Passaic does “Soviet-style” vote to rig line for insiders STATEMENT BY LONEGAN FOR CONGRESS CAMPAIGN

Last night’s rigged vote in Passaic County is being presented as a legitimate expression of the Republican County Committee, when it was not. County Committee members were not permitted to vote. Elected Republican officials were not permitted to vote.

Only a small group of insiders were allowed to vote and these same insiders voted on who to endorse in every congressional district, regardless of whether or not they are registered to vote in the Republican primary in that congressional district. For example, an insider residing in Clifton was permitted to vote to endorse the candidates in congressional districts five and eleven, even though that insider is a registered voter in district nine.

This was the same body of insiders that recently changed the rules of the county committee to allow Peter Murphy to grab the chairmanship again. Murphy had been barred under county committee rules that made those convicted of crimes ineligible.

County boss Peter Murphy obviously feared an open democratic vote, so he engineered his own Soviet-style election and received a predictably Soviet-style outcome. The Republicans of Passaic County deserve better. They deserve integrity and honest dealing. Hold on, the cavalry is coming.

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