Conservative Bogota Councilman Backs Donovan Team

Dear Bergen County Republican:

Party Chairman Guy Talarico and his hand picked candidates are trying to paint the supporters of Kathe Donovan, Jae Kim, Lisa Randall and Ed Trawinski as liberals. I support the Donovan Team, but calling me a “liberal� is ludicrous.

I have voted for Ronald Reagan, Pat Buchanan, Brett Schundler, and Steve Lonegan. I believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and my wife and I home-school our children. I hardly fit the liberal profile.

Guy Talarico wrote a letter to the Bergen County party faithful which starts: “Today, our beloved party finds itself at a crossroads. A battle is being waged for the heart and soul of our party.� His rhetoric is a bit overblown.

He continues: “We believe that when properly articulated, our conservative principles will guide us to victory once again.� Mr. Talarico has been in power for nearly three years. Why has he waited so long to “articulate�? What are those principles?

Under his regime, the local Republican victories have been in spite of him and few and far between. The only two Republicans at the County level who have won and remain in office are Kathe Donovan and Lisa Randall. Yet Guy Talarico’s strategic priority is to campaign against them!

All Republicans agree on the one principle articulated in his letter, namely “lower taxes and a smaller government that promotes prosperity and opportunity for all.� Since The Donovan Team has a better chance of winning in the fall, it will do a better job of delivering on that Republican principle.

Guy Talarico’s letter laments over “giving voters no clear choice.� But Kathe Donovan, Jae Kim, Lisa Randall and Ed Trawinski are giving us a real choice – a winning choice.

Kathy Donovan is a tough Irish gal from Lyndhurst who graduated from Rutgers Newark with a Political Science degree and went on to be a public defender and a State Assemblywoman. She has served as Chair of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a $5 billion agency, which operates without public subsidy. She is a four-time countywide election winner; she brought the County Clerk's office into the 21st century and has turned it into a profit center and a consumer friendly agency. From personal experience as a local electoral candidate, I had several dealings with the Clerk’s office, which I always found to be helpful and well run. In contrast our Party Chairman’s office has been worth less than zero to me as a candidate and as an elected official.

Mr. Kim, who is running for Surrogate, is a practicing attorney, who has plenty of experience with Surrogate Courts. Between them, Lisa Randall and Ed Trawinski have county committee, town council, mayoral, state assembly, Governor’s cabinet, county counsel and freeholder experience. All four of these candidates have many years of experience as private practice attorneys and understand state, county and local law. The Donovan Team is a Dream Team.

With this solid experienced team at the county level, local Republicans will find it a bit easier to claw their way back to more municipal elected offices, which will in turn be great for Bergen County. Why should Hillary Clinton, John Kerry or whoever the Democrats put up in 2008 think that Bergen belongs to them? With the Donovan Team at the helm, by 2008 the Bergen GOP will have pushed the Democrat machine aside, and we will deliver Bergen and New Jersey to our national GOP candidate, just as our predecessors pulled in Bergen and New Jersey for Ronald Reagan in 1980.

By contrast, Guy Talarico’s candidates are weak. And for that reason, the party chairman and his team have attempted to stick the false “liberal� label on the supporters of the Donovan Team. As I wrote at the start of this letter, in my case, the label is ludicrous.

The Donovan Team includes people who worked hard to bring in the votes for not only Reagan, but even Nixon, men like Tom Bruinooge and Alan Marcus who were very substantive supporters and players in Ronald Reagan's 1980 New Jersey campaign. They helped put Ronald Reagan over the top in New Jersey. These men literally broke bread with Ronald Reagan. They knew Ronald Reagan. Very few people can claim to be more of a Reagan Republican than Mr. Bruinooge or Mr. Marcus. These men went on to very successful private sector careers, and the strong Donovan Team is even stronger with these Reagan Republicans, the real Reagan Republicans, behind them.

I have faith that Bergen County Republican primary voters will not believe the false labels that Guy Talarico is trying to stick on the Donovan Team.

During one of the gubernatorial primary debates, Mr. Lonegan said “nice guys finish last.� Actually, in the long run, nice guys finish first. Ronald Reagan was firm but nice, a true gentleman. The Donovan Team has lots of tough but nice guys and gals, and they will finish first, in the long and short runs. I hope that you, along with an overwhelming majority of Bergen County Republicans will join them and vote for them in the June 6 primary election.

George E. Silos – Councilman Bogota

George E. Silos – Councilman Bogota
385 Larch Ave.
Bogota, NJ 07603
(201) 880-5388

March 28, 2006