Mayor blasts Republicans for ‘coup’ against Schirmer
HAMILTON >> The Hamilton Township Republican Committee is actively undermining Councilwoman Ileana Schirmer’s prospects for reelection in a process that Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried cannot support.
Fried, a state GOP committeeman for Mercer County, blasted Hamilton Republican boss Dennis Pone and township official Marty Flynn for being involved in what he calls an “undemocratic” plot to replace Schirmer with another Republican candidate for the 2019 Hamilton Council election.
“Could you think of any worse judgment?” Fried said Wednesday of Flynn’s involvement in the Schirmer-replacement scheme. “It makes it look like that employee is creating a coup against a sitting councilwoman. How are they supposed to work together now? It’s just poor judgment.”
Flynn serves as the Hamilton Township economic development director and as Mayor Kelly Yaede’s chief of staff. He is also an elected Hamilton GOP committeeman.
The Hamilton Republican Committee issued an email last week seeking candidates who are interested in running for Hamilton Council on a GOP slate with Councilman Ralph Mastrangelo and Mayor Yaede. The email specifically asked interested candidates to email their résumés to Flynn by March 1.
As chairman of the Hamilton Republicans, Pone “grossly exceeded his authority” by unilaterally seeking to replace Schirmer with a new candidate, Fried said, adding the chairman should have called for a political convention or held a formal committee vote to decide the issue democratically.
The longtime Robbinsville mayor also said it was “incredibly inappropriate” and “unethical” for Flynn to be involved as the résumé collector. “It makes it look like an employee is effectively orchestrating a coup against a sitting councilperson,” he said.
“I am a little disappointed in Mayor Fried,” Flynn said Wednesday in an interview with The Trentonian. “He could have reached out to Kelly, or myself or Dennis.”
“I respect his opinion,” Flynn added, “but that’s all it really is is his opinion. He can certainly have that, but the dynamics are so different between Hamilton and Robbinsville. We deal with the two party system in Hamilton. In Robbinsville, they don’t have that.”
Flynn, Pone and Yaede all blamed Schirmer for the current predicament, saying the councilwoman had left the Hamilton Republican Committee with no choice but to seek a replacement candidate.
“During and increasingly after her failed candidacy for State Senate, Ms. Schirmer’s own words and actions alienated herself from the Hamilton Township Republican Committee,” Yaede said Wednesday in a statement. “Ms. Schirmer subsequently resigned from the Hamilton Township Republican Club, completely disengaged from the Hamilton Township Republican Committee and — very publicly — aligned herself with David Henderson and the ‘Henderson Hate Group’ that Hamilton Republicans firmly and publicly rejected.”
Henderson, a Mercer County Republican strategist, is a leading member of Republicans for a Better Hamilton, an alternative organization highly critical of the Yaede administration. Yaede and other township officials have repeatedly condemned Henderson in the harshest of terms, saying he promotes racially insensitive and misogynistic commentary.
“It was really Councilwoman Schirmer’s decision some time ago to turn her back on the Republican Party in Hamilton,” Pone said Tuesday in a statement. “She resigned from the Republican club, which has 20 delegates to the convention. She has made it abundantly clear that she does not like the mayor and has recently stated she would not even consider running with her or Councilman Mastrangelo. Ileana let her personal feelings cloud her overall judgment. While we have all had disagreements from time to time, the majority of the local Republicans have continued to be supportive of Mayor Yaede, Councilman Mastrangelo and the administration. We are unified with one purpose: To prevent Governor Murphy’s influence over our town via the Democratic candidate for mayor.”
Democratic Hamilton Council President Jeff Martin has recently launched a 2019 mayoral campaign hoping to unseat incumbent Mayor Yaede, who is expected to seek re-election to another four-year term.
Never afraid to speak her mind, Schirmer on Wednesday blasted Pone and Yaede.
“Mr. Pone should be ashamed of himself,” she said. “He put himself before the committee and decided for the committee and registered Republicans who they will or will not support, completely failing to follow the democratic process that exists. He should do right by all Republicans and resign immediately, his actions are indefensible and he should know better.”
“The so-called Republican Party he thinks he represents,” Schirmer added, “it is a small circle of Yaede followers who have some vested interest in her staying as mayor. Typical of Pone and Yaede to mislead the public. I left the Republican ‘Club’ after an attempt was made by
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