Money is important in politics. Everybody knows that.

It gets attention, helps run a campaign and establishes credibility with fellow politicians.

But does it get the endorsement of the Bergen County Republican Organization?

Frank Pallotta thinks so.

Pallotta, who was the GOP candidate for Congress in CD-5 in 2020 against Josh Gottheimer, wants another crack at the Democratic incumbent this year.

But to get there, he has to beat Nick DeGregorio in the June 7 primary. And DeGregorio has been endorsed by the Bergen County Republican Organization. That is important given the fact the district is now more Bergen than it had been because of redistricting.

Pallotta just released a series of text messages that he says proves that the leaders of the Bergen Republican organization care about the money more than they do the issues.

Pallotta’s description of the text messages is pretty blunt.

He says that, “They expose attempted extortion and corruption, prove the party’s primary line is for sale to the highest bidder, and an admission the Bergen County Republican Committee (the BCRO) is backing Nick DeGregorio in an act of revenge because Frank Pallotta refused to be a part of their schemes.”

The man on the other end of the messages Pallotta released is political operative Matt Gilson.

In an email Monday morning, Gilson sent over a few texts of his own with the following description.

“I hope these attached give more context to the lies Frank is telling and possibly subjecting himself to legal action.”

One of the messages released by Pallotta quotes Gilson as saying simply, “Buy the line.”

However, the thread provided by Gilson brings up another name, Republican Robert Kugler, who ran unsuccessfully last year for Bergen County sheriff.

Gilson contends that the “buy the line” advice was a joke about Kugler who had been a Democrat.

So, in this version, the two Republicans were joking about a Democrat doing something less than honorable.

That’s one thread.

The others released by Pallotta also quote Gilson making disparaging remarks about Sussex County.

Sussex has long been part of CD-5, but redistricting has reduced the number of Sussex towns in the district. However, even before redistricting, Bergen dominated the district.

Which is something Gilson seemed to have in mind when in one of the text exchanges with Pallotta, he discounts the voting strength of Sussex. At one point, Gilson tells Pallotta to “run to win suburban moms, not mountain men.”

In truth, that’s probably not bad advice. By the way, the term “mountain men” is actually one that state lawmakers representing Sussex, and for that matter all of northwest Jersey, proudly gave themselves a few years ago.

There are other juicy tidbits in the text messages, including personal insults of political figures. They have been posted on Pallotta’s campaign Facebook page.

In fairness, it must be noted that some of the messages Pallotta released go back three years. Context also is important.

Nonetheless, the bottom line here is Pallotta’s contention that the BCRO gave its endorsement to the highest bidder, not the best candidate.

Broadly speaking, this isn’t exactly breaking news when it comes to politics just about everywhere.

But the question is what impact will Pallotta’s text message release have on primary voters?