Mayor Matt Doherty and Governor Chris Christie walk the Belmar boardwalk. Photo Credit: Tim Larson, Governor’s Office
Belmar, April 1- Mayor Matt Doherty will withdraw as a candidate for Monmouth County Freeholder and resign as mayor of the borough to become Deputy Mayor of Jersey City, according to a confidential memo obtained by MoreMonmouthMusings.
For years, Doherty has declined to run for Freeholder because, like his friend Governor Chris Christie, he prefers to be #1 rather than one of group. He agreed to Monmouth Democrat Chairman Vin Gopal’s plea that he run this year because he needs a quick exit from Belmar where he knows the gimmicks and tricks he has employed as mayor will blow up next year and cause massive tax hikes. Doherty calculated that this would be the year for him to win on a county level because Hillary Clinton, he thinks, do very well with Monmouth County voters and he will benefit from her pant suit tails.
Freeholder Director Tom Arnone and Deputy Director Serena DiMaso at the Asbury Park St. Pat’s Parade
The all Republican Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders approved a budget which included a $18.2 million spending cut and a $4.5 million property tax cut last Thursday.
“This budget reduces the tax impact on residents and businesses and returns the amount to be raised by taxation to the 2010 level,” said Freeholder Director Thomas A. Arnone. “In January, I called for a roll back of last year’s 1.4 percent tax increase and we have achieved that.”
“Cost cutting and belt tightening over the past six years and the sale of the two County care centers have made it possible for this Freeholder Board to present a budget that resets our spending to below the 2007 amount,” Freeholder Deputy Director Serena DiMaso said.
Monmouth County’s government now spends $5.5 million less on salaries than it did in 2008 and has 1000 fewer employees than it did seven years ago when the Republican Party won control of the Freeholder Board back from the Democrats.
Dylan Gowan, a 19 year old Highlands man, spent the the night of August 11 and early morning hours of August 12 on a buoy 4 miles off the coast of Sandy Hook after the wave runner he was riding from Brooklyn failed and while the U.S. Coast Guard and the NYPD Marine Unit searched New York Harbor for him via helicopter and boat.
Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal is publicly calling for Marlboro Mayor Jon Hornik to run for governor in 2017.
In a Letter to the Editor published on APP.com, Gopal sings Hornik’s praises as a “socially conscious and fiscally ressponsible” Democrat who was elected in three time in a town that voted for Chris Christie for Governor and Steve Lonegan for U.S. Senate over Cory Booker in 2013. Gopal said that should Hornik run for governor, he would have Vin’s unwavering support.
I wonder how Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, Senate President Steve Sweeney and former Ambassador to Germany Phil Murphy, all presumed Democratic candidates for governor who have contributed generously to Gopal’s Monmouth County Democratic campaigns, feel about this.
Long hailed as one of the most talented up and comers in New Jersey politics, the Monmouth County Democratic Chairman from Long Branch appears poised to run against state Senator Jen Beck (D-11) in 2017. Beck will be a very tough out, but Gopal is a unique politician now emboldened by the loses last night of Beck’s running mates Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini and Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande.
Over the last two elections, Red Bank voters have expressed their dissatisfaction with their municipal government and transformed a Democratic stronghold into a swing town by splitting their partisan preferences in Council candidates.
Tomorrow, Red Bank will either turn over their government to Republican office holders with a 4-2 new majority, split partisan control of the Council 3-3, giving Democratic Mayor Pat Menna a deciding vote, or keep the current status-quo of 4-2 Democratic partisan control with Menna presiding over meetings and cutting ribbons, but having no power over policy.
Democratic incumbent Michael DuPont, 54, is running for his fourth term. Joining his effort to retain Democratic control of Red Bank is Board of Education Member Michael Ballard. Ballard, 52, replaced former Council President Art Murphy who resigned after a video of a drunken rant of him deriding a small business went viral.
Challenging DuPont and Ballard are Young Republicans Mark Taylor, 37, an attorney and Michael Whalen, 24, an insurance executive.
As the campaign comes to a close, the Democrats seem desperate to maintain control and their composure.
With only $3,000 cash on hand, as of September 30, Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal seems to be abandoning his strategy of concentrating on LD 11, and now appears to be focused on protecting his turf in Marlboro.
When we last heard from Lawrence “The Lunger” Luttrell, the three time election loser, was scurrying into obscurity while threatening to sue the Monmouth County Republican Committee for a radio ad that claimed his law license was “suspended” when in fact he had been ruled ineligible to practice law.
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To our knowledge, no one has actually investigated whether or not Luttrell actually practiced law during his ineligibility. He claimed he was unaware that he had been ruled ineligible, so maybe he did perform legal work when he was not legally authorized to do so. That would be a problem.
Now, nearly a year later, Luttrell has resurfaced in an apparent attempt to keep the voters of Marlboro in the dark about Councilwoman Randi Marder’s ethics violations and worse, the waste of $16,000 of Marlboro tax dollars that Mayor Jon Hornik and the Marlboro Township Council authorized to be spent in legal fees to appeal the New Jersey Local Finance Board’s findings that Marder committed eight ethical violations associated with the Township doing business with her husband’s companies.
Oh boy. Things just went from bad to worse for Vin Gopal and the Monmouth County Democrats:
Frank Argote-Freyre, Chairman of the Latino Coalition Continuing Political Committee. photo via facebook
The Latino Coalition Continuing Political Committee (LC-CPC) announced today its support for incumbent Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon because of her forward thinking pledge to modernize the clerk’s office.
“Many of the clerk’s staff are still using typewriters to conduct business on a daily basis,” said Frank Argote-Freyre, Chair of the LC-CPC. “The Latino Coalition believes she is the right person to bring the office into the 21st Century.”
At a meeting with the Coalition, Hanlon pledged to provide more information in Spanish on the county’s website. Hanlon also said she plans to improve the Clerk’s office by adding e-filing, providing more information online, and creating a more mobile friendly office, including a forms portal for online submission of many county forms.
In contrast, her opponent, Democrat Kevin Kane never responded to a request for a meeting with the Latino Coalition.
“Kane has served for many years as a Councilman in Freehold Borough and has done absolutely nothing to improve relations between the immigrant community and the more established residents,” said Argote-Freyre. “When former Mayor Michael Wilson tried to force Latino immigrants from the borough through a series of unethical actions, Kane sat silently and did nothing to foster a climate of understanding.”
Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal is having a bad day year.
The Dems have put their eggs in the LD 11 basket this year, hoping to pick off one or two of New Jersey’s only all female legislative delegation in Assemblywomen Mary Pat Angelini and Caroline Casagrande.
Vin made sure that his county candidates for Clerk and Freeholder are residents of the 11th, in hopes that a hometown turnout boost for the county candidates, who are hardly campaigning elsewhere in the county, might help Eric Houghtaling of Neptune and Joann Downey of Freehold over the finish line.
Only in the 11th will you find a typical election year showing of road and lawn signs. Houghtaling and Downey are advertising on ESPN and even FoxNews.
Gopal has historically been able to count on an assist from the Asbury Park Press. Not this year and not where he needs it most.
In endorsing Angelini and Casagrande, APP called them “among the strongest legislators in New Jersey.”
