As the numbers come in, the incumbents continue to dominate

With 9% of the precincts reporting in LD 13, Senator Joe Kyrillos and Assembly Members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon are leading with 80% of the vote.

In the County race from Sheriff and Freeholder, Sheriff Shaun Golden has over 82% of the vote with 17% of the precincts reporting.   Freeholder Director Tom Arnone and Deputy Director Serena DiMaso also exceed 80% of the vote.

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Monmouth County Incumbents Have Early, Huge Lead

The first and early reports from the Monmouth County Board of Elections show Senator Joe Kyrillos beating Bayshore Tea Party Group backed challenger Leigh-Ann Bellew easily.

With 223 votes reported, Kyrillos has 195, or 87%.

The Assembly incumbents, Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon are winning by a similar margin.

In the Monmouth County Sheriff’s race, incumbent Shaun Golden has 82% of the vote with four precincts of 458 reporting.

Incumbent Freeholders Tom Arnone and Serena DiMaso are likewise dominating their challengers.

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Christie’s Announcement Of U.S. Senate Special Election

Transcript:

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Kyrillos was awakened by dirty trick robo call. Blames call on Bellew campaign

Sen. Joe Kyrillos and Mayor Fred Rast greeting voters in Atlantic Highlands. photo by Art Gallagher

In a get out the vote email to his supporters this afternoon, State Senator Joe Kyrillos said that he and his wife were awakened at 4am this morning by the dirty trick robo call, and that his primary opponents are responsible for the call.

I also want to address the 4 a.m. robo-call many are talking about. Susan and I were awoken by it as well, and I can assure you it’s not how we wanted to start our day either. The fact is it was a dirty trick by our opponents who wanted to make it look like it came from our campaign. The matter is being covered by several news outlets and the incident is being investigated by the prosecutor’s office. It is a shame politics has come to this.

No one from the Bellew for State Senate campaign or the Bayshore Tea Party Group have responded to multiple requests for comment on the robo call.

They have the right to remain silent.

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Christie Calls For Special U.S. Senate Election

Governor Chris Christie announced this afternoon that there will be a special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Frank Lautenberg’s seat for October 16.  A primary will be held on August 13.

Christie has not yet decided who he will appoint the to fill the seat until October 16.  He said he expects to make the appointment in time for the Senate’s voting session next week.

Christie said he didn’t think it was right that he make an appointment through November 2014.

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The Dirty Trick Call

MMM has obtained a copy the 4am robo call that fraudulently announced it was made on behalf on Joe Kyrillos, Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon and reminding the listener that they had “another four hours to vote.

The call had no paid for disclosure, as calls from the Monmouth GOP, whose number was used on the caller ID, would have.

Listen to the call yourself by clicking here.

We called the Bellew for Senate campaign for comment.  No one answered.  This is a copy of the recorded message that answers the Bellew for State Senate phone.  Click here to listen to the Bellew for Senate recorded phone greeting.

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What if Christie picks…..

Could John Bennett be heading back to Trenton?

…Senator Joe Kyillos?

By virtue of his long term friendship with Governor Christie and his campaign for U.S. Senate last year, State Senator Joe Kyrillos is on every Christie mind reader’s short list of possible U.S. Senators to replace the late Frank Lautenberg.

Assuming Kyrillos defeats Leigh-Ann Bellew in the primary today, his move to the U.S. Senate would create a vacancy for the nomination for State Senate in LD 13.  If either Assemblywoman Amy Handlin or Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon move up to the Senate slot, as would be expected, there will be an Assembly nomination vacancy.

Neither Handlin nor O’Scanlon will say if they want the State Senate seat, which probably means they both want it. Even so, I would expect that they would work that out amongst themselves rather than have a convention fight.

A nominating convention for the resulting Assembly vacancy would bring out a wealth of Republican talent.

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Wake up call

Dirty Trick Alleged in LD 13

A robo call went out to Republican primary voters in the 13th Legislative District at 4am this morning urging people to vote for Senator Joe Kyrillos and Assembly Members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon.

“You have four hours to get out and vote…” the call said.  The obvious impression was that the call was supposed to go out at 4PM.

The Monmouth GOP did not order the call.  Kyrillos, Handlin and O’Scanlon did not order the call. Both campaigns say they had no calls scheduled for 4PM.

The caller ID was a secondary number of Monmouth GOP’s, yet the call did not mention the county candidates, Sheriff Shaun Golden or Freeholders Tom Arnone and Serena DiMaso.

O’Scanlon said the call looks to be a dirty trick.

Monmouth GOP Chairman John Bennett is furious. He said the call was a crime. He’s gathering data and plans to file a complaint with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office this afternoon.

“We’ve never had this from the Democrats and they have not had it from us,” Bennett said, “I’m not accusing anyone, but we will get to the bottom of it and file a criminal complaint. This was a dirty trick and attempted voter suppression, pure and simple.”

Both Bennett and O’Scanlon said they became aware of the call before 4:30 this morning when they received phone calls from friends who had been woken up by the call.

MMM left a voice mail and a text with Bayshore Tea Party Group cofounder Barbara Gonzalez asking if she knows anything about the 4am robocall.  Gonzalez has yet to respond. The Bayshore Tea Party Group is supporting the slate of challengers running against the LD13 and Monmouth County Republican incumbents.

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Primary Turnout

The weather is predicted to be beautiful on Tuesday, temperatures in the high 70’s and no change of rain.  If there is a low voter turnout in the primary, it won’t be because of the weather.

There will be no suspense in the GOP Freeholder races.  The incumbents, Freeholder Director Tom Arnone and Deputy Director Serena DiMaso ran a hard campaign.  Their opponents did not.  Tom and Serena will win easily in the county wide race.

Likewise, Sheriff Shaun Golden will once again easily defeat Dan Peters, and by a larger margin that he did in 2010.  Peters benefitted by the Tea Party wave in 2010 and by being bracketed with Anna Little in the 6th Congressional District and David Corsi in the 12th Congressional District.  Outside of the 13th legislative district, most of the county, Peters is bracketed with only his Freeholder running mates this time around. He’ll get no help from them.

Peters has run harder, and spent more money than his freeholder running mates, but he has made no justification for electing him to the job.  Shaun Golden is clearly qualified and is doing the job well.  Peters has not demonstrated that he is qualified. Hopefully Peters won’t need a job in 2016 and we won’t have to put up with a nonsense challenge to Golden again.

This entire primary race has always been about Joe Kyrillos and the 13th district.  Joe and his running mates, Assembly Members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon worked hard and spent the money necessary to win. The very likely will win comfortably.   If the turnout in the 13th is 10,000 or more votes (out of about 35,000 registered Republicans) Joe, Amy and Declan will win by a landslide.  If the turnout is between 7,000 and 10,000, their margin of victory will be comfortable.

If the turnout is 7,000 or less, there will be some nervous people at the Lincroft Inn tomorrow night.  If it is 5,000 or less, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Vote.

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Seemingly conflicting laws create uncertainty over when Lautenberg’s replacement will have to face the voters

If Governor Chris Christie appoints someone to fill the U.S. Senate vacancy caused by Senator Frank Lautenberg’s death, there will either be a special election this year for the remainder of the term, or next November, depending on who’s interpretation of seemingly conflicting paragraphs in Title 19.

Christie has the power to appoint a replacement, but is not required to do so. He very likely will.

The Office of Legislative Services has issued an opinion stating that the Governor can appoint a replacement who will serve until November of 2014.  The winner of the November 2014 election would serve the remaining two months of the term and a full term to start in January of 2015.

Christie could also call a special general election to fill the remainder of the term, which would be proceeded by a special primary election.

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