Brian Levine

Lafayette College Special Collections & College Archives Photo

Robert Meyner was elected Governor in 1953, two years after he lost his State Senate seat to Wayne Dumont.

Of the seven Democrats and Republicans running for Governor, only two have never lost an election: Democrat Jon Corzine won a race for U.S. Senate in 2000 and was elected Governor in 2005; and Republican Brian Levine was elected to the Franklin Township Council in 1997 and 2001, and Mayor in 2003 and 2007.

On the Republican side, Christopher Christie was elected to the Morris County Board of Freeholders in 1994, and lost GOP primaries for State Assembly in 1995 and for Freeholder in 1997.  Steven Lonegan was elected Mayor of Bogota in 1995, 1999 and 2003, but lost races for State Senator (in 1997 to incumbent Byron Baer) Congress (in 1998 to incumbent Steve Rothman), Bergen County Executive (2002 convention) and Governor (2005 primary).  Rick Merkt lost a 1995 primary for State Assembly (he was Christie's running mate) before winning the first of six terms in 1997.  Jim Murray lost a 2006 primary for Morris County Freeholder and then won in 2007.

Corzine's Democratic primary opponent, Carl Bergmanson, was elected three times to the Glen Ridge Council before losing a 1999 bid for Mayor.  He was elected Mayor four years later.

Of New Jersey's ten elected Governors under the current State Constitution, six had lost previous elections: James E. McGreevey ran unsuccessfully for Governor in 1997; Christine Todd Whitman lost a 1990 bid for U.S. Senate; Jim Florio lost a race for Congress in 1972, a gubernatorial primary in 1977, and a race for Governor in 1981; Thomas Kean, Sr. lost Republican primaries for Congress (1974) and Governor (1977); Richard Hughes lost a race for Congress in 1938; and Robert Meyner was defeated in a re-election bid for State Senator two years before he was elected Governor in 1953. 

Crystal clear pictures from Trenton...all done digitally.

MERKT WELCOMES CHRISTIE TO RACE FOR GOVERNOR
 RENEWS CALL FOR GOP HOPEFULS TO DEBATE

From left to right: Steve Lonegan, Chris Christie, Brian D. Levine, Richard Merkt.

BRANCHBURG – The Lonegan forces tried to bill this event as “the Thrilla in Branchburg.”

But it proved no Ali-Frazier III this morning, and probably rated little better than the Republican gubernatorial primary of 1985 in terms of give and take, as four 2009 Republican candidates for governor assembled for the first time at a breakfast meeting sponsored by the Somerset County Federation of Republican Women at the Fox Hollow Golf Club.

Amid rumors that former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan planned to set a confrontational tone, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, the presumptive frontrunner, gave Lonegan and/or anyone else little room to generate drama.

After arriving moments before the event began, speedily working the room and delivering a five-minute set of remarks, Christie told the crowd of 150 people that he had to attend his son’s basketball game and hoped they understood.

The four Republican gubernatorial candidates will speak at a forum - not a debate -- sponsored by the Somerset County Federation of Republican Women on Saturday in Branchburg.  News 12's Laura Jones will moderate the event, which organizers say will be attended by former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, Franklin Mayor Brian Levine, former Bogota Mayor Steven Lonegan, and Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham).

Franklin Twp. Mayor Brian D. Levine at his kickoff today.

FRANKLIN TWP. - A primitive and superstitious reading of the elements would not inure to the symbolic advantage of Mayor Brian D. Levine, who despite an ice storm and hundreds of dead birds falling in near Hitchcockian fashion nonetheless launched his Republican Primary campaign for governor this afternoon at the Quality Inn.

“I’m never one to pass the buck,” said Levine, 50, standing at a podium in a banquet room here in a Democratic-leaning Somerset County town where he is serving his second term as mayor.

“If my detractors want to believe I summoned snow and ice from the sky today to get attention so be it,” he joked in his answer to a question from reporters. “If they think I put this big bird gimmick out there to get attention, that’s fine. I’ll take it. I have a thick skin. Is it bad timing for an announcement? No. Any time is a good time.”

