Morris County Republicans are one GOP organization that has had enough of Mike Crispi.

Crispi, the co-chair of the America First Republicans, rose in prominence in MAGA world when he was

one of the warm-up speakers at Donald Trump’s May rally in Wildwood. When Trump arrived, he complimented Crispi’s speech.

More recently, Crispi weighed in on Sunday’s Senate debate between Curtis Bashaw and Andy Kim. He called Bashaw’s performance “disturbing,” among other criticisms. One of which was:

“Where are the county chairmen and congressmen who backed Bashaw in the primary against pro-life Republicans like Christine Glassner, Justin Murphy, and Albert Harshaw? Bashaw’s nomination is the greatest scam in recent memory and the bosses who ran it will be held accountable.”

Later, Crispi complained that:

“Republican party bosses and supposedly pro-life congressmen refused to support President Trump’s choice for Senate and instead rigged the ballot to make it appear Trump had endorsed Bashaw. We’re committed to ending the party line in the GOP primary starting in 2025.”

Some Republican leaders may have just ignored Crispi’s rantings, but not Laura Ali in Morris. Here’s a statement from the Morris Republican Committee:

“This year, Republicans have the greatest opportunity in our lifetime to deliver a Republican to the United States Senate who is accomplished, successful and authentic.  That gentleman is Curtis Bashaw.  Unfortunately, the day after his excellent debate performance, the people of N.J.once again had to be subjected to the small fringe radicals of our party that claim they stand for Republican principles, but really don’t. Instead, they are hate-mongers who spew vile rhetoric in an attempt to stay relevant.

Mike Crispi, who recently ridiculed Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz’s son for his autism on Twitter/X, decided to send out a massive email blast publicly bashing Curtis Bashaw. His rage was directed on the fact that Bashaw is a pro-choice Republican in a state that has over 900,000 more registered Democrats.  Where was Crispi’s dedication to the pro-life cause when he ran a repulsive and vicious campaign against the former Right-to-Life Chair of N.J.- Congressman Chris Smith, back in 2022?
This kind of despicable attack speech on fellow Republicans has to stop and has to stop now, if our party ever hopes to take back the State House and the State Legislature.  Republicans in New Jersey want and need a big tent, if we are going to ever win elections and change the state.
Our party will start winning again when we have more people with the moral character of Curtis Bashaw and less people that are bags of hot air, that scream loudly into their selfie cameras spewing hate garbage, hoping to be the next Alex Cooper.
I urge all Republicans to come out in droves and vote for the man who can win in November and give us a Republican voice in the US Senate.  That gentleman is Curtis Bashaw.”

This is a dispute between mainstream and extreme-MAGA Republicans, but it’s more than that.

In fact, it is a real problem for New Jersey Republicans. As noted above, Dems have a registration advantage of more than 900,000. Clearly, it is counterproductive for Republicans to fight among themselves.

But it happens all the time – as we see from Crispi’s comments.

An objective look at things is needed.

Yes, Bashaw is pro-choice, but this is New Jersey, not Mississippi.

Because of his views on abortion, Bashaw has a much better chance of beating Kim than any of the losing primary candidates cited above by Crispi. And that is what counts, right? Winning the general election.

A presidential election overwhelms everything else, but let’s not forget next year’s gubernatorial election where this ideological split will again be on display.

One of the announced GOP gubernatorial candidates, Bill Spadea, routinely criticizes establishment Republicans.

Besides the above statement, Ali, who was recently elected to lead the state’s 21 Republican chairs, offered some thoughts about Crispi:

“We need an exorcism on Crispi. He needs to be excommunicated from the party as he is tarnishing our brand.”