Marcia Karrow

Hunterdon County Freeholder Erik Peterson today announced the endorsement of 20 elected officials from nine Hunterdon County towns for his 23rd District assembly bid.  

Among the endorsers was Hampton Borough Mayor Robert Walton, who despite Peterson’s moderate reputation called him “accessible, honest and conservative.”  

Clinton Township Mayor Kevin Cimei, who cited Peterson’s freeholder board purchase of the Windy Acres property as proof of his commitment to open space and farmland preservation.

A dispute between the family of Republican political consultant Tom Blakely and Transamerica Life Insurance Corp. has been resolved.  Blakely passed away last March at age 46 after suffering a heart attacks while running a 5K race.    

A week earlier, Blakely sent a check to the company for his family's second life insurance policy with Trasamerica, which disputed the family's claim.  That led Blakely's close friend and business partner at Jamestown, Larry Weitzner, to organize a lawsuit and a tough public relations push against Transamerica on behalf of Blakely's family.

From left to right: Steve Lonegan, Chris Christie, Brian D. Levine, Richard Merkt.

BRANCHBURG – The Lonegan forces tried to bill this event as “the Thrilla in Branchburg.”

But it proved no Ali-Frazier III this morning, and probably rated little better than the Republican gubernatorial primary of 1985 in terms of give and take, as four 2009 Republican candidates for governor assembled for the first time at a breakfast meeting sponsored by the Somerset County Federation of Republican Women at the Fox Hollow Golf Club.

Amid rumors that former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan planned to set a confrontational tone, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, the presumptive frontrunner, gave Lonegan and/or anyone else little room to generate drama.

After arriving moments before the event began, speedily working the room and delivering a five-minute set of remarks, Christie told the crowd of 150 people that he had to attend his son’s basketball game and hoped they understood.

Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Twp.)

UPDATED 

TRENTON - Flattening the back chatter out there that he might return to his Assembly seat in the aftermath of Saturday's convention, where he lost to State Sen.-elect Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.), Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) said he's running in the Republican Primary --"put it in stone."

"I'd rather die than not run in that primary," said Doherty, doubling down on a quote over the weekend that wild horses couldn't keep him from an off the line challenge of Karrow.

"This is going to be a battle between establishment RINOS (Republicans in name only) and conservative true believers," Doherty told PolitickerNJ.com.

Despite a disappointing showing Saturday, Doherty said he means to activate his conservative pro-life base and remains confident that based on past victories over her, he can defeat Karrow.

"As long as RINOs keep throwing me under the bus, they give me no option but to run against them," said the veteran assemblyman, who ran to Karrow's right in their matchup on Saturday, and who means to run to her right in the June primary. 

U.S. Rep. Matthew Rinaldo, who passed away last year, was known for passing up chances to run for higher office.

Michael Doherty might have said that wild horses could not keep him out of the June GOP primary for State Senate, but his fear of being out of office completely might.  Doherty, according to a few of his friends, could back out because he's not quite ready to gamble his $50,000-a-year seat in the State Assembly.  He can threaten a primary challenge to State Sen.-elect Marcia Karrow, but in the end he could also back out and cut a deal to keep his Assembly seat.

Without blatantly challenging the testicular fortitude of the West Pointer, Doherty hasn't exactly shown a willingness to take huge risks in the past.  Indeed, he could be the Matthew Rinaldo of his generation, a reference to the late ten-term Congressman from Union County who was frequently touted as a statewide candidate but never pulled the trigger.

The announcement today that Bloomsbury Mayor Mark Peck has decided not to run in a special election convention for Marcia Karrow's Assembly seat is good news for John DiMaio.  While it ought not to be assumed that the 54 Republican County Committee members from Hunterdon County who voted for Michael Doherty would have been Peck's votes, the conventional wisdom is that any Peck votes out of Hunterdon would have come at DiMaio's expense. 

Karrow received 125 votes out of Hunterdon on Saturday - one more than Henry Kuhl received in his 2008 bid for re-election as Republican County Chairman.  Kuhl's challenger in that race was Peck, who received 78 votes - 24 more than Doherty did among Hunterdon County Committee members.

Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham), left, and campaign manager Chris Venis

If New Jersey receives close to $4 billion in federal stimulus money over two years as suggested by Gov. Jon Corzine, Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham) says the money ought to go to plugging the budget so the state can administer business and corporate tax cuts.

The last thing the underdog candidate for governor wants to see is the spawn of more government programs enabled by access to dollars provided by the administration of President Barack Obama.

“The Democrats talk about using the federal stimulus money for public works projects, but I don’t have any faith in public works projects,” said Merkt, who attended the 23rd District special convention on Saturday as part of a schedule of GOP events this weekend.

“If we’re going to have recovery in New Jersey, we need to have private sector jobs and tax cuts for the business community,” he added.

Bloomsbury Mayor Mark Peck

Bloomsbury Mayor Mark Peck won’t pursue a run for the Assembly, he told PolitickerNJ.com this morning.

“I think I’m going to sit out the Assemby race,” said the ally of Assemblyman Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.), who endorsed Doherty at Saturday’s special convention in Clinton Twp., where Doherty lost in his bid for the state senate. 

“It’s very flattering to be considered in the mix, but there are three very capable candidates in there right now and the timing doesn’t feel right for me,” he explained.

Hunterdon County Freeholder Matt Holt, Warren County Freeholder John DiMaio and Hunterdon County Freeholder Erik Peterson are vying for two vacancies in the 23rd District created by Sen. Marcia Karrow’s victory Saturday and Doherty’s decision to forego his assembly seat to run against Karrow in the une Republican primary.

If Warren County Freeholder John DiMaio wants to win Marcia Karrow’s State Assembly seat in the 23rd district, he’ll need to do better than the 56% Michael Doherty received in Warren County in Saturday’s special election convention for State Senator.   DiMaio will need to get about 120 votes out of Warren County – about 30 more votes than Doherty received.  Some pundits say that’s a reasonable vote goal for the veteran Freeholder.

Today, DiMaio announced the endorsements of sixteen Republican mayors from Warren County, including seven of the mayors who publicly backed Karrow for Senate.  DiMaio also has the backing of two newly-elected Warren mayors from towns where the previous mayor had endorsed Karrow late last year.  Winning support from Warren County Republicans who were in the Karrow camp is an essential ingredient to a DiMaio victory – and shows that DiMaio doesn’t have some of the institutional negatives Doherty did in his own base.