Joseph Bubba

If no incumbents are defeated in their bids for re-election to the Legislature today, it will be the first time since 1995.  Most at risk: State Sen. Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan), who has served in the State Senate since January; seven-term Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Twp.); newly-elected Assemblyman John DiMaio (R-Hackettstown), and freshmen Ralph Caputo (D-Belleville) and Cleopatra Tucker (D-Newark). 

Two years ago, three Essex County Democrats lost their Assembly seats: Wilfredo Caraballo (D-Newark), Oadline Truitt (D-Newark) and Craig Stanley (D-Irvington).  All three had lost the backing of the Essex Democratic organization.  Stanley, who lost that race by just 127 votes, is challenging Caputo and Tucker.

The Essex County District 5 Freeholder seat is the place to make a political comeback. Ralph Caputo, elected to the State Assembly as a Republican in 1967 (and out of office since 1971), and ran for Freeholder as a Democrat in 2002 on County Executive candidate Joseph DiVincenzo’s ticket. He won a contested primary, and ousted incumbent Joseph Scarpelli (who mounted his own comeback this month when he won a Nutley Commissioner race) in the general election. Caputo returned to the State Assembly in 2007 – forty years after his first election.

Former State Senator Norman Robertson says he has no intention of seeking the Republican nomination for United States Senator in 2008. A former Passaic County Freeholder, Robertson was elected to the Senate in 1997 after defeating five-term incumbent Joseph Bubba in the GOP primary. He lost his bid for a second term to Democrat Nia Gill in 2001 after redistricting made the 34th district virtually unwinnable for a Republican by adding East Orange and Montclair.

Joseph Bubba served as a Passaic County Freeholder and Republican County Chairman before winning a seat in the New Jersey State Senate in 1981. He beat four-term Assemblyman (and former Senator) William Bate-- now the Passaic County Surrogate -- by a 53%-47% margin. Bubba only narrowly held the seat two years later, first in a bitter primary battle with Assemblyman Terry LaCorte, and then in a general election against Passaic County Freeholder James Roe, the brother of popular Congressman Robert Roe; Bubba won by only 974 votes. He beat Clifton attorney Donald Hetchka in 1987, Assemblyman Joseph Mecca in 1991, and former state Consumer Affairs Director Patricia Royer in 1993. He ran for Congress in 1992, when Roe retired, and lost to former Assemblyman Herbert Klein by a wide margin.

A long-running feud with Passaic County GOP Chairman Peter Murphy and Sheriff Edwin Englehardt finally ended his career in 1997 when he lost the Republican primary to Norman Robertson, then a Freeholder, by a 2-1 margin.

The 68-year-old Bubba retired to Florida six years ago and in 2004 attempted a political comeback as a candidate for the Pompano Beach City Commission. He received 235 votes -- just 8% -- in his fourth place finish. (The candidate who finished third lost by 27 percentage points and Bubba got less than half the number of votes she did.)

Today, Bubba -- sporting the Steve Ayscue look -- sells real estate for Coldwell Banker in Pompano Beach. Old friends can reach him at info@BubbaByTheSea.com.