District 12 Republican Assembly candidates Declan O’Scanlon and Caroline Casagrande sense asset monetization in the Governor’s appointment of Bradley Abelow as his new Chief of Staff.

“Apparently the governor has made the sale or lease of the toll roads his number one priority”, said Casagrande in a press release. “Why else would you take the State Treasurer-a former Goldman Sachs colleague whose expertise is in finance- and make him your chief of staff, a job which has nothing to do with finance?”

As state treasurer, Abelow studied the prospect of leasing state assets, including toll roads, to raise money needed for other projects. Last month, in response to Assembly Minority Leader Alex Decroce’s request that mayors across the state introduce resolutions opposing monetization, Abelow sent out letters to the mayors urging them not to oppose the plan until Corzine released it.

In district seven, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by almost two to one, Democratic state Senate candidate Rich Dennison keeps coming back to a a single theme when attacking incumbent Diane Allen: she’s a Republican.

Dennison even kicked off his campaign by trying to get Allen to sign a pledge declaring her independence from Bush, and last week made a tempting offer to reporters at a press conference, saying he’d give a million dollars to anyone who could find the word “Republican” on an Allen campaign flyer that he help up.

Dennison’s strategy is vaguely reminiscent of a recent U.S. Senate race in another densely populated blue state: Rhode Island, where in 2006 Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse beat independent-minded incumbent Republican Sen. Lincoln Chaffee in an election widely viewed as a referendum on President Bush and the Republican Party. Despite breaking from his party on many issues, the reason most often cited for Chafee’s loss was the “R” next to his name.