Cabana emphasizes his experience, and draws contrast between Bucco father and son

Aside from the House of Atreus implcations of Tony Bucco and Doug Cabana being brothers-in-law and a family health scare, this three-men for two seats 25th Legislative District contest hasn't devolved into the awful bloodbath of, for example, the 40th Legislative District race one county removed in this mountain country terrain.

As polls show the Bucco name registering high favorability, the Cabana Team strives to prove that Bucco, Jr., a municipal attorney who's never held elected office, isn't his father, the long-serving state Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Boonton).

They've simultaneously emphasized Cabana's 20-plus years in elected office, from his service as mayor of Boonton Township to his terms as a county freeholder.

"Each one of these offices has been a stair step and a stepping stone in his maturation process," Cabana campaign manager George Dredden said of his candidate, a municipal prosecutor. "He's had to make the tough decisions. Even this year, Doug as a member of the freeholder board has cut county taxes by over $2 million."

Asked to argue what his candidate offers, Bucco campaign manager Matt Wetzel discusses Bucco's community involvement as a captain on the fire company - in addition to the values voters here associate with his father.

"He's been there for the people of the district," said Wetzel. "He'll bring the same constituent services that his father has brought. Of course, he stands on his own two feet. He can't change his last name."

The third man in this race, movement conservative Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Twp.), the longtime running mate of retiring Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham) and the elder Bucco, has stayed out of the way of the mostly Marquis of Queensbury big money match between Cabana and Bucco.

"I began the race with the simple philosophy that the voters would re-elect me and draw the conclusion that either of my two opponents would also make a great assemblyman," said Carroll. "It's gotten a little testy toward the end here but nothing outrageous."

Certainly there's been all the anonymous Internet buzz hitting both Cabana and Bucco with the most damning rumors about their respective personal lives.

Very real was Bucco's father suffering a minor heart attack last weekend. He's fine now and resting, according to sources. 

Bucco's campaign fingered the stress of the race and what they identified as Cabana's people going negative.

Dredden said it's not true.

"We've just tired to show the distinctions between father and son," he said. "Basically, the father has served a long time, Tony has not. The father is an elected official. Tony is not - never has been. The simalarities end with the name, and that's what we've been putting out to the voters."  

Morris County Freeholder John Murphy, a longtime ally of Cabana's, penned an op-ed in the Daily Record this week expressing his discomfort with the nepotism factor in the Bucco candidacy, but the father's popularity, by most insiders' reckoning, makes Cabana's run that much tougher.