Henry Kuhl

State Sen. Kevin O'Toole reportedly has the votes to become the new Chairman of the GOP County Chairmen

Update: O'Toole, Davis and Steinhardt have reached an agreement, largely brokered by Gilmore. Davis and Steinhardt will support O'Toole for the chairmanship. Steinhardt will likely become vice-chair, while Davis will be treasurer of the group.

Ocean County Republican Chairman George Gilmore, who announced yesterday that he would not seek another term as the chair of Republican chairmen, today supported Essex County Republican Chairman/state Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove) for the post.

Gilmore said that O'Toole has the support of enough of the state's 21 county chairs to easily ascend to the position.

"Kevin absolutely has the votes," said Gilmore. "One of the things I wanted to see was that it was a smooth transition."

Gilmore's support and vote count makes O'Toole the obvious favorite, but it's possible that he won't go unchallenged. Gilmore's decision not to run took many county chairs by surprise, and a short list of four names quickly emerged: O'Toole, Somerset County Chairman Dale Florio, Warren County Chairman Doug Steinhardt and Atlantic County Chairman Keith Davis.

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Henry Kuhl and parlimentarian Tony Maglio 

FLEMINGTON - The veterans picked the veteran here tonight and the county committee responded in kind as Hunterdon County Republican Chairman Henry Kuhl won re-election over Bloomsbury Mayor Mark Peck.

The Hunterdon GOP faithful are proud and excited to have two residents on the general election ballot in important races: Dick Zimmer running for U.S. Senate and Leonard Lance for U.S. Congress in the 7th District.

Both candidates backed 28-year chair Kuhl for another term.

7th Congressional District GOP nominee Leonard Lance 

FLEMINGTON - State Sen. Leonard Lance, the Republican candidate for Congress in the 7th District, just thanked the overflow crowd here in GOP headquarters.

"I'm grateful to everyone in this room," said Lance, who last week romped to victory in the GOP primary.

The candidate, who made his remarks moments before heading out the door to attend reorganization meetings in Somerset and Union counties, endorsed chair Henry Kuhl for another term over challenger Mayor Mark Peck of Bloomsbury.

After 28 years as Hunterdon County Republican Chairman, Henry Kuhl isn’t ready to call it quits.

Tomorrow night, Kuhl, who runs a commercial egg incubator corporation, will face the fourth challenge in his political career from 39-year-old Bloomsbury Mayor Mark Peck.

To Kuhl, the old cliché applies perfectly to his tenure as chairman: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

When Kuhl was first elected, the county had a Democratic freeholder and a Democratic Assemblywoman. Since then, Republicans have completed their domination, knocking off those two Democrats almost immediately after Kuhl took over and keeping and in subsequent years the area solidly under Republican control.

One of the races to watch in June is the contest for Hunterdon County Republican Chairman, where longtime incumbent Henry Kuhl faces a fierce challenge from Bloomsbury Mayor Mark Peck, who says that the local GOP needs to be stronger so they can produce a bigger plurality for congressional candidate Leonard Lance in November.

Read Peck’s announcement letter and platform:

Dick Zimmer’s campaign for the United States Senate suffered a setback last night when he lost a bid for the organization line in his home county.  Hunterdon County Republicans voted 34-40 to keep Joe Pennacchio as their endorsed candidate, rather than switch to Zimmer, who represented Hunterdon as an Assemblyman, State Senator and Congressman from 1981 to 1996.  Some insiders suggest that Zimmer’s defeat last night was more of a problem for longtime GOP County Chairman Henry Kuhl, who is expected to face a challenge for re-election in June against Mark Peck, the Mayor of Bloomsbury.

Senate candidate Joe Pennacchio hung on to the Hunterdon County Republicans' line tonight.

Pennacchio kept the prominent ballot spot, winning 34 votes to Zimmer’s 30 at a special county committee meeting.

It was the second time that Pennacchio won a county committee vote in Hunterdon County. In late February, he beat Anne Estabrook and Murray Sabrin to win the coveted ballot spot.

But after Hunterdon native Dick Zimmer entered the race last week, the county’s Republican chairman, Henry Kuhl, scheduled a special county committee meeting to vote on whether to change the county’s ballot placement.

Joseph Pennacchio won the Somerset County Republican convention last month in a race where he was essentially unopposed.  Andy Unanue, in the race a few days and still vacationing in Vail, declined to compete, and Murray Sabrin was ineligible because he refused to sign a pledge required by the party to support the organization slate.  Now Pennacchio is in danger of losing the Somerset endorsement as GOP County Chairman Dale Florio maneuvers behind the scenes to add Dick Zimmer to the line.  Sources close to Florio say that he has discussed either a do-over vote based on the new field of candidates -- Zimmer represented part of Somerset County in Congress from 1991 to 1997 --  or simply creating a limited open primary, where Pennacchio and Zimmer – but not Sabrin – would run on the organization line.