Marcia Karrow

When Marcia Karrow literally takes her seat in the State Senate, it will be in the back row of the chamber.  The seat set aside for her (Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr., who decides where Republicans sit can change his mind) is between two Ocean County Republicans, Christopher Connors and Andrew Ciesla, according to a seating chart provided by the Office of Legislative Services.  

One of the prime seats in the chamber, the aisle desk in the second row, behind Kean, has now been assigned to Robert Singer, a six-term Ocean County Republican who is the Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee.  That's the seat Leonard Lance, the former Minority Leader and the Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, occupied before his election to Congress.

• Karrow wins Senate seat; calls for unity as Doherty vows to fight her in primary
• Voting underway now in Clinton in a larger context as Lonegan makes an appearance
• Karrow presents herself as rural and local
• Doherty presents himself as the fiscal and social conservative
• Nominating speeches moments away
• It has begun
• Republicans to fill Lance seat today
• With a Senate primary comes two contested Assembly seats
• More than 40 GOP County Committee members didn't show up to elect a new Senator
• Assemblymen beating Senators in primaries are rare
• Karrow will serve on Appropriations Committee
• Next up: the race for Karrow's Assembly seat
• Will Doherty give up his Assembly seat for a second shot at Karrow?
• 25% of Senate entered through special election

Hunterdon County Freeholder Matthew Holt is seeking Marcia Karrow's seat in the State Assembly.

If Mike Doherty follows through on his threat to challenge Marcia Karrow in the 2009 Senate primary, it means both candidates might recruit State Assembly candidates to run on their ticket in the 23rd district.  Karrow will almost certainly run on the Hunterdon Republican organization line, and Warren has no line in GOP primaries.

Republicans will hold a special election convention to fill Karrow's Assembly seat.  Two Hunterdon County Freeholders, Matthew Holt and Erik Peterson, are among the candidates, and the results of Saturday's Senate election show a clear advantage for a Hunterdon-based candidate.  The loser of that contest could have another shot at the Assembly, if Karrow opts to run an all-Hunterdon ticket.

Hunterdon County Republican Chairman Henry Kuhl's vote total in his 2008 re-election campaign was nearly identical to the number of County Committee votes Marcia Karrow won in Hunterdon in the special election convention for State Senator.

Marcia Karrow won a State Senate seat by 42 votes, 195-143, boosted by receiving 70% of the vote (125-54) in her home county of Hunterdon and by holding Michael Doherty to 56% (89-70) in his home county of Warren.

Voter turnout in Hunterdon was 86%; thirty Republican County Committee members from Hunterdon County did not show up to vote today.  GOP County Chairman Henry Kuhl told PolitickerNJ.com this week that there were three vacancies out of 212 seats.

Karrow's vote tally in Hunterdon (125) was nearly equal to the votes received by Kuhl (124) in his 2008 re-election bid.  But while Kuhl's opponent, Bloomsbury Mayor Mark Peck, received 78 votes, Doherty won just 54.
 
All but a few of the 181 County Committee seats in Warren were filled.  Today, 159 votes were cast from Warren County.

Eldridge Hawkins, a three-term Assemblyman, challenged Senate President Pat Dodd in the 1977 Democratic primary. He lost.

Assemblyman Michael Doherty says he'll seek the Republican nomination for State Senator against soon-to-be incumbent Marcia Karrow in June.  "Wild horses couldn't prevent me from running in that primary," he said.  Over the last 32 years, six Assembly members have taken on incumbent Senators in primaries, but only two have won.

The last sitting member of the State Assembly to beat an incumbent Senator in a primary was Leanna Brown, who beat James Vreeland in the 1983 Republican primary.  That same year, Senator Joseph Bubba defeated Assemblyman Terry LaCorte in the GOP primary. 

In 1993, State Senator Richard Codey beat Assemblyman Robert Brown in the Democratic primary.  Most recently, in 2003, Assemblyman LeRoy Jones unsuccessfully challenged Senator Nia Gill in the Democratic primary.

The 1977 primary election -- the same one where nine Democrats challenged incumbent Brendan Byrne in the Democratic gubernatorial primary - two Senators faced primary challenges from former running mates:  Charles Yates, a Democratic Assemblyman from Burlington County, ousted Senator Edward Hughes in the Democratic primary; and Assemblyman Eldridge Hawkins took on Senate President Frank "Pat" Dodd in the Democratic primary and lost. (Hawkins finished third, with tennis great Althea Gibson running second.) 

Senator-elect Marcia Karrow, who was elected a few hours ago, will get an open seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, according to senior Senate Republican staffers.  Karrow, who serves on the same panel in the Assembly, is taking the Senate seat of Leonard Lance, who was elected to Congress.  The Appropriations Committee seat also belonged to Lance.  Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. has offered the ranking Minority slot on Appropriations to Anthony Bucco, who had been actively challenged for the slot by Kevin O’Toole.

Hunterdon County Freeholder Erik Peterson, with U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance, is one of the candidates for Marcia Karrow's seat in the State Assembly.

The Republican County Committee in District 23 must now schedule a second special election convention to fill the State Assembly seat of Marcia Karrow, who was elected to the State Senate today.  There are already three announced candidates: Hunterdon County Freeholders Matthew Holt and Erik Peterson, and Warren County Freeholder John DiMaio.  Bloomsbury Mayor Mark Peck is also mulling an Assembly bid.  Karrow won the seat with 58% of the vote, which demonstrates a clear advantage for a Hunterdon-based candidate.

State Sen.-elect Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan) won Leonard Lance's 23rd district seat with 58% of the vote in a special elecion convention held today.

Marcia Karrow's impressive 58%-42% victory in a special election convention for Leonard Lance's State Senate seat will force Michael Doherty to choose between a Senate bid in the June Republican primary and keeping his seat in the State Assembly.   Karrow won 195-143 in a race many insiders thought would go to Doherty, one of the Legislature's most conservative members.

Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan

CLINTON - Now a long line of people moves toward the stage to vote, 184 committee people from Hunterdon and 160 from Warren, according to unconfirmed joint committee sources.

"I'm glad they decided to do this professionally with voting machines, taking a page from Dale Florio over there in Somerset County," says Hunterdon County Freeholder William Mennen.

Just before the crowd breaks to vote, there are unmistakable implications of stagecraft, as former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan can be seen lingering on one side of the room, the anti-establishment Republican candidate for governor, balancing out the organizational presence on the other side of GOP operative Mark Duffy and former U.S. Senate candidate Dick Zimmer.

"I'm here backing Doherty," says Lonegan. "Marcia's good, but Mike has a terrific record. He's backed me in the past, and now I'm backing him."

Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.)

CLINTON – Her father’s struggles in the Depression shaped Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow’s (R-Raritan Twp.) conservatism, she tells the crowd of Warren and Hunterdon County county committee people. 

Unlike her opponent, Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Twp.), Karrow, 49, grew up here in the 23rd District, daughter of a local public official, who knows about barn building and bringing in the hay. She goes hardcore local in an emotional speech.

“Those of you who were born here know about taking care of one another,” she says. “My passion as a public servant comes from that. You’re my passion.”