Sabrin's not Hogan's hero

Murray SabrinIt's almost a month after the primary, but former Republican Senate primary candidate Murray Sabrin's unorthodox campaign continues to produce reverberations.

James Hogan, who ran for the Republican congressional nomination on Sabrin's slate in the 6th District, wrote a blog blog entry
excoriating the campaign for its unusual strategy and press release blitzes, which he said ultimate hurt both Sabrin and his down-ballot candidates.

Hogan placed third in the primary with a little over 1,000 votes, behind Robert McLeod, the winner, and Peter Cerrato.

Still, Hogan professes no bitter feelings towards Sabrin - just a slight feeling of bamboozlement.

"I don't hold a grudge or blame him in any way for me not winning, because truth be told I'm a computer programmer," he said. "But at the same time, you don't get on a line with someone and expect them to be that ridiculous either."

Hogan wrote about his experience on Sabrin's line as part of his effort to document his congressional run - the first and probably last run Hogan made for public office.

Hogan, a Ron Paul for president supporter, had already planned to run for Congress by the time he was recruited by Sabrin's camp. He met Sabrin at an event, was impressed by his command of the issues, and signed on to his slate after Sabrin Communications Director George Ajjan offered him a spot.

But while Hogan said he never expected to even win the Republican primary in this safe Democratic district, he was taken aback by the tone of Sabrin's frequent press releases, which tended to antagonize mainstream Republicans and occasionally made claims many dubbed outlandish.

"At the same time I would hear Murray speak so eloquently about the issues, I would receive a "press release", sometimes two or three in a day, that was just over the top, ridiculous and some of the press releases were even slightly embarrassing as I wanted to be taken, somewhat, seriously and some of these press releases were just outright non-sense," wrote Hogan in the blog entry. "...If I knew Dick Zimmer would be referred to as a "liberal loser lobbyist", I might also have chosen to be on a different line, or no line."

Moreover, Hogan said, he was surprised to find an email sent out that claimed to be authored by him, although he never wrote it.

Still, despite the reservations expressed in Hogan's blog entry, he insists there are no bitter feelings.

"I actually had a lot of fun running my little campaign," he said. "I probably won't run for office again"

Neither Sabrin nor Ajjan could immediately be reached for comment.ALSO on PolitickerNJ.com:

• Wilson investigation tracks phoney emails to Sabrin campaign