Republican Primary voters put their “Two Cents” in…This will be a long five months. Math alert – deep thoughts required in analyzing what is to follow:

I have met people around the District who have been loyal Democrats or Republicans for years, and who are wholly disheartened by the choices they are being offered this November in the General Election for Congress. They are all looking for another direction – and I’m bringing them one.

By now, everyone is suffering from “primary paralysis” – and their attention span for thoughts political has been severely reduced…frankly, just what the bosses would prefer.

The two primary winners are a disappointment to all but their base supporters. There are 215,363 persons registered to vote in Burlington County, and 377,658 registered voters in Ocean County.

Broken down further, Republican voters are only 28.38% of the available voter population in November in Ocean County, long considered a “deep-R” stronghold.

The core problems in our Nation can be summed up in the hard numbers from this primary.

Let’s start with OCEAN COUNTY – (If you’re from Burlington County, you “could” skip this, but don’t – invest five minutes of reading in your Nation’s future.)

MacArthur garnered only 7468 “lever pulls” (59.25% of REPUBLICAN ballots “cast”) from Ocean voters who felt strongly enough about voting in the primary, and Lonegan eked out only 5102 (40.28% of ballots cast).

59.25% to 40.28%...

Sounds like a sound beating, doesn’t it?

Wait – there’s more to know.

Even if we include the write-in ballots, the 12,605** total votes cast represents only 11.75% of the REPUBLICAN Ocean County base of 107,176 registered REPUBLICANS.

Put another way, only ONE THIRTIETH (0.0334) of the potential voters in the November General Election voted REPUBLICAN…and, of those, only 1.98% of the voting population cast a vote for MacArthur. (or against Lonegan)

(**That’s right – only 11.75% of potential Republican PRIMARY VOTERS turned up. Did the rest just feel their vote wasn’t necessary, or were they as disappointed as the bloggers in their choices, and stayed home in protest?)

That’s a “WIN”?

That number becomes even more telling when factored against potential GENERAL ELECTION voters.

One FIFTIETH of the voting poolOn Primary day, party-machine-anointed MacArthur gathered fewer votes than the population of Randolph!

1.98%?

That’s right - less than 2% of the potential November voters.

If the whole county of Ocean were a Dollar, MacArthur’s support in the primary is worth < 2 cents.

Here’s an even more embarrassing statistic…

With 2 million spent, MacArthur’s total vote tally is less than ten times the ballots cast for Aimee Belgard’s primary opponents, who collectively spent a pittance…

Kleinhendler and Todd garnered a total of 881 votes in Ocean County – 11.80 percent of MacArthur’s 2 million dollar result.

Is it safe to say that the less than 7500 people who were loyal to MacArthur (or just didn’t want Steve Lonegan as their representative.) will vote for him again in the Fall?

Barring any discovery that their emperor-appointed candidate “has no clothes”, we could make that assumption.

So – with 2% a “lock”, that means that 98% of you can keep that from happening.

Aimee “Norcross” doesn’t get a pass, here, either. For starters, there are only 73,750 registered Democrats in Ocean County – 19.53% of the potential voters in November.

Effectively unchallenged, Belgard, on the NORCROSS line, got 3424 Ocean County voters to show up. That’s 0.91%.

Put in perspective, the Republicans have TWO cents to the Democrats’ ONE.

0.91% of Ocean County Registered Voters who may cast a ballot in November.

In overall terms, the Democrats posted a meager 1.14% percent of eligible November voters from Ocean County when adding up all three of their primary candidates.

Democrat party leadership has all but written off Burlington and Ocean County and CD3 in the Federal Race, choosing, instead, to focus on the opportunity created for the Party “Emperor”, Darth Norcross, to appoint his younger brother to a Congressional Seat in District One, following Rob Andrews’ resignation in disgrace.

Ms. Belgard, initially chosen as a sacrificial lamb to run against presumed incumbent Jon Runyan, was quickly given the tentative endorsement of the party establishment – I say “tentative” because, once Runyan announced he was not seeking re-election, there were many establishment democrats who, in private circles, groused that their endorsement of Belgard was premature, as it prevented their OWN run at the now-vacant seat. Having publicly endorsed the “sacrifice”, they could hardly change their minds without backlash from the party leadership.

