The Bashaw of Zdan – Insider NJ

FLORHAM PARK – Democrats ended their Senate primary for all intents and purposes on Sunday when Tammy Murphy dropped out of the race.

Now it’s time for Republicans to do the same.

And they should coalesce around Curtis Bashaw,  the owner of a number of hotels and inns in Cape May.

Says who?

That would be Bashaw himself and Alex Zdan, who ended his own Senate candidacy on Monday.

On Tuesday, Zdan and Bashaw made their pitch for unity outside a local diner.

In endorsing Bashaw, Zdan referenced Murphy’s departure and said unity beckons for Republicans.

“We can end this primary very quickly, unite behind our nominee and make Curtis Bashaw the next senator from New Jersey,” Zdan said.

Zdan, who called Bashaw a decent and good man, said they bonded at the recent Republican convention in Somerset County when at the end of a long, intense evening they shared a pizza.

Real issues tend to be far and few between in primaries, but both Bashaw and Zdan described themselves as “outsiders.”

The other candidate is Christine Serrano Glassner, the mayor of Mendham.

In contrast to someone who has been involved in government, Bashaw said he has the real life experience that comes from building a business and meeting a payroll.

Still, the real message of the day was that Republicans should not waste time, money and energy criticizing each other between now and the June 4 primary. The goal should be to save their resources to battle Andy Kim, the likely Democratic nominee.

All well and good, but by any objective analysis, this ain’t going to be easy.

It’s bad enough that Republicans have not won a Senate seat from New Jersey since 1972. They trail by almost a million voters on the registration rolls and how much, if any, down ballot candidates will be helped by Doanld Trump at the top of the ticket is debatable – to say the least.

Nonetheless, Bashaw said he’s convinced that Republicans this fall will have the issues on their side.

The venue for today’s event was Morris County,  the home county of Serrano Glassner.

Was someone sending a message?

Bashaw and Zdan had both attended a private political gathering at the diner.

So, the location,  they said, was coincidental.

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