Janet Linnus

November 2, 2008 - 7:29pm

Somerset GOP digs in to defend territory

By Max Pizarro, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter

Somerset County GOP Chairman Dale Florio

SOMERSET – Field general Dale Florio goes over the numbers again in Somerset County Republican Party headquarters. He doesn’t appear overly confident but he believes his party can comfortably fend off the other side, which is making a big play here in a presidential year when their national ticket has a double digit lead in New Jersey.

In the next room, three volunteers work the phones as pedestrians blow in from Main Street and pick up handfuls of “McCain-Palin” lawn signs.

“I’ve been pleased with the energy level – that energy surge close to Election Day,” says Florio, Republican Party county chair, looking up from his desk. “You’d have figured with the war, the economy and the last eight years that we’d have less excitement, but McCain is his own man. Quite frankly, with the Obama campaign’s focus elsewhere, it’s taken the Democrats’ focus away from New Jersey.”

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