Gene Feyl

Morris County Freeholder Doug Cabana and County Clerk Joan Bramhall, who's also supporting Tony Bucco in the 25th District race.

MOUNTAIN LAKES – Kicking off his 25th District Assembly campaign at the centrally situated and styling Zeris Inn on the side of Highway 46, Morris County Freeholder Doug Cabana summoned the forces of government to stand with him at the front of the big, packed room. 

It was a potent demonstration of political heft as Republican freeholders Jack Schrier, John Murphy, William Chegwidden, Gene Feyl, former freeholders William Druetzler and John Inglesino and others crowded in behind Cabana, facing a room that contained no fewer than 10 Morris County mayors not to mention deputy mayors and their dates and/or wives and council people and their significant others and attendant staff, political operatives, a sheriff’s surrogate, other former freeholders and elected officials and County Clerk Joan Bramhall. 

All arrayed against bloated government. 

“I stand with you tonight with the leadership of our county,” said Cabana, a municipal prosecutor and elected official going back 20 years to when he first served on the committee of Boonton Township, a northern Morris County mountain town.

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 gives up his State Assembly seat to run for Governor next year, there will most definitely be a long list of Republicans interested in seeking the open seat in the 25th district. Possible candidates include: attorney Anthony Bucco, Jr., the son of the incumbent State Senator; Morris County Freeholder John Murphy, who ran for Governor in 2005; Freeholder Douglas Cabana, who unsuccessfully challenged Merkt and incumbent Michael Patrick Carroll in 2003; Freeholders Bill Chegwidden and Gene Feyl; and Mount Arlington Mayor Art Ondish. Another possible candidate is former Freeholder John Inglesino, who lost the 1997 GOP primary to Merkt by less than 250 votes. But Inglesino is actively involved in Chris Christie’s campaign for Governor and might not want to take time away from that effort.

Contact: Dana Wefer's Campaign For Immediate Release
Phone: (973)663-4233
Email: MorrisCountyVictory@DanaWefer.com

DEMOCRATIC FREEHOLDER CANDIDATE WEFER TAKES FREEHOLDERS TO TASK FOR “LAVISH� SPENDING

Morristown, 14, 2006- Last Wednesday, the Freeholder Board allocated $50,000 from the capital surplus fund to upgrade their conference room furniture. Dana Wefer, Democratic candidate for Freeholder, has condemned the expenditure as lavish and wasteful.