From the Sidelines: Montville's Republican Women Have Not Faired Well

Over the last five decades there have been exactly four Republican women who have served on the Township Committee. Of the four, two were removed in Republican primaries and a third is being challenged in a Republican primary as I write this and her fate is as yet unknown. 

One woman, Carol Murphy, lost an appointment to a vacant seat then ran for election and won. As memory serves, she was elected twice locally, became a freeholder and went on to the assembly beyond the reach of the local Montville Republican Party. An interesting side note is that when a vacancy for assembly occurred she lost a Republican County Convention by one vote to fill that vacancy to Assemblyman Alex DeCroce. Some members of her own hometown Montville delegation didn't vote for her. No thanks to the Montville Republican party, she had a long career in public service and finished it on a state board.

The two women that were defeated by men were Lois Fox, a long time Republican County Committee worker and Republican Municipal Chair and First Aid Squad member. The other, Marie Cetrulo, was a thirty-five year volunteer in the community, founder of both the 4th of July Committee and of the Drug Awareness Committee and Project Graduation.  Marie was also the first woman mayor of Montville Township and a Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year.

We will have to see how this primary works out. Deb Nielson has served two terms (the same as both of her opponents) and has an almost identical voting record to the people who have teamed up against her.

As a Democrat, I don't really have a rooting interest, but as a citizen who cares about this township, you have to wonder what exactly is going on in the Republican organization and in the minds of the candidates running against her. Is this a decades long "Good Old Boys Club,"  or something else, and if so, what do Republican women think about it?