The moderate Republican’s decision to announce – a few days after the USDA revealed that alarming numbers of starlings had fallen onto Franklin residents’ front lawns and backyards and public spaces as a consequence of exterminating pesticides used on a farm in a neighboring township - was really a simple case of pragmatic timing.  

He had planned for weeks to get in before the end of January.Former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie – the presumptive GOP frontrunner – kicks off his campaign next week, inevitably grabbing week-long news cycle oxygen away from his primary competitors, who now include Levine, Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham) and former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan.

Franklin Mayor Brian D. Levine

PRINCETON - Running a campaign with a fixed idea of what government does best and what the private sector does best, Franklin Twp. Mayor Brian D. Levine plans on Wednesday afternoon to formally enter the Republican Primary for governor with a kickoff at the Quality Inn in his hometown.

"As Republicans we have to remember our basic philosophy, which is smaller and more efficient government," Levine told PolitickerNJ.com as he made his way to a candidates' forum at the Hyatt Regency sponsored by the Republican county chair people.

"The basic idea is how do we run a government, not whether someone is or is not for stem cell research," he said. "We can debate those issues and should, of course, but small and efficient government is the starting point."

A CPA by trade and grassroots candidate who won election and re-election in Democratically-controlled Franklin, Levine says he’s used to going door-to-door and generating old fashioned face-to-face political support. 

Currently serving his second term in this Somerset County town of 60,000 residents, Levine, 50, became mayor in a 2003 upset election. A Republican where registered Democrats have the numbers, he put an exclamation point on his local victory when he won re-election in 2007.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr., (R-Union), left; and state Sen. Kevin O'Toole, GOP chairman of Essex County and chair of the GOP chairs.

PRINCETON – It didn’t look like a scene of devastation – or of a coming battle.

In the swank lobby of the Hyatt Regency, water tumbled over rocks and splashed into a pool, where Koi fish gaped up at a swiftly striding figure heading toward a crew of young, BlackBerry-thumbing operatives at the far end of a long, carpeted corridor.

On his way to the Republican Party chairmen’s dinner, Chris Christie took several questions before an aide steered him toward his destination: a room in which 15 of the party’s 21 chair people and party leaders waited to assess the merits of the former U.S. Attorney and three other Republican candidates for governor a month in front of the first county convention in Union.

Like a lot of his colleagues, Ocean County Republican Chairman George Gilmore personally thinks Christie gives his party the best shot at rebirth.

“I will be endorsing Chris Christie,” he said, against the nagging back story of former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, who for months has aggressively organized a grassroots effort in the likely event he’s unable to scale the walls of the establishment at a majority of the party’s nominating conventions.

Former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie (with Scotch Plains Mayor Nancy Malool) at a GOP mixer earlier this month.

In what GOP sources say is the first major gubernatorial fundraiser for former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, Assembly Whip Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) will host a $3,400-a-head dinner at his Westfield home for the Republican frontrunner for governor this Saturday.

Sources say both Christie and his political confidante, Bill Palatucci, will be in attendance at an event sources say has already pulled in $50,000 for Christie.

Former Assemblyman David Mayer won the endorsement of the Gloucester Township Democrats to be their candidate for Mayor against Republican incumbent Cindy Rau-Hatton. 

Mayer, 41, was elected to the State Assembly in 2001 and re-elected in 2003 and 2005. He did not seek re-election to a fourth term in 2007.  A former Chief of Staff to the Camden County Clerk and District Director for U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, Mayer served as a Gloucester Township Councilman in 2002 and 2003.

Incumbent Councilmen Daniel Hutchison and Frank Schmidt will run on the Democratic ticket.  A third candidate has not yet been selected.  Hutchison was elected on a ticket with Rau-Hatton two years ago.

Rau-Hatton was elected in 2006, winning a May non-partisan election.  Voters subsequently approved a referendum that made Gloucester Township municipal elections partisan, so the mayoral post is now up in November 2009, instead of May 2010.