Henry Kuhl

It was a different scene than it was in Clinton earlier this year when establishment Republicans felt like misfit grunts bucking KP duty as Assemblyman Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) bellowed out a speech from atop the stage at the middle school.

Stunned when they voted against him and chose Marcia Karrow to succceed the mild-mannered Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton), Doherty stubbornly launched what many assessed as an implausible primary campaign.  

This morning at the Republicans' unity breakfast at the Mountainview Chalet in Asbury, Doherty called his win over incumbent state senator Karrow the toughest of his decade-long political career.

"I've been through a lot of tough primaries, but Marcia was the heartiest competitor," said Doherty.

Defeated by Karrow in that January special election, Doherty aligned with movement conservative Steve Lonegan's gubernatorial candidacy to come back and beat Karrow Tuesday night, 52% to 48%.

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The Political Prince Of Darkness Strikes Again

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The third-step in the four-part contest to nominate Republican legislative candidates in the 23rd  district will be a decision by Hunterdon County Republicans to pick a second Assembly candidate to run on their organization line in the June primary.  Their ticket already includes newly-elected State Sen. Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan) and Assemblyman-elect John DiMaio (R-Hackettstown).  The other Assembly candidate will be from Hunterdon.

The leading candidates for the one seat are the two Hunterdon Freeholders who lost to DiMaio in yesterday's special election convention: Erik Peterson and Matthew Holt.  On the first ballot, Peterson beat Holt 104-56.  These numbers might indicate an advantage for Peterson.

Hunterdon GOP Chairman Henry Kuhl and the Republican screening committee must pick a candidate to replace Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington), who says he's leaving the Assembly to challenge Karrow in the Republican State Senate primary.  Even if Doherty decides to drop his Senate bid, it appears that the door is closed to being included on the organization line for a fifth term in the State Assembly.

The main thing to watch over the next few weeks is to see if Doherty stays in the Senate race - an uphill fight, now that his friend and ally, DiMaio, has now endorsed Karrow and will run on her ticket, and that his friend and ally, Warren County GOP Chairman Douglas Steinhardt, has agreed to back the Kuhl slate.  If Doherty continues, he might recruit two Assembly candidates to run with him. Read More >

There are three votes worth watching on Saturday:

1.  In District 23, Republican County Committee members from Hunterdon and Warren counties will meet to elect a new Assemblyman.  Hunterdon Freeholders Matthew Holt and Erik Peterson, and Warren Freeholder John DiMaio face off for the Assembly seat left vacant earlier this month when Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan) took her seat in the State Senate.  Hunterdon GOP Chairman Henry Kuhl has promised at least one Assembly seat to Warren County, so if DiMaio loses tomorrow, he'll still be on the organization line in the June primary for the seat Michael Doherty (R-Washington) is giving up to challenge Karrow for the State Senate.  If DiMaio wins the special election convention, Holt and Peterson can fight it out in April for the other Assembly seat.

2. The first-in-the-state Republican gubernatorial convention is in Union County, where former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie has a substantial lead among endorsements from party leaders and elected officials.  With former Bogota Mayor Steven Lonegan seemingly a lock for second place, the real race is the one for third place between five-term Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham) and Brian D. Levine, the Mayor of Franklin Township.  There is not a lot of room for another candidate in a field that looks to be as many as seven, and if someone were to break out of the pack, it can be either one or the other.  Merkt may have the edge: his campaign manager, former Hillsborough Councilman Christopher Venis, is a longtime political operative with roots in Union County as an aide to U.S. Rep. Bob Franks and as a member of a Union County-based local political consulting firm.  The other three candidates, Morris County Freeholder Jim Murray, and businessmen David Brown and Dennis Knight, are not participating in the Union County vote.

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CLINTON TWP. – Undeterred by a hotel bar television set in the next room that jars the chandeliers with each apparent dramatic upswing, 50 people pack the chairs in the Holiday Inn ballroom here on the outskirts of downtown as three Republicans make their respective cases for why they should be the next assemblyman from the 23rd Legislative District.

It’s a comparatively quiet drama – quiet but intense.

Hunterdon County Freeholder Matt Holt, Hunterdon County Freeholder Erik Peterson, and Warren County Freeholder John DiMaio have spent the last six weeks relentlessly crisscrossing the Warren-Hunterdon county line and engaging members of the GOP committees of these two rural and expansive west New Jersey counties.

They recognize faces in the crowd tonight, including that of Hunterdon County Republican Party Chairman Henry Kuhl, who impassively says to a visitor, “Welcome to God’s country,” to the question of who’s going to win the contest.

