George Gilmore

Republicans across the state are in awe of George Gilmore, the Ocean County GOP leader who delivered a 70,000 plurality for Gov.-elect Christopher Christie on Tuesday.  That's bad news for U.S. Rep. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill), who is preparing to seek re-election next year to a second term in Congress.  Republicans held the third district seat from 1884 until 2008, but have struggled to find a candidate and are way behind in fundraising - Adler has $1 million in his campaign account and has raised more money than any other freshman.  But now Christie and Gilmore are positioned to raise some serious money, and there's a fairly good chance the GOP will just left Gilmore pick a candidate.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie in Toms River this afternoon.

TOMS RIVER - Energizing a town hall chamber filled with supporters, Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie launched his final week, 21-county tour this afternoon in the heart of Republican Ocean County.   

"I believe hope is real," said Christie. "You have to go out now and convince not just fellow Republicans, but Democrats and independents: in your church parking lots, soccer and football fields, school yards. We can say hope is real with a sense of conviction. We must have the courage to believe New Jersey can be a better place."

This was where Christie began his campaign last February, and with six days remaining in his bid to unseat Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, he again expressed his desire that "Toms River and Ocean County will provide (running mate) Kim Guadagno and me the margin of victory we need to win this election."

A Quinnipiac University poll released this morning shows the Republican trending in the wrong direction and five points behind Corzine, but two other polls this week, including one released by Rasmussen, showed Christie four points in front of the governor.

Jackon Council President Mike Kafton

They're running again, but not together.

In fact, if ever two men were running straight at each other in a mayoral contest, it's Jackson Mayor Mike Reina and Council President Mike Kafton.

The unabashed political animal Kafton, and the outwardly grudgingly political Reina formed an uneasy alliance last year when they took on their mutual political enemy Mark Seda, then the fast sagging mayor of Jackson Township.

They blended forces - Kafton as the charismatic Democrat and penitential former mayor looking to regain what he lost, and Reina as the straight-talking local first responder newcomer and one of the founders of the Jackson Tea Party, a renegade Republican outfit opposed to Ocean County GOP Chair George Gilmore's establishment. 

There is some speculation that the leading candidate to replace Daniel Van Pelt (R-Ocean) in the ninth district State Assembly seat is DiAnne Gove, a Long Beach Commissioner and former Mayor.  Van Pelt resigned on Friday, a little more than a week after he was arrested on federal corruption charges.  There is really only one voter in this race: Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore. Gilmore will need to call a special election convention sometime between August 7 and September 4.  The timing is not critical; the new legislator is not likely to get sworn in before the Assembly goes back into session after the November election.

Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt (R-Ocean Twp), the lone Republican arrested in last week’s corruption bust, resigned today at a press conference in Toms River.

The Press of Atlantic City was there.

“While I have an unblemished record of over 20 years of public service, I fully understand the outrage that accompanied these accusations and I recognize the public has its right to its reaction," the paper quotes Van Pelt saying.  He was accompanied by his attorney and took no questions from the press.  

Ocean County Republican Chairman George Gilmore told PolitickerNJ.com last week that his organization would move quickly to replace Van Pelt both in office and on the ballot when he resigned.

Van Pelt is charged with taking a $10,000 bribe from an FBI informant.

“It was the correct move," said Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany). "There was no way he could properly represent the  people of the 9th District with these criminal allegations hovering over him."

As of 3:30 this afternoon, Ocean County Republican Chairman George Gilmore had not talked to Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt (R-Ocean Twp.).  But when he does, he will ask Van Pelt to resign.

“I believe that Mr. Van Pelt, in his own best interest and in the interest of his family, should resign. When I speak with Mr. Van Pelt, I will ask him to step down not only as an assemblyman but as a candidate for Assembly,” said Gilmore.

Gilmore said that if Van Pelt believes the charges are erroneous, he should devote himself to fighting them instead of running for reelection.

“We need to have a candidate on the ballot who doesn’t have a cloud over their head,’ he said.  

Because the arrest was unexpected, Gilmore said he does not have a ready-made list of politicians who want to replace Van Pelt, although the Ocean County Freeholder board is filled with ambitious incumbents. 

It is clear that Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore had no idea that the feds were about to arrest Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt (R-Ocean): just yesterday, Gilmore told PolitickerNJ.com that Van Pelt was a potential challenger to U.S. Rep. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) in 2010.  The criminal complaint filed against Van Pelt seems to indicate that a challenge to Adler was something he was considering as recently as last May:

"Later, defendant VAN PELT further told the CW (Cooperating Witness) that he would assist the CW in Waretown, that the CW did not owe VAN PELT anything, and that VAN PELT wanted to see Waretown and the CW do well. In response to the CW indicating that the CW was willing to pay more money to officials, including defendant VAN PELT, for their assistance, defendant VAN PELT indicated to the CW that if VAN PELT ran for a seat in the United States Congress, they would talk."

Click here to view the full Van Pelt criminal complaint.

State Sen. Diane Allen, left, says she will consider a challenge to freshman U.S. Rep. John Adler, right, in 2010

Now that state Sen. Diane Allen (R-Edgewater Park) is no longer in the running for lieutenant governor, she's a top prospect to run against freshman U.S. Rep. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) next year - at least among Burlington County Republicans.

"The organization would whole-heartedly support Diane Allen if she decided to run for Congress," said Burlington County GOP Chairman Bill Layton.

Allen, a moderate Republican who consistently wins reelection easily in a district with a two-to-one Democratic registration advantage, has fought bitterly over the years with former chairman Glenn Paulsen and more recently Layton, his close ally.  The party divide even sunk her fledgling bid for the House in late 2007, with the Paulsen/Layton faction instead recruiting Lockheed Martin executive Chris Myers, who became the nominee.

"Now is not the time in my life that I feel prepared to again fight a Democrat opponent as well as a rogue faction of the Burlington County Republican Party simultaneously," Allen said when she announced in late 2007 that she would not seek the open House seat>

But Layton says he's intent on letting bygones be bygones.

"In politics, sometimes you have your differences, but you put them aside and try to do the best thing for the party," he said.

Myers, who lost narrowly to Adler in 2008, may be in line for a state Senate seat if state Sen. Phil Haines (R-Springfield) is appointed to a Superior Court judgeship.  He would likely have a lot of support if he decided to run for Congress again, but he is not expected to.

Allen remains non-committal about running, but she leaves the possibility open.

"It is kind of early, and truthfully it's just nothing I've given any thought to," she said.

Allen said that her decision will depend on whether Adler does a good job addressing the district's issues.

Carl Block's unsuccessful bid for re-election as Mayor of Stafford - a job he's held since he ousted Wesley Bell in 1983 -- had more to do with local issues than with voter opposition to dual office holding.  He was re-elected in 2006 by just 221 votes against Robert Kusznikow, who first won prominence in 1997 when he spent a week in jail for refusing to allow Stafford officials to connect his house to the local water system.  Kusznikow, who won a Council seat yesterday, maintained that his well water was cleaner than the water offered by the township.