Jason Varano

Of the two New Jersey congressional districts where Republican incumbents did not seek re-election this year, the third district in parts of Ocean, Burlington and Camden counties is arguably more Republican than the seventh district, which includes parts of Hunterdon, Somerset, Union and Middlesex counties.  In District 3, Jim Saxton won 58% of the vote in 2006 and 63% in 2004; George W. Bush won with 51% in 2004.  In the 7th, Mike Ferguson nearly lost his 2006 re-election bid to Democrat Linda Stender, 49%-48%, after winning 57% in 2004; Bush won 53% four years ago.  Republicans have held the Saxton seat since 1884 and the Ferguson seat since 1956.

Ocean County Clerk Carl Block

In Ocean and Burlington Counties, Republicans have all held the county clerk seats for as long as anyone can remember.  This year, buoyed by the surge in Democratic registrations, Democrats have a crack at both of them.

Among the most surprising competitive races this cycle is in Ocean County - one of only six New Jersey counties where there are still more registered Republicans than Democrats.

Five year incumbent Carl Block is fighting to win his second full term against Berkeley Mayor Jason Varano in a place where no Democrat has won county-wide since 1989.  But Varano has seized on expenditures Block made from the county clerk's trust fund, which is drawn from fees from mortgage, deed and passport applications.  He's even up on cable television and radio with advertisements - unusual for an Ocean County Democrat.

Varano has hit Block on his office's expenditures of nearly $25,000, on trips to several locales across the country, during which Block was often accompanied by his deputy and a confidential aide.  He's also gone after him on an overpriced framed picture of Freeholder Jack Kelly, an expensive clock repair bill and a plasma screen television in the main office.  Block has been bloodied in the local press for these expenses, with the Asbury Park Press writing several articles on the subject.  The paper endorsed Varano, saying that block's "self-interest, partisanship, entitlement, slackness with tax dollars and violation of the public trust" make him unfit for another term.

Still, Block has spent three times the amount of money Varano has to date.  In solidly Republican Ocean County, he remains the default favorite, and rather than argue against the charges one-by-one, he faulted Varano for what he characterized as a completely negative campaign.

Ocean County Clerk Carl Block and his Democratic challenger, Jason Varano, headed into the offices of the Asbury Park Press editorial board last week in what Block figured would be a routine exercise in parry and thrust.

Truth be told, he hadn’t seen or heard much from Varano and hardly had the sense that his opponent was mounting an aggressive campaign against him.

So it came as a bit of a surprise when Varano unloaded on Block in the presence of the editors, a tactic that caused the first term incumbent to straighten in his chair and dismiss a charge the challenger repeated today in a press release, which Block again calls totally bogus.

Reiterating his call for an independent audit of a trust account maintained by Block, Varano suggested the clerk is making improper use of public funds.