will honor her request and I remove her for consideration as a Freeholder candidate in 2007. Despite her attempts to undermine her running mates, Monmouth County Republicans like Claire French, Joe Kyrillos, Sean Kean, and Jennifer Beck will prevail in the fall.

In her comments, she will claim that the candidate agreement our party asked candidates to sign is the sole reason she is leaving our party -- but nothing could be further from the truth. She did not have to sign it, and I told her this. From the beginning, Anna Little and her supporters have attempted to divide our party by embarrassing fellow Republicans in the Asbury Park Press. Only Anna Little and the renegade candidate attempting to undermine Jennifer Beck's run at Ellen Karcher have made an issue of the candidate selection process. For them, it was an excuse to embarrass our party, and to undermine our leadership. They have failed, and in their failure they are now joined as a campaign ticket against all Monmouth County Republicans.

Truth be told, Anna Little was not living up to her promises when she ran for office. She has proven ineffective in reforming county government, and instead attacks her fellow Republican Freeholders. She has not lived up to her responsibility as a party leader. Instead of being an active part of the 2006 campaign, Anna's supporters organized into a counter-organization known as "Anna's Army." They met independently of the true campaign, making decisions counter-productive to her great running mates Andrew Lucas and Rosemarie Peters. They made independent campaign expenditures without consulting their running mates.

And last night, Anna's supporters attempted a quiet boycott of Lincoln Day in a poor attempt at protest. Instead this backfired, with over 500 Republicans of good cheer replacing them without much effort. This party is moving on. We have moved past the angry scowls and negative spin of an agenda-driven cabal.

On March 3, our screening committee will convene to select two Freeholder candidates among a qualified pool of four great Republicans, including Freeholder Robert Clifton, Ocean Twp. Councilman David Hiers, Marlboro Council President Jeff Kantor, and Spring Lake Councilman Brian Reilly. Freeholder Clifton has publicly supported this process, along with all of the Assembly and Senate candidates. They deserve our support and our unity.

The voices of dissention have made their voices heard. It is time for the voices of party unity to speak. I am writing to ask for your support to work together, and stand strong in the face of shrill voices that would destroy our party. I need your help.

Litte's letter to Republicans:

It is with heartfelt regret that I am writing to inform you that I will not be participating in Chairman Adam Puharic's screening process and that I will not be seeking the regular Republican nomination for the office of Freeholder in the upcoming election.

I deeply appreciate all the support that I have received from rank and file Republicans and County Committee members over the last year. You are an inspiring and dedicated group, and it has been my honor to work with you and to serve you as your Monmouth County Freeholder. I have recently come to a roadblock in dealing with the current leadership of the Monmouth County Republican Organization, and I have serious reservations about continuing to work under the conditions imposed by this regime.

Contrary to Mr. Puharic's comments in the press, I am not the only candidate who has objected to the screening process as designed by the Chairman.

My problem with the process is not the background check that has garnered so much attention. I am willing to submit to a background check, if for no other reason than to prove I have nothing to hide. In fact, my modest but sufficient means reflect that of the average voter, and that should lead no one to question my honesty.

Despite the Chairman's statements in the press, he is requiring me to sign a contract that deprives me and you of some of our rights as United States citizens, and that could compromise my security and that of my family. Mr. Puharic has stated in the press that the background checks will be private and confidential. His contract states just the opposite and releases the Monmouth County Republican Organization from any liability for the misuse of my private information. As a wife and mother, and elected public servant, I can not sign that contract. As an attorney, I would advise any client not to sign that contract.

Many of you are no doubt aware of the smear campaign that has been waged against me and my family since our victory on November 7, 2006. Since election night, I have made numerous attempts to communicate with Mr. Puharic to resolve our differences and to bring the Party together in preparation for another tough election this year. After being rebuffed by the Chairman numerous times, we finally met on February 6, 2007. Puharic, seated behind his desk with two muscle men standing on either side of him with arms folded, stared at me. Puharic then listed the reasons that he felt I should not run on the Republican ticket. He stated that the screening committee would make the decision because he was angry and didn't trust himself to decide fairly. He stated that I should tell the press I would be signing the agreement, even if it were not the truth. The result of this meeting was that that the Chairman and I will not be able to resolve our differences. I find it troubling that after being appointed to the Freeholder position, fairly selected by the entire Monmouth County Committee, and after winning a difficult race in the November General Election, my viability as a candidate is being questioned. The selection process in the past was fair to the candidates and to the entire Monmouth County Committee at the general convention.

I will continue to serve as a Monmouth County Freeholder for the remainder of this year, and I am in the process of evaluating other alternatives for my candidacy for re-election. I expect that many of you will not be happy with this turn of events, and neither am I. While I can appreciate that my leaving the Organization line will cost me the support of some of you, I expect and hope that many of you will want to continue to work with me for the betterment of Monmouth County government.

