Kelly Hatfield

Nancy Munoz is expected to seek the State Assembly seat of her late husband and will likely file nominating petitions for the District 21 seat before the Monday filing deadline.  Eric Munoz, a five-term Republican from Summit, passed away last Monday at the age of 61. Nancy Munoz is likely to receive endorsements from top GOP officials.  Former Summit Councilwoman Kelly Hatfield, who had a chilly relationship with Eric Munoz, had been viewed as a leading candidate for the seat.

There is a growing effort to stop former Summit Council President Kelly Hatfield from winning a special election for State Assembly in the 21st district, and now some Republicans are saying that Nancy Munoz could emerge as a candidate for her late husband's seat.  Sources say that the relationship between Hatfield and Assemblyman Eric Munoz (R-Summit) was chilly, and that several Munoz supporters are actively looking for a way to deny her the Assembly seat. 

Munoz passed away on Monday afternoon, and the campaign to succeed him began almost immediately with conversations among some GOP Municipal Chairmen that evening.  For a while it looked as though Hatfield and Union County GOP Chairman Philip Morin would be the two candidates, with close Munoz allies backing Morin.  But sources say that Morin is concerned that Hatfield, who beat Leonard Lance at a 2008 Union GOP convention when she ran for Congress, has an edge on county committee voters in her district.  Nancy Munoz's candidacy could shake the race up.

Eric Munoz, M.D. (1947-2009)

There will be no announcements regarding the scheduling of a special election convention until after Assemblyman Eric Munoz's funeral on Friday, but Republican leaders in the 21st district were busy yesterday talking politics and considering options for the upcoming Assembly race.  The early speculation is that there are two contenders for the Assembly seat: former Summit Council President Kelly Hatfield and Phil Morin, the Union County GOP Chairman and a former Mayor of Cranford.  Hatfield appears to be locking up some key endorsements in a campaign that won't officially begin until Friday, but Morin may have the backing of Nancy Munoz, the wife of the late Assemblyman.

Republican County Committee members from District 21 will need to schedule a special election convention within seven to 35 days to fill the State Assembly seat left vacant yesterday by the death of Eric Munoz.  Hours after the death of the five-term Assemblyman, Republicans were listing several potential candidates for the Munoz seat: former Summit Council President Kelly Hatfield, Union County GOP Chairman Phil Morin, Cranford Mayor David Robinson, Berkeley Heights Mayor David Cohen, Roselle Park Mayor Joe DeIorio, former Garwood Councilwoman Patricia Quattrocchi, and Mountainside Councilman Glenn Mortimer.

Another possible candidate is Peter Kane, a longtime Summit GOP leader who ran Mike Huckabees's New Jersey presidential campaign in 2008.  Huckabee will be speaking in New Jersey tomorrow at the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University.

Hatfield ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination for Congress in 2008, but won the Union County convention; she is now the party's Finance Chair.  Morin came within a handful of votes of winning an Assembly seat in a 2003 special election convention that was won by Jon Bramnick.

Republicans say the seat won't go to Westfield, where Bramnick and State Sen. Thomas Kean, Jr. live.  And it is unlikely to go to anyone in Essex, Morris or Somerset counties.   Bramnick and Kean are also considered potential candidates for Lt. Governor; their selection would trigger other conventions t his year.

Beck in Bernards.

BERNARDS – The Somerset County Federation of Republican Women (SCFRW) on Thursday night at the Bernards Inn honored state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Red Bank) with their 17th Annual Millicent Fenwick Award for Outstanding Public Service.

A packed banquet hall included “sister Senator” Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.), Assemblyman Pete Biondi (R-Hillsborough), past award recipients Assemblywoman Denise Coyle (R-Bernards) and Somerset County Freeholder Pat Walsh, Somerset County GOP Chairman Dale Florio (who worked as a congressional aide for Fenwick), Somerset County Freeholder Jack M. Ciattarelli, Union County GOP Finance Chair Kelly Hatfield, and many others.