The necessary dollars will be spent there to insure that Norcross “JUNIOR” delivers the CD1 seat to the hands of his older brother. Aimee Belgard will be lucky if they give her a check toward yard signs, and some WaWa gift cards for gas money.

And, in OCEAN, perhaps, the most embarrassing statistics of all…

(as a reflection of the approval rating of the Republican Establishment’s incumbent Freeholder and the utter lack of support for his Democrat Challenger)

In the Republican Freeholder Primary, where only one seat is up for grabs, 1209 people pulled a lever for Congress in either CD2, CD3, or CD4, and chose not to support any Republican Freeholder Candidate at all.

With a record spanning two DECADES, current Freeholder Vicari, with 14689, managed to garner the support of only 3 out of 4 Republicans in the abysmal turn-out.

Tim Ryan, the D choice, got 6326 voters to pull for him…less than 1/3 of the Republican turn-out.

On to Burlington County – In Burlington County, the story is very similar.

MacArthur’s support was a mere 15.07% of the Republican base, and that number represents ONLY 3.63% of the total Burlington County voting population. Lonegan, by the same measure, fell only 2599 votes short, without the 2 million dollar war chest.

That “spread” is easily explained away by a likely 2500 “NOT LONEGAN” votes.

Belgard’s tally is actually slightly higher, with 12.36% of the Democrat base, and 3.82% of the total Burlington County voting population.

In Burlington County, Democrats represent 30.89% of all registered voters, where Republicans number just 24%.

There is a further, and very telling, statistic in the Belgard result, however. She was challenged by two virtual unknowns, who managed garner double-digit tallies (16.32% for Todd, 13.03% for Kleinhendler) in spite of Ms. Belgard’s decided monetary advantage AND the ballot line. This means that nearly 1 in 3 of the voters who showed up for Belgard were matched ballot for ballot with “NOT BELGARD” voters.

As the local “bosses” fight for scraps from Gilmore’s and Norcross’ tables, the general public is left with the choices you see before you after last night’s primary – but you can choose another path.

The percentage of ballots cast is far from the whole story when we’re looking at a Primary Election, however. In the Republican race, for example, what we don’t know is how many voters went into the booth and, rather than casting a vote FOR one candidate, cast a vote AGAINST the other? How many Lonegan votes were really only “Not MacArthur”, and how many MacArthur votes were actually cast for “Anyone but Lonegan?”

How many stayed home, not only out of apathy, but out of disgust?

While it is true that MacArthur spent north of $ 135 dollars PER VOTER in the abysmal turnout, we will never be sure how many of those who pulled the line lever were simply pulling for “The Line” or pulling “against Lonegan”.

If we are to believe the buzz on the many conservative Republican blogs, such as “SaveJersey”, the electorate is completely dissatisfied with the choices they were given.

The leadership of the Republican Party managed to drive only 6.96% of eligible REPUBLICAN voters in Ocean, and 15.06% of registered Republicans in Burlington, to actually cast a ballot for their “winner” – with over 2 million spent for the primary election for a job paying $ 175,000 a year.

Sounds like a bad investment, until you factor in what “their” candidate will deliver back to the party in terms of “street cred” in local and county races – where the real profiteering takes place.

Republican values and Democrat values aren’t the real issue, here. Rational persons can sit down and come to an agreement, or, at least, an understanding, on virtually any issue one could raise that is addressed by our representation at the Federal Level – in theory, Congress does this every day they are in session.

It is the partisan bickering of the LEADERSHIP – the self-appointed “king-makers” – that create the “failure-ship” we witness daily in poor decision-making from both sides of the aisle, by those representing the “SPECIAL” interests who “bought them” into their seat, rather than the interests of those they are sworn to represent.

Fortunately, for those of you who have had enough – there is an answer.

This November, District Three will have a fiscal conservative, social moderate on the ballot – me. I’m Frederick John LaVergne, a man who has actually lived in the district for a quarter century, and is a lifelong Jersey resident. Further, I wear no “party handcuffs”.

If you’re tired of a two-horse race, where the same stables owns BOTH horses, you may want to get to know me, and what I stand for.

Reach me at upholdtheconstitution@hotmail.com to know more.

“Stand for what’s right, or settle for what’s left” – Frederick John LaVergne, “Democratic-Republican” for Congress, NJ CD3 2014