Bob Hugin for US Senate in 2018

By Greg Kelly, MonmouthBeachLife

The borough of Monmouth Beach has a notable history of connections with United States Senators. At least two have lived there.

Bob Hugin

The first, Alexander G. Cattell, represented NJ in the U.S. Senate from 1866 to 1871. The other, William W. Barbour, was a U.S. Senator for NJ from 1931 to 1943. Both men were Republicans.

Cattell was one of the area’s first major developers as part of the Monmouth Beach Association. He owned a large house on Ocean Avenue. Barbour, a borough native born in July 1888, also served as Rumson’s mayor. He was the son of Colonel William Barbour, who was also an original developer of MB.

A little more digging showed me that the daughter of Senator H. Alexander Smith (a Republican who served NJ from 1944 to 1959) was married at the St. Peter’s Church of Galilee in town. She married a member of the Dominick family, which would produce its own senator, Peter H. Dominick, a Republican who served Colorado from 1963 to 1975. And one more — the uncle of Senator Nicholas F. Brady (a US senator for NJ during 1982) owned a large house on Ocean Avenue in MB.

So Monmouth Beach knows something about US senators.

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When you hold election and nobody comes, what does that tell about you?

By Scott St. Clair

Scott St. Clair

The 2015 New Jersey primary election came and went without me. That’s right: I didn’t vote, so sue me.

I live in the 29^th Legislative District, which hasn’t supported anyone to the right of Henry Wallace or George McGovern since the Johnson administration – the ANDREW Johnson administration – so why bother? Additionally, there were no contested races – both the Republican and Democratic legislative nomination ballots featured candidates put up by the official party organizations and nobody else.

Since the last thing in the world I want to do is to further political party stranglehold control over the nominating process in New Jersey, I elected to pass. As P.J. O’Rourke entitled one of his books, “Don’t Vote It Only Encourages the Bastards.”

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