Monmouth again the battleground

GOP Freeholder candidate John Curley: Politicker file photoIt’s been labor by slow degrees.

Aided by Bush fatigue nationally and the Operation Bid Rig scandal locally, Democrats chipped steadily away at the Freeholder Board in Monmouth, foregoing potential Assembly gains elsewhere to focus on trying to build a majority in this longtime Republican stronghold.

Relying heavily on state party funds, they elected Barbara McMorrow two years ago and John D’Amico last year to get them to within one seat of swinging control of Monmouth in their favor.

Now with newly registered voters bolstering their numbers beyond the GOP’s - 99,282 Democrats to 86,992 Republicans - Democrats hope Amy Mallet and Glen Mason are poised to become their party’s next freeholders here. Freeholder Barbara McMorrow, left, stands with fellow Democrats, candidates Amy Mallet and Glen Mason.: Politicker file photo

In arguably the most consequential freeholder showdown of the year, those two must get past veteran Freeholder Director Lillian Burry and her running mate, Red Bank Councilman John Curley.

"As far as I can tell, it’s the premiere down ballot race in the state," State Party Chair Joseph Cryan said.

Although Democrats gleefully claim momentum going into this one, it will be no walk over for them.

In the recent past, they got traction from the fact that most of the local elected officials going to jail as part of the Bid Rig scandal were Republicans. But part of the Democrats’ difficulty in making the Club Monmouth message stick this year concerns one of their opponents, Curley, who serves as a maverick councilman in Democratically-controlled Red Bank and bills himself as the opposite of a country club Republican.

His work ethic on the campaign trail is already earning him Baroni-like praise within his party.

"John Curley’s been going door-to-door since June," said Monmouth County GOP Chairman Joseph Oxley.

Curley’s running mate has a different style.

And while the chairman celebrates the genteel Burry for presiding over a zero-spending increase in the county budget this year, most Republicans quietly agree that the incumbent at this point in her career doesn’t share Curley’s campaign work rate.

She has name ID here, granted.

But it’s no secret in Monmouth that the stylistic differences between horse farm Burry and shoe leather Curley haven’t exactly made them overly eager to hit the trail together, and word is they’ve gone much of it individually in a campaign always at risk of appearing somewhat fractured.

Meanwhile, the two Democrats have been running under the radar in a mostly paperless campaign so far.

There’s some off the record party bewilderment here in the case of these candidates.

Neither Mason, a Hazlet cop with roots in the Bayshore area, nor Mallet, a Fair Haven businesswoman who got her name out there last year in an unsuccessful bid for the Assembly, radiate the star-power of D’Amico, for example, a former superior court judge whom Democrats last year treated like party royalty as he made his run.

Still, "The Democratic Party’s freeholder candidates have a shot," said Monmouth University pollster, Dr. Patrick Murray. "There’s a lot of unhappiness about how the Republicans have acted. Right now, voters haven’t tuned into the freeholders’ race. Many of them will wait to see what the Asbury Park Press will editorialize, and what’s going on nationally will also trickle down to the county level.

"Our latest poll gives Obama a couple of points’ lead over McCain in Monmouth County," Murray added. "If Obama takes Monmouth, that could have an effect down the ballot."

Pat Politano, who’s running the Mason and Mallet campaign, said it’s hard to deny the numbers.

"We have 42,000 Democrats here that we didn’t start the year with," he said. "And we’re running against people who have been in office going back to when Mike Tyson won his first heavyweight title."

Based on the last two elections, trying to anticipate presidential politics in Monmouth is a difficult proposition. Democrat Al Gore easily beat Republican George W. Bush in Monmouth in 2000, then Bush turned around and handily defeated Democratic challenger John Kerry in 2004.

September, 11, 2001 was a factor as Republicans played the strong national defense card in their showdown with Kerry. The county’s biggest municipality, Middletown, lost 37 people in the terror attacks, second only to Hoboken in the state in losses.

What’s happening locally will also drive turnout in the county freeholder race, as Middletown itself, home to 42,227 registered voters, including 10,337 Democrats and 10,778 Republicans, has a municipal race on Nov. 4th in which two Republican incumbents are looking to fend off their Democratic challengers.

"People are very happy with the effort we’re putting in," said GOP Mayor Gary Scharfenberger. "Naturally, we’re at the mercy of the state. We receive over a million and half dollars in unfunded mandates. We cut our department budgets seven and eight percent this year, and we maintain a strong double A bond rating. We’re the tenth largest municipality in the state and rated one of the top places to live by Money Magazine."

Another key town, Wall Township, also has a race in which Democratic Mayor John Devlin will try to muster his base in a town of 17,142 registered voters where Republicans outnumber Democrats by over 2,000 votes. A factor there, too, is the presence of popular state Sen. Sean Kean (R-Monmouth), who’s been working hard to elect Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as president.

Citing all of their congressional candidates as countervailing GOTV factors in their favor, Democrats are intent both freeholder seats, of course. But they wouldn’t mind getting just one.

One would be enough.

Last year, Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) defeated Ellen Karcher in the premiere legislative match-up in the state, becoming a GOP star in the process and consolidating Republican power in Monmouth.

But D’Amico’s less glamorous, gut-it-out down-ballot win, coming days after Election Day when the votes were all finally tallied, triggered strategic celebrations then that Democrats hope to amplify come Nov. 4th.