Six legislators will face no opposition in the November general election, as long as no write-in candidate wins 100 votes in the primary: Democrats Joseph Cryan and Annette Quijano in District 20, Republicans Alison McHose and Gary Chiusano in District 24, and Democrats Joan Quigley and Vincent Prieto in District 32.  Cryan is the Democratic State Chairman, and Quijano is a freshman who won a 2008 special election following the resignation of Neil Cohen. None of these districts are politically competitive. 

NEWARK – The creeping disillusion Fred Linhares felt with the East Ward Democratic Party reached its denouement two weeks ago when the Ironbound attorney, Kean University professor and former municipal judge changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican and filed to run for the Assembly in the 29th Legislative District. 

“I’ve been a registered Democrat my whole life,” said Linhares, 40, who served on the local bench from 1999 to 2002, when he hung up his robes to run for freeholder on a ticket with then-county executive candidate Tom Giblin.

That ticket famously lost to Joe DiVincenzo and his team, and when it comes to assessing the self-styled progressive Linhares, who admits he feels no heartfelt tug from the GOP and says he voted for Ralph Nader in the last three presidential elections, members of his former party generally point to 2002 as Linhares’s real turning point in politics.

“I’ve known Fred Linhares since we were kids, and I think he should have stayed as a judge. I respect everyone’s right to run, but he was a good municipal judge,” said Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark).