The Committee to Recall Mims Hackett, Jr., reiterated its call this week for the mayor of Orange to resign rather than force a special election on Sept. 10th, while the mayor’s former executive assistant announced today from Atlanta, Ga., that she intends to proceed to file a civil complaint against Hackett for sexual harassment.

In a release he issued in the wake of the arrest last Thursday of Hackett, who has resigned from his 27th district Assembly seat but appears dug in as mayor, the committee’s spokesman, Bruce Meyer of Orange said, "The recall petition drive... comes to a conclusion today, having been overtaken by current events.

Marlboro Mayor Robert Kleinberg
How a sleepy hollow farming burgh became a build-out crossroads and earned itself a shot as a sprawl capital may have roots in human nature but surely can be immediately traced to the world of New Jersey politics.

When the daughter of a local market farmer here died in child birth in the 1970s, that death was symbolic of a transition to a time when people not only didn’t work the land anymore but cashed in on wrecking it as at no other time. Surrounded by new development and still deaf from artillery fire in Vietnam, another farmer retreated to a broken down school bus on his dried up spread on the side of Route 79 before he left town. Now it’s the senior citizens clinging to a last shred of space, wondering whether to sell and move to Florida or keep forking over money.

Assemblyman Joseph Pennacchio today announced that he has formed an exploratory committee for a possible bid for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination next year. 

Pennacchio says that Morris County GOP Chairman John Sette will head the exploratory effort.  He did not release the names of any other supporters, although another potential candidate, Assemblyman Michael Doherty, dropped out of the race last month and endorsed Pennacchio.