Monmouth Dems and Republicans Endorse Their County and Assembly Candidates

GOP Freeholder candidates Nick DiRocco and Tom Arnone and Sheriff Shaun Golden are running to defend Monmouth’s great quality of life

The Monmouth County Democrats held a mini-convention on Saturday in Long Branch to endorse their candidates for Assembly in districts 11,12,13 and 30 for the June 4 primary.  The also endorsed primary candidates for Monmouth County Sheriff and and two Freeholder seats.

The Monmouth GOP held their annual nominating convention last Saturday, March 9 at iPlayAmerica in Freehold, where over 400 enthusiastic Republican County Committee members came out to endorse their County and Assembly candidates by acclamation. Read the rest of this entry »

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Election Day Predictions 2017

Kim Guadagno will be elected the 56th Governor of New Jersey by less than 2000 votes.

The Associated Press will not call the NJ gubernatorial race until Thursday due to the failure of the vote reporting systems in Essex, Hudson, Camden and Middlesex counties which will prevent the vote from being counted.  CNN and NJ.com will report rumors that the New Jersey election was hacked by the Russians.

Steve Sweeney will survive the millions spent against his reelection by the NJEA.  The teachers’ union will lose considerable influence in Trenton and its membership will revolt against leadership and reform the association.  Guadagno and Sweeney will have a stronger and more effective reform agenda than Christie and Sweeney had during the first Christie’s term. Read the rest of this entry »

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Golden’s Touch: The magic power of “the line” is a myth

Photo by Marielanina LaRosa

Many pundits are explaining away Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno’s victory in the NJ GOP gubernatorial primary to the power of “the line” — the party organization’s column on the ballot, particularly in Monmouth and Ocean Counties where Guadagno earned 20,106 of her 37,712 vote margin of victory.

InsiderNJ pointed out this morning that Guadagno had the line in counties accounting for 46.4% of the average GOP vote share.  She won 46.8% of the vote.  Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli had the line in counties with 31.2% of the vote.  He earned 31.1% of the vote.

The implication is that a candidate is endorsed by a county political party is a shoe-in. Primary voters will magically show up on election day and vote down the line.

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Atlantic Highlands Councilman Will Not Run For Assembly

Councilman Peter Doyle has his eye on DiMaso’s Freeholder seat

Atlantic Highlands Councilman Peter Doyle

The entrance of Monmouth County Freeholder Serena DiMaso and Middletown Mayor Gerry Scharfenberger into the race for the GOP nominations for the Assembly seats currently held by Assemblywoman Amy Handlin and Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon has prompted one rumored candidate to declare that he is not running for Assembly and to express his interest in DiMaso’s seat on the Freeholder Board should she elected to the legislature on November 7.

Atlantic Highlands Councilman Peter Doyle released this following statement this afternoon:

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SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON FREEHOLDERS’ HEALTH BENEFITS

By Assemblyman Rob Clifton

I recently read Former Monmouth County Freeholder Amy Mallet’s criticism of Freeholder Serena DiMaso’s purchase of health benefits through the County. I have to disagree with the former Freeholder’s comments. I was on the Freeholder board in 2009 when Freeholder Lillian Burry and I proposed eliminating taxpayer fund health benefits for freeholders in order to deal with the downturn in economy. I was deputy director in 2010 when we made the resolution permanent.

Both actions were taken to save money in the budget and to return those dollars to the taxpayers.  Our intent was to no longer have the residents pay for health benefits; certainly if Ms. Mallet wanted to pay for those benefits out of her own pocket we could have and would have allowed it.

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Rick O’Neil is the Right Man for Highlands

By Assemblyman Rob Clifton

I have had the honor and privilege of knowing and working with Rick O’Neil for almost 20-years. Rick and I served together on the Bayshore Conference of Mayors. We worked on issues that affected all the towns from Rick’s hometown of Highlands to my hometown of Matawan. Rick was a leader and the driving force in dealing with the most critical issue we faced then and still face today, illegal drugs. Highlands, under Rick’s leadership, was a supportive and active member of the Bayshore Drug Taskforce.

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Republican Assembly Members Should Vote Against Gas Tax Hike

By Art Gallagher

This column is for my Republican friends in the Assembly, especially those from Monmouth County.

Dave Rible, Rob Clifton, Sean Kean, Monmouth Republican Assembly Members who voted for gas tax in June, and Declan O’Scanlon who didn’t vote, should join Amy Handlin and Ronald Dancer, Republicans who represent parts of Monmouth and voted NO in June, in voting NO on Wednesday or whenever the bill that Governor Christie, Senate President Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto agreed to on Friday comes up for a vote.

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Insiders: Monmouth Dems will only compete in LD 11 this year

Vin Gopal

Monmouth County Democratic insiders tell MMM that all Monmouth County and Legislative Republicans except Assemblywomen Caroline Casagrande and Mary Pat Angelini will essentially get a free pass to election this year as Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal has been unable to recruit candidates or raise money for the legislative races in legislative districts 12, 13 and 30, or the County Offices of Freeholder and Clerk.

Gopal is expected to leave the candidate recruitment in LDs 12 and 30 to the other counties included in those districts.  The 30th district, currently represented in the Assembly by Republicans Dave Rible and Sean Kean, has 12 towns in Monmouth County and two in Ocean County. Seven of the fourteen towns in the 12th district are on Monmouth County.  The other seven are split between Burlington, Ocean and Middlesex Counties.  The 12th district is represented by Republicans Ron Dancer and Rob Clifton.

Gopal’s trial balloon last December of making a second run for Assembly in the 11th himself( he ran in 2011) went over like the Hindenburg with State Democrats, other County Chairs and Special Interest donors who he had convinced that the money they invested in Monmouth County last year would lead to a pick up of Freeholder seats.

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Monmouth GOP Honors Claire French

Monmouth County Clerk M. Clair French address the Monmouth GOP convention. Chairman Shaun Golden in background. photo by Art Gallagher

An impressive crowd of over 400 Monmouth Republican County Committee members gathered on Saturday morning to nominate their candidates for State Assembly, County Clerk and Freeholder.  The size of the crowd was impressive not only because of the weather but because the results of the convention were a foregone conclusion as there were no challengers to the incumbent Assembly Members, Freeholder or Governor Chris Christie’s nominee for County Clerk.

Free of any competitive tensions, the mood at Colts Neck High School was upbeat, friendly and proud among the grassroots leaders who came out for Chairman Shaun Golden first nominating convention.  Freeholder Deputy Director Serena DiMaso noted both the size and enthusiasm of the crowd. “This crowd is almost as large as last year’s convention when we had a competition for the freeholder nominations,” DiMaso said, “We’re in really great shape and that is a testament to Shaun’s leadership.”

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Ryan Green makes Englishtown-Manalapan First Aid Squad A Political Football

Ryan Green. Photo via RyanDGreen.com

The Manalapan Township Committee unanimously approved an agreement with the Englistown-Manalapan First Aid Squad on December 11, 2013 that will permit the previously all volunteer squad that provides first aid and ambulance service for free to Manalapan residents to form an non-profit entity to would hire paid EMTs to supplement the declining ranks of volunteers and bill residents who use the services the amount that their health insurance companies would otherwise pay to private first aid and ambulance companies.

Township Committeeman Ryan Green joined his fellow Republican committee members in voting for the agreement with EMFSA, but then went public with a letter to the editor to the NewsTranscript  in which he criticized Mayor Susan Cohen and Deputy Mayor Jordan Maskowitz for failing to seek input from the public on what Green calls “a major change.”

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