Gilmore Returned To Ocean County GOP Chairmanship: Reports

OCEAN COUNTY, NJ — George Gilmore, convicted on federal tax charges in 2019, has been returned to the chairmanship of the Ocean County Republican Party, according to reports.

Gilmore edged Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy 333-320 in a vote of county Republican delegates Thursday night, Jersey Shore Online reported.

Gilmore, 73, led the Ocean County GOP from 1996 until he was forced to resign the chairmanship after his conviction in April 2019 on two counts of failing to pay over payroll taxes withheld from employees to the IRS and one count of making false statements on a bank loan application submitted to Ocean First Bank.

He had been sentenced to 366 days in prison in January 2020 but his case had remained in the appellate court until December, when his appeal was rejected by a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Gilmore was then pardoned by President Donald Trump on Trump's last day in office in January 2021. The pardon meant Gilmore did not have to serve the prison sentence but did not remove the conviction.

Mastronardy, who rose through the ranks of the Toms River Police Department to chief before becoming Ocean County Sheriff in December 2013. He had decided to run for the Ocean County GOP chairmanship after Frank B. Holman III, who was elected chair after Gilmore's resignation in 2019, decided not to seek re-election.

Holman won the special election in 2019 by 24 votes against Gilmore’s handpicked candidate, developer Frank Sadeghi, the New Jersey Globe said in a report on Gilmore's victory.