Republicans who put tracking devices on lawn signs win

The conservative faction won by a wide majority in a bitter GOP primary fight for two Readington City Committee seats that included attaching tracking devices to lawn signs that led to another local official being arrested for theft.

Mayor Juergen Huelsebusch received the most votes with 1,397 votes, followed by his committee colleague Adam Mueller with 1,404 votes. They defeated former Mayor Benjamin Smith (968) and Planning Board member Jacqueline Hindle (925).

The race was part of a battle between moderate old guard Republicans and a newer, much more conservative faction in the Hunterdon County municipality, divided by supporters and opponents of Donald Trump.

The two factions have been locked in a civil war since 2022, when three-term City Commission member Betty Anne Fort, a staunchly anti-Trump Republican, lost her primary by a 2-1 margin to conservative Vinny Panico, former Hunterdon Central Regional chair. Board of Education, which escaped with the blessing of party leaders.

Fort endorsed Democrat Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) over Republican Thomas Kean Jr. in 2020. (R-Westfield) and donated $7,900 to his campaigns in 2020 and 2022. This cost her re-election.

Last year, two moderate incumbents, John Albanese and Jonathan Heller, lost the party’s endorsement but spun out of control to narrowly win the GOP primary.

There have been allegations of sign theft over the past few years – in 2022, some Republicans were informally caught moving Kean posters after a hunting camera was used for surveillance.

The conservative faction got tired of the game and created an independent operation.

They decided to attach an Apple AirTag to altered signs from Kean’s 2022 race, with a harsh anti-Malinowski message, and place them adjacent to Smith and Hindle’s signs.

AirTags allowed the group to ping the sign to determine its exact location.

The opposition followed the signal home to Albanese. Panico called a police sergeant to report the theft. They found six signs against Malinowski and arrested Albanese.