Hudson County Republicans should be up in arms. The Hudson County Republican Party has spent party funds to support one of the Jersey City Board of Education slates, Change for Children. Moreover, one of the Change for Children candidates endorsed by Hudson County Republican Chairman Jose Arango, Noemi Velazquez, has a well-documented and recent history of remarks so disparaging of Republicans and bigoted against Evangelical Christians that the Record and Star Ledger reported on it just last year.

In a non-partisan election there is nothing wrong with partisan organizations informing their members which candidates line up with their policy goals and political philosophy. Indeed, it may even be okay for partisan organizations to spend funds on non-partisan races if the candidate it is supporting is a member of its party. But endorsing an all Democrat ticket and using Republican Party funds to do a mailer for them is unacceptable to the vast majority of Republicans, even if one of those Democrats wasn’t on the record saying horrible things about a religion and our party. Arango, as Hudson County Republican Chair, should not be surprised that Republicans in our county believe that Republican funds should be used to support Republican candidates, not those who hate Republicans, not those who engage in bigotry, and not Democrats.

County Republican dollars have not been used to send a mailer to support Republican candidates for partisan office such as Kenneth Gonzalez (candidate for County Executive), Holly Lucyk (a GOP assembly candidate), or any of the other Republican candidates for partisan office. Nor has county GOP funds been used to send a mailer for any candidate for non-partisan office running in Hudson while being brave enough to remain a registered Republican. We should have a county Republican Party that supports Republican candidates and that is willing to fight against the entrenched Democratic machine political bosses, not for them.

Arango, who has endorsed Democrat Noemi Velazquez and supported her campaign with GOP funds, has ignored her bigoted attacks on Republicans and Evangelical Christian’s made just last year. These attacks were so extreme that even Governor Murphy, a super-partisan Democrat and no friend to the Republicans, felt she must be punished, suspended her without pay, and required her to attend diversity training. Republicans should be alarmed that the titular county GOP Chairman, Arango, either couldn’t take the time to google those Democrat candidates he used GOP funds to support or doesn’t care about the vicious attacks on both our party and tens of millions of Evangelical Christian Americans. Indeed, in the recent past Arango has used allegations of bigotry targeting the Republican candidate for Hudson County Sheriff, Adela Rohina, to attempt to force her to withdraw from the race, and publicly went to the media stating that he was endorsing the Democratic incumbent, Frank Schillari.

For all Republicans in Hudson County and all those who believe in the value of an opposition party, Arango must apologize and withdraw his endorsement of the Change for Children slate. It is inappropriate for an official Republican Party organization to endorse a slate of Democrats even in a non-partisan election, it is unacceptable for the Chairman of the Hudson County Republican Party to abuse his title to publicly endorse someone who has attacked Republicans, and it is immoral to endorse someone who just last year called all Evangelical Christians “assholes” and “molesters,” all the while and even more so using official Republican Party funds to support them. The Republicans in our county await Arango’s apology and retraction.

Joshua Sotomayor Einstein

NJ GOP State Committeeman representing Hudson County