OLD BRIDGE – Art Haney beamed in the loss tonight.

“This is a win for us,” said the former Old Bridge mayor.

His effort prevented the Middlesex County GOP screening committee from being able to recommend solely the name of the incumbent, state Senator Sam Thompson (R-12) and his team to the committee as a whole in time for next week’s county convention.

“This whole thing is rigged for him to win, and he couldn’t win,” said Haney, who admitted being very confident heading into the March 25th convention despite what he decried as executive dirty tricks.

“He got one of the guys to go south on me,” Thompson told InsiderNJ, shrugging off the results. “It was 11-7. It should have been 12-6. Look, we split Old Bridge, fine. I’ll take my advantages in the Monmouth and Ocean portions of the district.

“I’m going to stomp him in the primary,” the senator added.

Monmouth and Ocean contain 22,000 registered Republicans, where Thompson will have the line.

Old Bridge has 7,000 registered Republicans and Burlington 2,200.

“There’s no way he carries 7,000 votes in Old Bridge, of course, you’re not going to get 100% turnout,” an animated Thompson told InsiderNJ. ‘I have no worries. They tried to get my two running mates against me. that didn’t happen. He said he would turn out 300 union members and put half a million dollars into the primary. Interestingly enough, he indicated the unions were against me because I voted against the gas tax. This is the first primary I’ve had in 20 years. i love it. It’s on.”

As for Haney’s gripe about the venue change, the senator said, “Garbage.”

“I don’t get any cooperation from Old Bridge,” Middlesex County GOP Chair Lucille Panos said of the Haney contingent.