Hudson County GOP Chair Jose Arango and 9th District Republican congressional candidate Rosie Pino are praising Sheriff Frank Schillari for leaving the Democratic party yesterday.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“As the Hudson County Sheriff is a Republican, it’s now time to usher in change with pragmatic law and order policies,” Arango wrote on Facebook.
“By electing a Republican Sheriff’s Office in November, with Elvis Alvarez, a highly regarded Hispanic law enforcement leader, at the helm, we can exemplify the synergy between NJ Hudson County, the Republican Party, and our future Governor Jack Ciattarelli.”
His comments came after Schillari officially switched from Democrat to Republican yesterday, as HCV first reported, roughly six weeks after losing a primary to Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis.
Schillari ran on Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop’s “Democrats for Change” gubernatorial slate, while Davis was part of the Hudson County Democratic Organization’s slate.
“Welcome to the Republican Party, Sheriff Schillari! Just like Sheriff Schillari, I also left the Democratic Party because it grew too extreme and out of touch,” Pino wrote in her own Facebook post.
“The New Jersey Republican Party is the big tent party that is fighting for safer neighborhoods, lower cost of living, and better schools. I look forward working with Sheriff Schillari to spread that commonsense message throughout Hudson County and NJ-09.”
If she unseats U.S. Rep. Nellie Pou next year, Pino would represent Schillari’s home town of Secaucus.
What the five-term incumbent sheriff’s has planned next remains to be seen, though he cannot run again in November due to New Jersey’s “sore loser” law that prevents any candidate who loses in a primary from giving it another try in the general election.
However, he gave what sounded like a de facto endorsement of Ciattarelli and his pick for lieutenant governor, Morris County Sheriff Jim Gannon, at a press conference earlier today.
“I believe in [Ciattarelli’s] plans to change things in the state of New Jersey, and Jim Gannon has been a friend, a great sheriff, a great partner, and I’m here to support him as well,” Schillari told reporters, according to the New Jersey Globe.
“And I know with Jack Ciattarelli and Jim Gannon, law enforcement will have nothing to worry about.”