Sponsored by the Clinton Township Republican Club, this is the same brook and hamlet part of the state that launched the political career of U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton), a political moderate whose 7th Congressional District victory last year gave the GOP something to savor in an otherwise frigid political year for Republicans - but also left the harder right wing of the party agonizing about its future.

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HACKETTSTOWN – Pro-life and pro-gun, Warren County Freeholder John DiMaio calls himself the most conservative candidate in the race for the vacant District 23 Assembly seat even though he started his political career in the opposing party. 

The president of A. DiMaio & Son, Inc., a general contracting company he co-founded in 1977, he came up the hard way, working in a family business that taught him early the value of a dollar and that honed his instincts for survival and self-sufficiency.

At 53 now, the Republican’s been around a little longer than his Hunterdon County competitors, Freeholder Matt Holt and Freeholder Erik Peterson, and he’s punched more time at the local level, having served 11 years on the Hackettstown council and then an additional nine years as mayor before winning a seat on the Warren County Freeholder Board.

He spent 14 of those years in Hackettstown as a Democrat, and not surprisingly in this increasingly competitive GOP terrain heading toward Saturday’s special convention, that’s the first fact about DiMaio’s background his opponents’ surrogates highlight in casual conversation.

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Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Twp) prided himself on never schmoozing with the power elite in Warren County, but now that he’s been abruptly shut out of organizational channels in the aftermath of his loss last month in a special convention bid for state Senate, he’s going into full-gear, good-government outsider mode. 

“Part of what distinguishes me from Marcia Karrow is my position on debt and wanting voter approval,” said Doherty. “In this case, people need to come out of their ivory towers and see where the taxpayers are before they borrow money to build a library on the Delaware River. ...I have been working on this issue for over a year now.  What is precipitating my action now is the Freeholders’ announcement last week to move forward with their $26 million (library) building. ”

A prime Assembly sponsor of the Lance Amendment requiring voter approval for all state borrowing, Doherty plans to attend the Warren County Freeholders’ meeting on Wednesday evening armed with a similar resolution he wants the freeholders to adopt on the county level.

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Assemblyman Michael Doherty, who says he would "rather die" than skip a State Senate primary against incumbent Marcia Karrow, but now it looks like keeping his Assembly seat is no longer an option.  Since losing the special election convention for Leonard Lance's Senate seat last month, Doherty has seen some of his top supporters abandon him.  Warren County Freeholder John DiMaio, who has been a top Doherty supporter and longtime friend, will run for Assembly with Karrow on the Hunterdon organization line in the June primary.  Another Doherty backer, Warren County GOP Chairman Douglas Steinhardt, is expected to flip his support and endorse Karrow - possibly as early as today.

DiMaio is one of three candidates competing in a special election convention this month for Karrow's Assembly seat, along with Hunterdon County Freeholders Matthew Holt and Erik Peterson.  With the support of Steinhardt and Hunterdon County GOP Chairman Henry Kuhl, and with the backing of Warren Republican mayors who had supported Karrow over Doherty, DiMaio is the clear front runner.

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FLEMINGTON – Fighting criticism that he’s operating behind the scenes to weaken the chances of two home county candidates in order to protect state Sen. Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.), Hunterdon County GOP Chairman Henry Kuhl says he simply wants to keep the balance struck between those two counties that contribute to the 23rd Legislative District.

To that end he told Hunterdon County freeholders Matt Holt and Erik Peterson Friday that regardless of who wins the special convention on Feb 21st, he agreed with Warren County GOP chairman Doug Steinhardt to give a third Assembly candidate, Warren County Freeholder John DiMaio, the organization line in the June Republican Primary.

“The premise is to preserve bi-county representation, if possible,” affirmed Steinhardt.

But the move by the two GOP chairmen has generated some blowback as less than two weeks before the convention, DiMaio, Holt and Peterson vie for the Assembly seat Karrow officially vacated today to claim the Senate seat in the 23rd  District with both Kuhl and Steinhart by her side in the Senate chamber.

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After Marcia Karrow was sworn in as the new State Senator from the 23rd district, a new quorum call was requested.  This was Karrow’s first vote in the Senate, and observers heard her turn to Henry Kuhl, the Hunterdon County GOP Chairman, and say: “Push my button, Henry.”  Kuhl obliged, and Karrow’s first vote in the Senate was cast by her County Chairman.

Kuhl and Warren County GOP Chairman Douglas Steinhardt accompanied Karrow during her brief swearing in cermony earlier this afternoon. Steinhardt backed Assemblyman Michael Doherty in the special election convention for the open Senate seat, and his presence sends a clear signal that Doherty might be losing political support in his Warren County base as he moves toward a primary challenge against Karrow.

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