The cognoscenti has known about Michael Krawitz since 2008, when the state cops knocked on his door for making crank calls to Gov. Corzine.
Michael Krawitz has run for a spot on West Deptford's township committee since 2009, and has been defeated each time - which speaks well of the local electorate, given Monday's revelation that he publicly advocates the rape of female journalists.
It is also reassuring that it took the Gloucester County GOP only one day to call for Krawitz to resign his 2016 candidacy, which he did Tuesday afternoon.
But it doesn't explain why the GCGOP didn't vet him - even though it has officers from West Deptford who undoubtedly know him; even though Krawitz has been a public irritant since the State Police knocked on his door for making crank calls to Gov. Corzine in 2008.
The initial reaction from the West Deptford GOP was to ask Facebook to investigate whether Krawitz's account was hacked - never mind that his trolling of Olivia Nuzzi of the Daily Beast occurred on Twitter, and there was evidence of it dating back to 2014.
The state GOP was just as silent; we'll assume it did not condone Krawitz's hope that Nuzzi is "...Raped. By. A. Syrian. Refugee. :)" - that's how he wrote his Aug. 10 missive - but it would have been better to state it publicly.
You'd think the Republicans would learn to screen candidates rather than settle for the first choochaloon who posts the filing fee. The party learned a harsh lesson last year, when an Assembly candidate in North Jersey's 38th District was discovered to have written a book filled with racial and ethnic slurs, leading to a futile legal fight to replace him on the ballot and a statewide black eye for the GOP.
That kind of comic negligence earned the GOP its smallest Assembly membership since 1979.
One year later, a contemptible councilman wannabe slipped through the party's net, which was unfortunate, as he clearly belongs in one.
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