Officially anti-establishment after Sette's picks, Carroll runs against government

Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Township) never minded bucking the system, so Morris GOP Chair John Sette’s endorsement of two rival primary candidates landed with no crushing force.  

“John Sette is entitled to his opinion,” said Carroll. “I’m sorry he feels that way. I would have appreciated the courtesy of a phone call instead of reading it cold. ...The truth is, I would be honored to serve with any of the three other men running for this office.”

As he assessed the field of four candidates pursuing two seats in the 25th District, Sette complained about Carroll’s boast that he was going to Trenton to “do nothing.” The chairman thought it was too glib a comment – even in casual conversation and even coming from an anti-government movement conservative. 

Carroll said, so be it.

“If I retire without having contributed to saddling our state with more bureaucracy, I will consider myself to have been a success,” acknowledged the veteran assemblyman. “Do I define myself in part by the legislative nonsense I prevent from happening? Yes. I don’t believe in earmarks and pork. I have a tendency to be irreverent, ok, but I’m not the new guy on the scene.”

The two men Sette endorsed – municipal attorney Tony Bucco and Morris County Freeholder Doug Cabana – have to date held the dominant fundraisers and mutually locked up a lot of support among countywide leaders, particularly Cabana.

Carroll has leap-frogged among the other two men’s big money political events in an effort to make contact with voters, and says he believes loyalties are split everywhere. 

“I have my own fundraiser coming up in which (former GOP gubernatorial candidate) Brett Schundler is coming in to endorse me and Tony Bucco. The only thing I ask is that it be one Republican column on the ballot. If it isn’t one column, I would regard that as an act of war. I don’t want anyone putting a fat thumb of bossism on the balance scales.”

Morris County Clerk Joan Bramhall – who backs Bucco and Cabana – is drawing candidates’ names for ballot positions today at 3 p.m. Asked if there was going to be anything other than one Republican column as is the tradition in Morris County, Bramhall said pointedly, “No.”

A fourth candidate, Randolph Councilman Gary Algeier, is also running for the Assembly in the 25th District.

The retirement at the end of this year of Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham) created the opening in the 25th, as Carroll seeks to defend his own seat.