John DiMaio

Hunterdon County Freeholder Erik Peterson

CLINTON – Reveling in his rep as a “tight-fisted” politician, Hunterdon County Freeholder Erik Peterson stands onstage now, having accepted the nomination of Hampton Mayor Rob Walton.

“What would Abraham Lincoln think today to witness the condition of our state and our nation?” Peterson asks the crowd. “We have witnessed ever expanding state spending, and borrowing. Ladies and gentlemen, this must end!”

As freeholder, he opposed a clubhouse at the golf course on principle, and backed a proposal to increase services for veterans of the armed forces. 

“As the last great president to fully embody the principles of our party, Ronald Reagan reminded us (there are simple solutions to problems),” Peterson proclaims.

Hunterdon County Freeholder Matt Holt

CLINTON - The ugliest word one can utter here in this conservative district is “Trenton,” and “Heaven knows how we’ve suffered under the one size fits all thinking that has come out of Trenton,” Kingwood Township Mayor Eileen Niemann says as she puts Hunterdon County Freeholder Matt Holt’s name in for the vacant District 23 Assembly seat.

Holt’s up there now. 

“We need to build the foundation on which a more fiscally responsible state can grow,” the self-described optimist tells the crowd. “Let’s not forget the true measure of good leadership is to keep in mind the ultimate goal. We must never allow politics to interfere with that pursuit.”

He goes for an analogy when he considers the other dreaded concept here: the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), likening the agency to a Superbowl planning committee which abruptly decides three weeks before the big game to build a stadium in an area other than the one already designated.

Warren County Freeholder John DiMaio

CLINTON – Warren County Freeholder John DiMaio stands at the podium now facing what over the last two hours has swelled to an almost packed Clinton Township Middle School auditorium.

An eight year veteran of the freeholder board and former president of the New Jersey Conference of Mayors, DiMaio reminds people that he fought against the Highlands Act, which he cites as an attack on Constitutional rights of home ownership.

He promises if elected to go after the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) before it “overpopulates the region.”

23rd District candidates: Hunterdon County Freeholder Erik Peterson, Warren County Freeholder John DeMaio, and Hunterdon County Freeholder Matt Holt

CLINTON – The candidates for the vacant 23rd District Assembly seat are at last onstage here at the Clinton Township Middle School and Warren County Freeholder Director Rick Gardner is preparing to nominate his colleague, Warren County Freeholder John DiMaio.

Voters will go to the polls today, likely in very small numbers and using paper ballots, to elect Fire Commissioners and approve fire budgets in a more than 25 municipalities throughout the state.  In many towns, Fire Commissioners are paid positions.  Polls are typically open from 2PM to 9PM, and most contests are unopposed. 

The premier Fire Commissioner race is in Woodbridge, where former Council President and Republican Municipal Chairman Kenneth Gardner hopes to restart his political career as a District 1 Fire Commissioner.  Gardner, who sought the GOP nomination for Congress in 2000 and lost bids for local office, is hoping that the Fire Commissioner seat might help him return to public office or enhance his ability to get a state job if a Republican is elected Governor.  He faces Ryan Horvath, a young fire captain who has been visiting voters door-to-door.

Republican County Committee in Hunterdon and Warren County are meeting today to elect a new Assemblyman from the 23rd district.  Hunterdon Freeholders Matthew Holt and Erik Peterson, and Warren Freeholder John DiMaio, are vying to fill the vacant seat created when Marcia Karrow moved up to the State Senate earlier this month.

And in Union County, Republicans will hold the first-in-the-state gubernatorial convention to award the organization line for the June primary.  Former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie is favored to win, and former Bogota Mayor Steven Lonegan is likely to finish second.  The real race is for third place between five-term Assemblyman Rick Merkt and Brian D. Levine, the Mayor of Franklin Township.

Three candidates are seeking Marcia Karrow's 23rd district Assembly seat: left to right, Erik Peterson, John DiMaio and Matthew Holt.

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.

Republican County Committee members in either Hunterdon or Warren counties will return in March for their third special election convention of the year.  They will need to elect a new Freeholder to replace the winner of Saturday’s State Assembly contest in District 23.  All three candidates are Freeholders: Matthew Holt and Erik Peterson in Hunterdon, and John DiMaio in Warren.   Holt’s seat is up in 2009, and there would be special elections in November to replace Peterson or DiMaio.

Hunterdon County Freeholder Erik Peterson, Warren County Freeholder John DiMaio, and Hunterdon County Freeholder Matt Holt

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.

Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Twp.)

WHITE - After approaching the Warren County Freeholders at their meeting last week, Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) plans to sit down with the freeholders this afternoon to try to convince them to pass a resolution banning borrowing at the county level without voter approval. 

It’s no declaration of political war, insists Doherty – simply a good government broadside and timely exclamation point on a crusade he launched a year ago.

“Voters approved the Lance Amendment (forbidding borrowing without voter approval at the state level), but there remains a huge loophole that needs to be closed for counties and municipalities,” said Doherty, a former freeholder who is pursuing an off-the-line run against state Sen. Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.) in the 23rd District.

Three candidates running for a vacant Assembly seat in the 23rd Legislative District are scheduled to appear tonight at a candidates’ forum sponsored by the Clinton Township Republican Club.

The event will feature candidates’ opening comments, and then questions from the audience.  It starts at 7 p.m. in the Regina Room of the Holiday Inn in Clinton Township. 

The candidates - Hunterdon County Freeholder Matt Holt, Hunterdon County Freeholder Erik Peterson, and Warren County Freeholder John DiMaio – will compete Saturday in a special convention held by the joint Hunterdon/Warren County Republican Committees at the Clinton Township Middle School.