Anthony Bucco

Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Twp.)

MORRIS TWP. – While his Democratic Party family forbearers probably found the nickname “Little Adlai” endearing, Michael Patrick Carroll hardly panned out as the ideological offspring of every  liberal’s favorite bumper sticker  - Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson - who was twice demolished by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Pro-life, pro-gun, pro-voucher,  and a proponent of scrapping Mount Laurel and Abbott who likens some of the Abbott Schools to “educational Taj Mahals,” veteran Assemblyman Carroll (R-Morris Twp.) remains one of the most outspoken conservative members of the New Jersey Legislature.

“I don’t generally do as well in my hometown of Morris Township as I do in western Morris County – places like Roxbury and Randolph,” Carroll said. “We’re like everywhere else in New Jersey – the farther east you go, the bluer it gets.”

Morris County Freeholder Doug Cabana announced today that he has selected two veteran operatives to help run his District 25 Assembly campaign, both of whom worked earlier this year on state Sen. Joseph Pennacchio’s (R-Morris) unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign.

George Dredden of Parsippany will serve as Cabana’s campaign manager, and Dan Gallic will serve as political consultant. 

Dredden is the former executive director of the National Black Republican Council of NJ, and former vice-president of the Parsippany-Troy Hills Republican Club. 

Morris County Freeholder Doug Cabana

BOONTON - District 25 Assembly candidate Doug Cabana says the holidays shouldn’t be about politics so much as spending time with family.

But when Cabana last month sat down to Thanksgiving dinner across a table of family fellowship, the Morris County freeholder couldn’t avoid looking into the eyes of his chief political rival in District 25: Tony Bucco, Jr., husband to his only sister, Amy.

“I spent Thanksgiving at their house,” Cabana said.

"Doug and his parents have come to our house every year for Thanksgiving," said Bucco. "The way I see it, family is family and politics is politics. So when this Thanksgiving rolled around, it was no different. We had family and football."

There will likely be a few more weeks of these encounters, of tearing into gifts and food.

Then the campaigns of Bucco and Cabana will tear into each other, as most political insiders see the two men as chief combatants in the fight to succeed retiring Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham).

Tony Bucco kicks off campaign next month.

The announcement that attorney Tony Bucco means to officially kick-off his District 25 Assembly campaign on Dec. 9th contrasts with his primary opponent and fellow attorney, Morris County Freeholder Douglas Cabana, who’s waiting to make his formal announcement in the new year.  

“It’s time to be spending time with family and friends,” said Cabana. “I know where I have support, and it is unsolicited support.”

Bucco, son of state Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Morris), declared during the Republican National Convention that he would run for the seat vacated by Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham), who’s retiring to run for governor.

Rick Merkt's announcement that he won't seek re-election to a seventh term in the State Assembly next year - possibly to run for Governor - will create a chain reaction that will reach the local level. Four Freeholders are considered potential candidates for the solidly Republican District 25 seat, and three of them - John Murphy, Gene Feyl, Bill Chegwidden - would have to give up their Freeholder seats to run for the Legislature in 2009. That would create another hotly contested primary for open Freeholder seats. If Doug Cabana were to win the Assembly seat, Morris County Republicans would need to hold a January 2010 special election convention to replace him.

If Rick Merkt and Chris Christie both wind up in the race for the 2009 Republican nomination for Governor, it will be the first time in 28 years that two former running mates and two candidates from the same small town compete in a statewide primary.  Merkt and Christie, who live in Mendham, ran as a team in the 1995 State Assembly primary in District 25; they lost to incumbent Anthony Bucco and newcomer Michael Patrick Carroll, who was seeking the open seat of retiring Assemblyman Arthur Albohn.   Merkt went to the Assembly two years later when Bucco ran for the State Senate.

One hint on U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie’s political ideology comes from his 1995 campaign for the State Assembly, when he attacked two other candidates, Anthony Bucco and Michael Patrick Carroll, for supporting a repeal of the ban on assault weapons. A reader sent PolitickerNJ.com a copy of the mailer from that campaign after Matt Friedman’s story on conservatives wanting to know where the federal prosecutor stands on some state issues.

Mike DuHaime is now running John McCain's political operation
New Jerseyan Mike DuHaime is the new political director for John McCain’s presidential campaign, according to published reports this morning.  DuHaime, the former Executive Director of the New Jersey Republican State Committee, will assume the management of McCain’s political operation following a management shakeup earlier this week. 

He had been campaign manager of Rudy Giuliani’s bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

Senator Anthony Bucco (R-25) criticized the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties for asking the Corzine administration to reconsider the imposition of tolls on Routes 78 and 80, along with increasing the state gas tax, as an alternative to the Corzine toll hike scheme.

Senator Anthony Bucco (R-25) slammed New Jersey Policy Perspective for its recently released report that said increasing the gas tax 20 cents, hiking fees for driver’s licenses, doubling registration fees for new cars and boosting a tax on expensive vehicles would help solve New Jersey’s fiscal crisis.