CALIENDO CRITICIZES GOP BLOGGERS

MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP (MONMOUTH COUNTY, NJ): Middletown Democratic Chairman Joe Caliendo said that some anonymous bloggers from the GOP are being too malicious to their own party, as well as to Republican critics.

Locricchio Calls for Abolishing "Puharic Plan"
Freeholder Anna Little Says Plan "Borderline Unconstitutional"

Date: For Immediate Release
Contact: Joe Locricchio
Patriot0328@aol.com

After a recent Asbury Park Press editorial rebuking the Monmouth County GOP plan to charge candidates $1,000 or more to have a background investigation conducted on themselves before a "vetting process" is conducted by hand-picked supporters of the County Chairman, State Senate candidate for the 12th District and Manalapan Township Committeeman Joe Locricchio confirms his plan to shun the biased and questionable plan, and says it must be abolished.

"From the start I have been against Mr. Puharic's hand-picked selection process. The Asbury Park Press compared the Puharic plan to a Communist concept used in the former Soviet Union. That is not what the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan stands for. The Constitution of the United States allows for representatives to be chosen by all the people, not by a back-room vetting process decided by a dozen of Puharic's loyalists. I call on Mr. Puharic to allow the people to make their own choices."

On Monday, Monmouth County Freeholder Anna Little announced her concerns for the Puharic Plan, calling it "questionable at best and borderline unconstitutional," and the plan to charge candidates at least $1,000 for a background check "unusual."

Locricchio says Mr. Puharic in one breath has called his plan "voluntary" and "recommended," however has stated "Only those approved by the screening committee may participate in a Republican county convention."

"Mr. Puharic calls this 'voluntary,' but if you don't submit to the Puharic plan or pay to be a part of it, you can't be a part of the election process. I call on Mr. Puharic to remove what has been called his 'Orwellian scheme' and place the election process back in the hands of the people."

Former Freehold Councilwoman Barbara McMorrow will become the first Democrat to serve on the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders since 1989 when she replaces 85-year-old Theodore Narozanick in January. McMorrow, who came within 1,792 votes of winning in 2005, defeated Andrew Lucas, a 29-year-old Manalapan Councilman.

That will force Republicans to defend their majority next year, when Freeholders Robert Clifton and Anna Little (who won an unexpired term yesterday) are on the ballot. With an open State Senate seat in the 11th district and a hotly contested legislative race in the 12th -- possibly between Democratic State Senator Ellen Karcher and Republican Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck -- it is nearly certain that Monmouth will be a battleground in the 2007 campaign.

The results of a Special Election Convention last Saturday further threaten the re-election prospects of Monmouth County Republican Chairman Frederick Niemann, who backed the losing candidate to replace Amy Handlin on the Board of Freeholders. Anna Little, a Highlands Borough Councilwoman, won a second ballot victory over Howell Mayor Joseph DiBella, who had Niemann's tacit support and considerable help from his key supporters. Some party leaders say that Little's victory as very much an anti-Niemann vote. Niemann was elected Chairman in 2004, ousting the outspoken and often controversial William Dowd, who had held the post for seventeen years. This was the second time in two years that a Niemann-backed Freeholder candidate lost a party convention. Monmouth has become increasingly competitive at the county level, and in 2005 the Democratic Freeholder candidate lost by just 1,792; many pundits believe the Democrats would have won if a Green Party candidate endorsed by the Asbury Park Press had not won 18,698 votes.

Republicans expect two longtime officeholders to announce their retirements within the next few weeks: Freeholder Theodore Narozanick and Surrogate Marie Muhler. That will trigger another heated convention for the two posts. Several of the candidates who ran unsuccessfully on Saturday would likely compete for Narozanick's seat (and technically, the newly-elected Little could receive opposition for party support to run in a November Special Election for Handlin's unexpired term), but additional candidates could emerge as a result of the recent contest. Longtime Middletown Committeewoman (and former Mayor) Rosemarie Peters and Little Silver Councilman Richard DeNoia both want to run for Surrogate.

The 84-year-old Narozanick was an Englishtown Councilman from 1946 to 1954, Mayor from 1954 to 1962, Monmouth County Administrator from 1958 to 1985, and Freeholder since 1986. Muhler served as a Marlboro Councilwoman before winning a State Assembly seat in 1975 (she defeated Democratic incumbent Morton Salkind, still politicall active as a North Jersey developer). She nearly won election to Congress in 1980, winning 49% of the vote against eight-term incumbent James Howard, and became Surrogate in 1991.

Trivia: Who was the last Republican to lose a race for county office in Monmouth? That would be Fred Niemann, who lost his bid for Surrogate in 1986. Niemann also lost an '04 bid for Republican County Committee in his own district in Wall.