Brian Levine

Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham)

In the state Senate today, Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) plans to introduce a bill that would suspend for 12 months a 2.5 percent tax on commercial development designed to create funds for affordable housing development. 

But the two Republican candidates officially in the race for governor both believe the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) shouldn’t be tweaked so such as simply scrapped. 

To that end, Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham) intends to introduce his own bill on the floor that would do just that, even as the Legislature with Lesniak’s proposal will consider fine-tuning COAH, the State agency responsible for establishing and monitoring municipal affordable housing obligations in New Jersey. 

Bergen County Clerk Kathe Donovan, who just won her fifth five year term as county clerk last month, does not rule out the possibility of becoming a candidate for Lieutenant Governor next year. 

But she’s not running for it.

“First of all you don’t run for it. The way I understand the law is people select you after the primary,” she said.

He’s not yet in officially, but he’s moving forward.

Franklin Mayor Brian D. Levine, a moderate Republican interested in pursuing a run for governor, this week inched closer to his goal.

“Yesterday, I filed a form with New Jersey ELEC to set up a campaign name and register and start to put an organization,” said Levine. “Monday I’m slated to give my first economic talk.” 

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.

Gloucester Township Mayor Cindy Rau-Hatton, a Republican, is expected to seek re-election in 2009, and not run for the State Assembly.

Gloucester Township Mayor Cindy Rau-Hatton, the highest-ranking Republican elected official in Camden County, is expected to pass on a chance to run for the State Assembly in 2009 and instead will seek re-election to a second term as Mayor.  Insiders had viewed Rau-Hatton as the only significant potential challenger against the Democratic incumbents, Paul Moriarty and Sandra Love.

Possible GOP Assembly candidates include Gloucester Township Councilwoman Shelley Lovett, ’01 candidate Cherie Jenkins, and Black Horse Pike Regional Board of Education member John Custodio.  Custodio, well known in Trenton from his years as a Vice President of Fleet Bank, was courted by the GOP in 2007, but declined to run.

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.

Still sizing up a run for the GOP nomination for governor, Franklin Township Mayor Brian Levine edged closer today, as he plans to go to Trenton on Monday to file paperwork with the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC).

"I'm going to file with ELEC now as the time frame is getting short," said Levine, who plans to take a final exploratory round in the area of fundraising before making an announcement in the coming days about whether he's running.

He watched former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan's gubernatorial kickoff on NJN earlier this week.

"He was good, he laid out some specifics, and he's been a mayor like I am so he can relate to issues impacting local government," Levine said.

The prospective candidate, a GOP moderate, said he intends to deliver his own economic policy speech on Monday, Dec. 15.

Lacing on the sneakers and hitting the pavement, Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham) started literally running for governor in early September. Today the Republican announced that his campaign has achieved a milestone as he has jogged in 118 communities located in all 21 counties of New Jersey since kicking off the plan in September.

Chris Christie resigns, Wayne Bryant is convicted, Jon Corzine remains upside-down, Democrats take Monmouth, and the race for Leonard Lance's State Senate seat takes shape.

Franklin Township Mayor Brian D. Levine, who has won twice in a heavily Democratic town, is thinking about seeking the 2009 GOP gubernatorial nomination

Brian D. Levine doesn’t know if he broke any records in losses suffered when he ran for student council at Rutgers. But he retained his interest in politics after marrying and moving to Franklin Township and at the polls one June he noted that no one from his party had filed to run for Republican County Committeeman.

So he wrote himself in, and won. 

 “You could say I squeaked it out because I won by one vote, or I won by a landslide because I won by 100 percent,” says Levine. “That proves you can spin the numbers.”

In the 1997 race for city council, Levine faced a formidable 16-year incumbent. He prevailed in a close election, triggering what became for him a pattern of victories, and spawning two back-to-back wins in mayoral races, in 2004 and 2007.

Now Levine, 50, a certified public accountant who is married with two daughters, is considering a run for governor, and believes his record as a fiscally conservative Republican in a Democratic town gives him particularly well-suited skills to serve as New Jersey’s chief executive.

Franklin Mayor Brian D. Levine is considering a bid for the Republican nomination for Governor in 2009

Franklin Township Mayor Brian D. Levine is thinking about getting in the race for the Republican nomination for Governor, and he's won twice in a heavily Democratic town. Levine is supposed to be smart, hardworking, and a pretty good retail campaigner. But few pundits think the obscure certified public accountant from Somerset County can win a statewide primary.