Anthony Bucco

Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Township) at home

MORRIS TOWNSHIP -- Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Township) is not the type of candidate to scurry around his district trying to squeeze out possible last minute votes.  Instead, he is spending the day painting his living room and taking his kids to a firing range. 

"Today there's really nothing much I can do.  In Morris County all the votes that I think can be gotten out already have been gotten out," said Carroll, an attorney, from the home he also uses as his law office. 

Motivating Republican voters in Morris County - the home of their gubernatorial candidate, Chris Christie - is not hard this year.  And Carroll, who sits in a relatively safe Republican district, is not expected to be defeated by Democrats Rebekah Conroy and Wendy Wright. 

That is not to say that Carroll has never faced competition.  After his district-mate, Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham), decided not to seek reelection, Carroll found himself caught up in a three-way primary with Anthony Bucco, Jr. and Freeholder Doug Cabana.

New Jersey's casino laws leave little doubt that even the appearance of conflict of interest is unacceptable. Governor Corzine must reveal documents that would confirm definitively whether he is invested in a hedge fund with close ties to the casino industry.

Only Governor Corzine and the industry that peddled destructive subprime debt could believe it is 'frivolous' to disclose multibillion deficits and structural funding problems to the public and potential investors.

The six Republican members of the Senate Budget Committee have sent a letter to Chairwoman Barbara Buono that asks her to call the committee into session this summer. The committee's task would be to develop a plan to close an unprecedented $8 billion structural deficit and a more than $2 billion deficit in the unemployment fund. The letter points out that Governor Corzine is avoiding questions about how he plans to do to deal with this $10 billion crisis. "When there is a gap in leadership at the top, others must step in to fill the void, " said Senator Anthony Bucco, senior Republican member on the budget committee and Republican budget officer.

State Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Boonton) jumped into Jersey City politics yesterday, suggesting that embattled Councilwoman Nidia R. Lopez could be a “casualty” of high taxes under Gov. Corzine.

“It looks like the high tax policies of the Democrat leadership in Trenton may cause yet one more job loss, and an especially ironic one at that” said Bucco.

Lopez, who was sworn into her first term last week, faces a lawsuit from former council candidate Jimmy King that claims she is technically a resident of Orlando, Fla, where she owns a home.  He’s seeking to vacate the results of the election based on a tax exemption Lopez took for her Orlando home that required her to be a Florida resident.

Just the Latest to Express Her Disgust with Democrats’ Tax Increases?

According to reports on politickernj.com, Democrat Jersey City councilwoman Nidia Lopez may be the latest casualty to lose her job because of high tax policies embraced by Governor Jon Corzine. Nidia Lopez won election to the Jersey City Council despite possibly having unlawfully claimed her residency as Florida – a low tax state where New Jersey residents frequently move to avoid high taxes. If true, the councilwoman would almost certainly be removed from her position.

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Special Summer Legislative Session Needed

Republican Senate Budget Officer Anthony Bucco (R-Morris) called on Governor Jon Corzine to call an emergency session of the Legislature this summer to address the largest budget deficit in history. Estimates of next year’s budget shortfall range from $6 billion to more than $10 billion.

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Some political conflicts never go away: State Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest) today opposed the nomination of the State Senator he unseated 28 years ago to serve as the Morris County Superintendent of Elections.  The Senate Judiciary is considering 78-year-old Frank Herbert, who represented Bergen County in the Senate from 1978 to 1982, for the $102,304-a-year elections post in Morris, where he now resides.

The committee went into recess without approving Herbert's nomination, although it could still be done before the end of the day.

Frustrated by his inability to select a new Superintendent of Elections to replace the late Roseanne Travaglia without having State Sens. Anthony Bucco (R-Boonton) and Joseph Pennacchio (R-Montville) block the gubernatorial appointment, Morris County Democratic Chairman Lewis Candura recommended Herbert, a retired English teacher from Rockaway.  Senate rules do not permit senatorial courtesy to be used to block a former member of the upper house.

Gov. Jon Corzine might have pulled a rabbit out of his hat by suddenly finding an extra $400 million for his budget, but the political trick of the week goes to Morris County Democratic Chairman Lewis Candura.  Frustrated by his inability to select a new Superintendent of Elections to replace the late Rosemary Travaglia without having State Sens. Anthony Bucco (R-Boonton) and Joseph Pennacchio (R-Montville) block the gubernatorial appointment, Candura picked Frank Herbert, a 78-year-old retired English teacher from Rockaway.  Herbert served one term as a Democratic State Senator from Bergen County (1978 to 1982), and Senate rules do not permit senatorial courtesy to be used to block a former member of the upper house.

Herbert is actually a good pick for Morris County Democrats: younger than the state's current senior United States Senator, he first won public office in 1969 when he was elected Waldwick Councilman.  He won a race for Bergen County Freeholder in 1973 -- the Watergate landslide year -- defeating future Congressman Harold Hollenbeck.   (Hollenbeck, elected to the State Senate in 1971, opted to run for Freeholder instead of re-election.)

Defeated for a second term as Freeholder in 1976, Herbert ran for an open State Senate seat in 1977.  The 39th district had gone Democratic in 1973, elected Raymond Garramone to the State Senate and two Democrats to the State Assembly.

Instead of seeking a second term in the Senate, Garramone instead ran for Governor -- unsuccessfully challenging incumbent Brendan Byrne in the Democratic primary.  The Republicans ran John Markert, who had won one of the Assembly seats in 1975.  But Byrne carried the 39th in the general and helped Herbert score a 53%-47% victory in the Senate race

Four years later, the Republicans ran Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest), who had lost an Assembly race in 1977 but won in 1979.  Cardinale easily defeated Herbert, 58%-42% -- a margin of nearly 11,000 votes.

One of the perks of being the new GOP State Chairman: Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains) gets to appoint the five Republican members of the Legislative Redistricting Commission, which will redraw districts for the 2011 elections.  That could help Webber move up to the State Senate.

The conventional wisdom is that State Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Boonton) will retire in 2011 and that three Republicans - Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Twp.), Morris County Freeholder John Murphy, and soon-to-be Assemblyman Anthony Bucco, Jr., the son of the Senator - will compete for his seat.

But with just some minor tinkering of the two Morris County-based legislative districts, Webber could find himself without substantial opposition for the Senate seat.  Morris Plains and Parsippany could move from the 26th to the 25th, and Morris Township, Morristown, Boonton Township and Boonton Borough could shift from the 25th to the 26th - a nearly even exchange of population, based on 2006 census estimates.

That would mean a 26th district ticket of State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio (R-Montville), Carroll and Bucco, Jr.  In the 25th, it would be Webber for Senate, running with Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) and an open seat. Murphy, who sought the 2005 Republican gubernatorial nomination, lives in Morris Township.  Shifting his hometown to District 26 could easily block his legislative ambitions.