Ocean County GOP picks 'team player' for freeholder seat
TOMS RIVER - In nominating Lacey Township Committeeman Gary Quinn to succeed Freeholder John C. Bartlett Jr., Ocean County Republican leaders concluded that one of Quinn's most important qualities is that he can be depended on to be "a team player."
That phrase was invoked several times during a special county GOP convention Wednesday night to name a replacement candidate on the Nov. 6 general election ballot. Last week, Bartlett ended his campaign for a 14th term due to failing health and announced that he would retire from public life on Dec. 31 after 39 years as a freeholder.
A total of 10 Republicans from across Ocean County, most of them sitting elected officials in their hometowns, had sought to be considered for the freeholder seat in what is one of the most conservative regions of New Jersey and where no Democrat has been elected to countywide office since 1989.
Interviews before the county organization's screening committee — of which Freeholders Jack Kelly and Virginia E. Haines, and Sheriff Michael G. Mastronardy are members — took place the night before.
Quinn, 62, was the clear favorite going into the interviews. A family man with an easygoing demeanor, Quinn was a developer by trade. He owned Eastport Builders — a multimillion-dollar home construction business in Lacey. Active in local politics for more than 20 years, Quinn is a former Lacey mayor and school board president.
Watch the GOP convention unfold Wednesday night in the video above.
Over the Labor Day weekend, Quinn worked the phones, shoring up his support, before he secured the screening committee's endorsement on Tuesday night.
Some of the other candidates who screened included Plumsted Mayor Jack Trotta, Pine Beach Mayor Lawrence W. Cuneo, South Toms River Mayor Oscar L. Cradle Sr., Barnegat Township Committeeman John J. Novak, Stafford Township Councilwoman Sharon McKenna and Berkeley Township Councilman James J. Byrnes.
Ultimately, each of them agreed not to challenge Quinn's nomination from the floor of the special convention Wednesday night, once the screening committee had made its decision and declared its support for Quinn to the full county Republican committee.
"Gary is going to fill John's shoes and he is going to be a team player with the rest of us on the board," Haines said in her public remarks before hundreds of committee members in attendance at the Days Hotel on Route 37. "We all work together, we always want to do what is going to be best for Ocean County and I know Gary is going to make a great asset to our team in Ocean County. So I nominate Gary Quinn to be the next freeholder from Ocean County."
Deputy Ocean County Clerk Barbara Lanuto, who is also vice chair of the Ocean County Republican Organization and a Lacey resident, seconded the nomination.
"You couldn't ask for a better individual," Lanuto said. "Gary is a gentleman who has served on the Lacey school board, who has served on the Lacey Township Committee for 15 years — both as mayor in our form of government and also on Township Committee, which he serves on right now. I keep saying that Gary is a gentleman. You will all know that once you get to work with him. He is a team player."
Even Quinn, in his first public remarks as the Republican nominee for freeholder, repeated the "team player" phrase himself.
"I can guarantee you and promise you that I will be a team player," Quinn said. "I will be with the rest of the group, working towards making Ocean County better as we move forward."
Gilmore warns divided Stafford GOP
It was Ocean County Republican Chairman George R. Gilmore who made teamwork the theme of the night and of the fall campaign ahead.
To be sure, Gilmore emphasized the point in a rare and public rebuke from the podium to one of his organization's own municipal entities — the Stafford Township Regular Republican Club.
"I would be remiss if I didn't say we have some problems in some towns across this county," Gilmore said as the stone-faced Stafford Republican delegation looked on. "And I'm getting reports that in at least one of the towns, we have Republican officials taking the position that they would rather support a Democrat than support a person who the people in the Republican Party selected in their primary."
In the June 5 primary election, self-described "conservative Republican" candidates for mayor and Township Council deprived Stafford Mayor John Spodofora and his entire council ticket from winning the Republican nomination to run in the general election this fall. That means that no matter who wins on Nov. 6, Spodofora and his incumbent council members will all be out of office come Jan. 1.
In the weeks after the surprise upset, a number of grassroots Republican activists in Stafford accused Spodofora and other senior municipal Republican officials of engaging in a purge of those party members who supported Spodofora's primary opposition. They also accused the local Republican establishment in town of working against them in their campaign to defeat their Democratic opponents in the fall campaign.
Gilmore made clear Wednesday that he would not tolerate sore losers.
"And to you, I can only say one thing: How can you do this?" Gilmore asked. "The people in your town spoke, the Republicans in your town spoke as to who they wanted to represent them in the November election. And it's your duty as a Republican official to support them. And if you can't, resign. Let somebody else take your place and work on behalf of the endorsed candidates."
Erik Larsen: 732-682-9359 or elarsen@gannettnj.com