For NJ, A New State GOP Chair: Does It Matter?

The New Jersey Republican Party has a new Chair. Her name is Christine Giordano Hanlon and she's the County Clerk of Monmouth County, one of the few GOP strongholds in the Garden State.

She seems like a fine choice and we wish her well. 

But we must ask: does it matter? Really?

The NJ GOP chair's post has been a veritable merry-go-round of late. So many chairs have come and gone that one could make a joke about rearranging the chairs on the deck of a certain ill-fated vessel. And the tenure of recent chairs has been counted in mere months rather than years. 

New Jersey has always been a state where county bosses and self-appointed potentates have counted more than the state party chair or state committee. These county honchos have welded more power and struck far more fear into the hearts of the party faithful than all the state committee members combined. And while that power may be on the ebb since the elimination of the all-important "line" on primary ballots, local and county party kingpins have shown themselves to be quite adept at retaining key pockets of power.

That said, there's still much that the state party can, such as raising funds, rallying the faithful and recruiting new party members. The key is for the the state organization to be disciplined, informed and strategic in mapping out its goals and priorities and, above all -- unified. And, since the GOP seems to be at a low point in New Jersey right now, it might also help to seek out opportunities for quick initial victories (even on the local level) to get some W's on the board and prime the pump, going forward.

Hanlon has a tall order ahead of her. But, looked at another way, her plight reminds us of the title of an old Broadway show: Nowhere To Go But Up.