How about former Summit Council President Kelly Hatfield for Lt. Governor? Some sources say its on the table.

Christopher Christie's 74% victory at the Union County Republican convention is good news for Jon Bramnick, the Assembly Minority Whip who very much wants to be the GOP candidate for Lt. Governor.  While there were plenty of Republican leaders who can take credit for the big Christie win, including Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr.,  GOP County Chairman Philip Morin, and longtime Westfield resident William Palatucci, a lopsided win in Union surely won't hurt Bramnick's chances.

One Republican who won't be held in high esteem by Christie if he becomes Governor is Elizabeth Municipal Chair Helen Rosales.  Rosales endorsed the former U.S. Attorney, but flipped her support this morning to former Bogota Mayor Steven Lonegan and nominated him at the convention.  Lonegan won 21% of the vote, followed by Assemblyman Rick Merkt (2%), Franklin Mayor Brian D. Levine (1%), and South Brunswick businessman David Brown (1%).

Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, left, and Franklin Township Mayor Brian D. Levine

ROSELLE PARK – On a night of party revelry, two men here tonight appeared at least initially dejected.

There would be no candidates’ speeches at the Union County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner/Auction, and former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan accepted the news with admitted disappointment.

“First it was five minute speeches then three minutes and now we’re down to no speeches,” said Lonegan when he was asked if he would be addressing the packed crowd at the annual event.

A second candidate for governor, Franklin Township Mayor Brian D. Levine, arrived with an envelope containing prepared remarks in his jacket pocket, but there was no need, he learned from Lonegan when Levine walked in the door to the small but swanky Solar do Minho banquet hall.

“The candidates are mingling, talking to people,” explained Union County GOP Chairman Phil Morin. “They’re getting their message out. If we do speeches, we’ll be here all night.”

If Assembly Minority Whip Jon Bramnick gets picked as the Republican candidate for Lt. Governor this June, he would have to drop his bid for re-election to the State Assembly.  That would create a special convention for his 21st district Assembly seat so that Republican County Committee members from the Union, Morris, Somerset and Essex towns in his district could pick a new legislative candidate.

GOP candidate for governor Chris Christie arrives at the party at the Marco Polo on Thursday evening.

SUMMIT –To the oft-muttered intra-party charge that Republicans plan to coronate former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie as their candidate for governor, Union County Republican Chairman Phil Morin said his organization stands on its record. 

Last year, millionaire businesswoman Anne Evans Estabrook was supposedly the money candidate for U.S. Senate. Then the county committee here awarded the line to erstwhile underdog state Sen. Joseph Pennacchio (R-Morris), dropping the jaws of not only Estabrook’s campaign infrastructure but the party establishment in all 21 counties.  

After Estabrook pulled the plug on her candidacy owing to health problems, Morin resisted pressure to hold another convention to dump Pennacchio and swap in the state GOP’s latest frontrunner, former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer, who would ultimately go on to secure the statewide nomination. 

Morin’s view was Jersey Joe earned it the hard way, he should have it.

Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) in Summit on Friday.: Politicker photoSUMMIT - Coming off a train station rally here for presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer and state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) convened a town hall meeting at the high school, where they brandished their fiscally conservative credentials in a room of about 50 voters.

Now in a race with Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) to represent the 7th Congressional District, Lance the veteran legislator underscored his tenacity fighting bloated government, including the administration of disgraced former Gov. Jim McGreevey.Former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer addresses voters in the Summit High School Library as GOP organizer Kelly Hatfield looks on: Politicker photo

"I am the ‘Lance’ of Lance versus McGreevey," the senator said of his suit against the former administration to curb borrowing to balance the state budget.

The New Jersey Supreme Court in 2004 allowed McGreevey to borrow $1.9 billion, or nearly 7 percent of what was then a $28 billion budget, but forbade the governor from borrowing in the future.

Talking to Summit voters Friday evening in the high school library, Lance took pride too in noting how his proposed Constitutional amendment to ban borrowing without voter approval will appear on the Nov. 4th ballot.