STONE HARBOR – Cape May County Republicans gathered at the Harbor Square Theater in Stone Harbor for their annual convention on March 10. State Sen. Michael Testa and his running mates, Assemblyman Erik Simonsen and Assemblyman Antwan McClellan, were unopposed at the convention, as was County Commissioner Len Desiderio.
Three candidates competed for the CapeGOP endorsement in the New Jersey gubernatorial nomination race. Former Assemblyman Jack Ciatarelli outpaced Hirsh Singh and Phillip Rizzo. Ciatarelli will sit atop the Cape May County Republican line on the Primary Election ballot in June.
“Our legislative team of Senator Mike Testa, Assemblyman Erik Simonsen and Assemblyman Antwan McClellan are young, engaged and dynamic,” CapeGOP Chairman Mike Donohue said. “Our organization has been solidly behind their re-election effort and we are already on the streets working toward victory in November. No vote will be taken for granted anywhere in the First Legislative District. CapeGOP grassroots volunteers are ready to work to re-elect Testa, Simonsen and McClellan.”
Testa was elected state senator in 2019, along with Simonsen and McClellan, his Assembly running mates. It was the first time in 28 years that every seat in a legislative district went from one party to the other. The transition followed the departure for the U.S. Congress of long serving state Sen. Jeff Van Drew, who has since joined the Republican Party. Van Drew spoke to the CapeGOP convention via video from Washington, D.C.
Desiderio was endorsed for county commissioner. Desiderio is the vice director of the Cape May County Board of County Commissioners.
“Len Desiderio will get more votes than any other person on the ballot this year,” Donohue said. “Lenny is probably the hardest working elected official in Cape May County. He works across party lines to get things done for our municipalities. Every other candidate on our ticket will benefit from the presence of Len Desiderio in the Republican column.”
With the endorsement of Jack Ciatarelli for governor, CapeGOP has moved the gubernatorial candidate to a point of inevitability in the contest for the Republican nomination to take on Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy.
“Jack Ciatarelli is no stranger to Cape May County,” Donohue said. “Jack will be the Republican nominee for governor of New Jersey. Make no mistake, this will be a close race. There is simmering discontent throughout New Jersey as working families grapple with Murphy priorities that have put radical, Liberal social engineering policies ahead of fixing unemployment problems, fixing the DMV and getting our businesses open and our children back to school.”
Convention 2021 was Donohue’s first since becoming CapeGOP Chairman again in July of 2020. Donohue was chairman from 2010 through 2015, when he was nominated by Gov. Chris Christie and confirmed by the State Senate to be a Superior Court judge. Donohue was on the bench for over four years, mostly in the criminal court.
Donohue told those assembled, “It does get me a little emotional. We are here together tonight. We still have masks on and we are spread out, but here we are. It makes being back as your chairman that much more meaningful that this convention is our first major event since they shut the world down a year ago.”
The convention also endorsed Lynda Pagluighi and Tom Rotondi for Republican State Committee. Pagliughi, of Avalon, has been the vice chair of the State Committee for over a decade. Rotondi has served on the State Committee for nearly 10 years and is the Second Ward Councilman in Ocean City.