VICTORY 2017
Unprecedented action…Historic results
Monmouth County Conference political action blitz leads a momentous Election Day for the NJ State PBA
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
n PHOTOS BY JIM CONNOLLY
Go through the call sheets one more time, Local 239 State Del-
egate Mike Michalski requested of his Monmouth County PBA
sisters and brothers. The phone banking for 11th District Senate
Candidate Vin Gopal had progressed into its seventh hour, and Mi-
chalski figured that one more call might lead to one more vote that
could spell the difference in the state’s tightest race on Election Day
2017.
More than 50 Monmouth County Conference members had
been through the call lists once already. Now, a second wave was
making another pass to cap an effort of phoning, knocking on
doors, raising money and even making commercials. The action
transpired for days, weeks and months on behalf of Gopal and fel-
low 11th District Democrats Joann Downey and Eric Houghtaling
running for reelection to the NJ State Assembly.
By 10 p.m., words like “unprecedented,” “historic,” “game-chang-
ing” and “persuasive” filled the toasts to the Monmouth County
members from Gopal, Downey, Houghtaling, PBA President Pat
Colligan, Executive Vice-President Marc Kovar and an entire union
that realized the true power of its influence through this political
impact. When Gopal completed a comeback from 13 points down
two weeks prior to a six-point triumph in unseating incumbent
Republican Jen Beck and became the first Democratic senator in
Monmouth County in more than 20 years, words like “extraordi-
nary,” “relentless,” “momentous” and “dedicated” couldn’t fully
capture what the Monmouth County Conference had accom-
plished.
“It’s truly remarkable the impact you can make,” Michalski mar-
veled as the Election Day phone bank afternoon shift started dial-
From left, NJ State PBA President Pat Colligan, Howell Local 228 State Del-
egate Ryan Hurley, Bradley Beach Local 50 and Monmouth County Confer-
ence Chair Mike Tardio, newly elected State Senator Vin Gopal, Monmouth
County Sheriff’s Officers Local 314 State Delegate Mike Schulze, Holmdel
Local 239 State Delegate Mike Michalski and PBA Executive Vice President
Marc Kovar celebrate Gopal’s win.
ing from its Freehold VFW Hall headquarters. “I was apprehensive
at first. Are we going to be able to accomplish this? Not that we
didn’t want to do it. Once they told us the impact, we really put 110
percent effort into this.”
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Oh, What a Day…Nov. 7, 2017
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
For NJ State PBA President Pat Colligan, the celebration on Elec-
tion Day 2017 began at 6 a.m., when his son, Connor, was sworn
into the U.S. Coast Guard and headed off to boot camp. Nearly 18
hours later, Colligan had crisscrossed the state of New Jersey to wit-
ness one example after another of the State PBA’s political action
exerting its full force.
He ended the night at Vin Gopal’s reception in Long Branch,
where Monmouth County PBA members celebrated their calls-to-
the-walls onslaught that turned the 11th District senate race up-
side down. By the time the Boss’s “These are Better Days” blared
through the Asbury Park Convention Center, priming the place for
the victory speech from Governor-elect Phil Murphy – also cat-
apulted to a convincing victory by PBA support – it was hard to
imagine a better day than this, when the union’s political impact
increased by leaps and bounds.
“I went to bed with a smile on my face and woke up the next
morning with a smile on my face,” admitted the PBA president,
who has been known to lie awake thinking about responses to the
union’s ideas and initiatives.
“It was vindication,” he continued. “We never second-guessed
getting involved in the political process, but there were times when
you wonder if it’s all worth it. Then a day like this happens, and you
think, ‘Oh my God. It’s everything we hoped for.’”
That Colligan had an OMG moment merely offers praise to what
PBA members have accomplished the past three and a half years
that culminated with Victory 2017. What began in the fall of 2014
with an initiative to meet with every state legislator and the pro-
posal to start a PAC fund gained momentum with PBA days at the
State House in Trenton, the advent of PBA phone banking on Elec-
tion Day 2015 and the Bergen County Political Action Committee
leading the charge to get Josh Gottheimer to Congress in 2016.
The watershed endorsement of Murphy so far in advance of
the 2017 election, of course, turned up the volume on the union’s
political voice. Then, getting out the votes to help Gopal stage an
earth-shattering comeback, as well as to help Chris Brown punch
out a Senate seat in Atlantic County’s 2nd District, and to help
Steve Sweeney fight off a substantive challenge in the 3rd District
and a Bergen County encore for PBA-endorsed candidates in the
38th District emphatically secured what Executive Vice President
Marc Kovar has been asking members to get involved for: the seat
at the table.
“Driving all over the state seeing our members making calls and
CONTINUED ON PAGE 32
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