{"id":13307,"date":"2018-08-28T04:27:16","date_gmt":"2018-08-28T08:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=13307"},"modified":"2018-08-28T15:11:35","modified_gmt":"2018-08-28T19:11:35","slug":"brick-councilman-breaks-party-lines-endorses-gop-senate-candidate-hasnt-ruled-out-switching-parties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2018\/08\/brick-councilman-breaks-party-lines-endorses-gop-senate-candidate-hasnt-ruled-out-switching-parties\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick Councilman Breaks Party Lines, Endorses GOP Senate Candidate; ‘Hasn’t Ruled Out’ Switching Parties"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Brick<\/a>

Brick Councilman Jim Fozman and U.S. Sen. candidate Bob Hugin. (File Photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

A Democratic Brick Township council member broke ranks Monday to endorse a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, amid a close race that has placed a once sure-fire \u2013 but scandal-ridden \u2013 candidate up against a GOP newcomer.<\/p>\n

Councilman James Fozman appeared Monday with Bob Hugin, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, at Mantoloking Bridge County Park in Brick to endorse Hugin over Democratic rival U.S. Sen. Bob Mendendez.<\/p>\n

Hugin, a Republican in solid-blue New Jersey, is mounting a serious challenge to incumbent Menendez, following Menendez\u2019s federal trial in which a hung jury could not decide whether to convict him on charges of accepting bribes from a Florida eye doctor and using his influence to obtain visas to traffic women from the Dominican Republic to the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m endorsing him to restore the honesty and integrity to the office,\u201d said Fozman, a popular councilman who previously served as council president in Brick. \u201cWe strongly believe in protecting our environment on issues like solar and wind, and opposing offshore drilling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fozman ran to become Democratic municipal chair this year but ultimately lost out to Mayor John Ducey, a fellow Democrat. Ducey held his own press conference earlier this month at Traders Cove park in Brick, standing beside Menendez while the incumbent senator delivered a speech arguing against the confirmation of President Donald Trump\u2019s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh.<\/p>\n

The meeting between Fozman and Hugin was held in Ocean County\u2019s portion of the park after there was \u201csome pushback\u201d about holding the event at Traders Cove, according to one source. Ducey\u2019s meeting was held in the township-owned portion of the park. Township officials said the allegation was not true.<\/p>\n

Fozman has occasionally questioned various resolutions and spending measures on the township council, and has had a history of reaching out to those on the other side of the political aisle since joining a split Democratic-GOP council in 2011. Since then, the council has been occupied totally by Democrats.<\/p>\n

\"Brick<\/a>

Brick Councilman Jim Fozman and U.S. Sen. candidate Bob Hugin. (File Photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Fozman did not criticize Menendez, but said Hugin had a better understanding of coastal and environmental issues that affect Brick Township and Ocean County \u2013 especially Barnegat Bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a house in Mantoloking and that\u2019s one of the reasons he\u2019s invested in our area,\u201d said Fozman.<\/p>\n

Another Democratic source said Fozman\u2019s endorsement of Hugin is analogous to state Sen. Vin Gopal\u2019s previous praise of Joseph Kyrillos\u2019 unsuccessful campaign for U.S. senate.<\/p>\n

As for Fozman, he told Shorebeat Monday that has \u201chasn\u2019t ruled out\u201d a split with the Democratic party<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t ruled it out, and I haven\u2019t ruled it in,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m reaching across the aisle, that\u2019s all for now.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Democratic Brick Township council member broke ranks Monday to endorse a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, amid a close race that has placed a once sure-fire \u2013 but scandal-ridden \u2013 candidate up against a GOP newcomer. Councilman James Fozman appeared Monday with Bob Hugin, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, at Mantoloking Bridge County […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[3439,1080,3356,24,315],"class_list":["post-13307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brick-elections","tag-bob-hugin","tag-bob-menendez","tag-brick-democrats","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-jim-fozman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_2988.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-3sD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}