Bucco name the focus of LD 25 race as the elder Bucco rests in hospital

BOONTON TWP - The candidate's detractors fear a disengaged 25th District electorate will conclude the name "Tony Bucco" on today's ballot is a manuever by a veteran senator whose flair for populism has forced him into an Assembly race, or simply a case of mistaken identity.

But Tony Bucco, arriving at the Rockaway School to vote this morning, says he's running on his own, not his state senator father's reputation.

"My name is Anthony Mark Bucco, my son is named after my father, and is named Anthony Rocco Bucco II," he explained after he and his wife, Amy, cast their votes. "I am not junior."

Pained by a race between his son and the brother of his son's wife, Morris County Freeholder Doug Cabana, that boiled over into some bad blood robocalls over the course of the last few days and a newspaper campaign piece by Cabana trying to set the record straight about the identity of the younger Bucco versus the older version, the senator landed in the hospital again last night.

"He didn't feel well after listening to another round of nasty, negative telephone calls last night," said Bucco. "He happened to be home at the time. With people attacking me, he didn't feel well."

Bucco the senator suffered a minor heart attack while vacationing last week, and given that recent history, he went to Morristown Memorial Hospital last night to get checked.

"He stayed overnight and he's in the hospital now," said Bucco, the Assembly candidate. "The doctors said his heart looks great."

Bucco fumed at the negative tone he said Cabana set in the race with the newspaper.

"There were some unpleasant photos of me in that paper and some misinformation," he said. "This is the kind of stuff that turns people off about politics. Look, I don't run from my last name. I'm proud of my last name."

He gave examples of other family legislative teams: the Connors in Ocean County, the Frelinghuysens in Morris and the Littells in Sussex.

"I think it's hurt the other side in the end," he said. "I got a call from a woman the other day who said, 'Anthony, you don't know me, but I will be behind the Buccos forever.'"

"It wasn't so bad until this week - until my brother started with the negative campaigning," said Amy Bucco, who issued a robocall in defense of her husband and against her brother's campaign. 

In addition to Cabana, Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Twp.) is running for one of two seats created by the vacancy of the impending retirement of Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham).