Marcia Karrow

Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Twp.)

CLINTON – His name’s in and Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) strides across the stage in front of the burgundy curtain, a 45-year old retired Army captain, 6 ft. 2 and ramrod at the podium now, telling the crowd he wants government out of people’s lives and out of their wallets. 

To win today, Doherty will need to prove he did the political legwork in Hunterdon County, which has about 40 more county committee seats than Doherty’s Warren County.  His allies say he has them, thanks to his vanguard role as a movement conservative, and it doesn't take long for the boom to come into his voice as he tries to prove his viability. 

“I’ve run in a lot of hard primaries, ladies and gentlemen, but I’m the senior guy for a reason,” Doherty cries. “Voters are pretty smart. They know who the Reagan conservative is. I’m always been the top voter, ladies and gentlemen, in Hunterdon and Warren counties."

State Sen. Minority Leader Thomas Kean (R-Union) and Hunterdon County Freeholder William Mennen to his immediate left.

CLINTON TWP. - Hackettstown Mayor Michael B. Lavery nominates Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) and Raritan Twp. Mayor Richard O'Malley backs him up.

"Mike has an overwhelming passion to vote against taxes, as you see in your packets, he's voted 103 times against taxes," O'Malley tells the packed house.

In the back of the crowd stands State Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Union).

"I'm neutral," says Kean of the Karrow-Doherty showdown. "I will support the Republican nominee."

He removes an envelope from his pocket.

"There is a senate pin in there that I will present to the winner," says Kean.

Hunterdon County GOP Chairman Henry Kuhl

CLINTON - The middle school sits on the side of  Route 78 and a packed parking lot gives an early indication that turnout is heavy for this special Republican Convention where committee members from Warren and Hunterdon counties will determine the party nominee for state senator in the 23rd District.

Both candidates, Assemblyman Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.), the Hunterdon-based candidate - and Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) from Warren, work the coming throng in the hallway outside the auditorium, where voting will occur.

"The guy's a political animal," says a political insider, observing Doherty going for people's hands even before their gloves are off as they come through the big double doors and into the school.

And there's Karrow,

She's mobbed by committee people just before they go through the hallway doors.

Today is Election Day in parts of Hunterdon and Warren counties, where members of the Republican County Committee from the 23rd legislative district will hold a special election convention to replace Leonard Lance in the State Senate.  Lance resigned from the Senate on January 3 to take his seat in Congress.

Two Republicans are seeking to replace Lance: four-term Assemblyman Michael Doherty, 45, a former Warren County Freeholder and West Point graduate; and Marcia Karrow, 49, a two-term Assemblywoman who has served as a Hunterdon County Freeholder and as Mayor of Raritan Township.

 Doherty is viewed as one of the most conservative members of the Legislature and has mulled bids for higher office in recent years, including an exploratory committee for the 2008 U.S. Senate nomination.  He was he only legislator to back Ron Paul for President in the last election.  Karrow, a graduate of Smith College, has masters degrees from the University of Michigan and CUNY.  She  is viewed as a moderate and has the backing of the Hunterdon County Republican organization and eight mayors from Warren County.

The winner will get sworn in to the Senate at their next session, now scheduled for February 23.  The Senate contest will trigger another special election convention to fill the soon-to-be vacant Assembly seat.

A new State Senator will be elected on Saturday to replace newly-elected U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton).

Tomorrow is Election Day in Hunterdon County, where Assemblyman Michael Doherty and Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow will face off in a special election convention to replace Leonard Lance as the State Senator from the 23rd district. Lance resigned his State Senate seat earlier this month to take his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Doherty is widely considered to be the front runner, but insider contests decided by County Committee members can produce some surprises in a race where no polling of a finite universe of voters has been conducted.  Either way, District 23 Republican County Committee members will need to return soon to fill the soon-to-be vacant Assembly seat of the winner.  Three Freeholders - Matthew Holt and Erik Peterson of Hunterdon and John DiMaio of Warren - are already announced candidates for the Assembly.  A fourth candidate, Bloomsbury Mayor Mark Peck, is also mulling an Assembly bid.

Hunterdon County GOP Chairman Henry Kuhl

There’s back-chatter in the 23rd District that Hunterdon County Chairman Henry Kuhl doesn’t have all of the county’s 212 county committee seats filled in what most insiders predict will be a photo finish election between  Assemblyman Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) and Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.) for the vacant state Senate seat.

But Kuhl, who supports home-county candidate Karrow over the Warren-based Doherty, says there are only three vacancies in all of Hunterdon County – a point of pride for the chairman.

“Our seats are harder to fill because we have arguably the purest county committee system in the state,” said Kuhl. “Our seats are harder to fill, but we have only three vacancies.”

Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Twp.)

The telephone war between Assemblyman Michael Doherty (D-Washington Twp.) and Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.) went into high gear today, with the Karrow forces securing an endorsement from Hunterdon County Freeholder Ron Sworen and Doherty going outside the box to land the backing of Republican activist Bill Spadea, president of the grassroots GOP outfit, Building the New Majority. 

A veteran of the Marine Corps, Spadea proudly endorsed Doherty for the vacant senate seat in the 23rd Legislative District. 

“Mike is a great role model for the residents of New Jersey,” said Spadea. “A West Point graduate and military veteran, Mike and his wife, Linda, have passed on their patriotism and love of country to their three sons, all of whom are now serving on active duty in the military. 2009 is a critical year in New Jersey. We have a great opportunity to defeat Jon Corzine and a new Republican governor will need strong, articulate, free market advocates like Mike Doherty in the state senate to rein in government and restore fiscal responsibility to Trenton. He has my whole-hearted support.”

As early as Monday, Hunterdon County Freeholder Ron Sworen said he didn’t think he would endorse a candidate in the 23rd District state Senate matchup between Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) and Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.). But today he decided to pick a candidate. 

“I’m going to be supporting Marcia Karrow for the Senate seat,” Sworen told PolitickerNJ.com. “Her local level experience is something we need desperately in the senate, and I intend to vote for her at the convention on Saturday.”

Karrow is a former Raritan mayor and committeewoman.

Bloomsbury Mayor Mark Peck

Bloomsbury Mayor Mark Peck acknowledged today that he is mulling a run for the Assembly in the 23rd District. 

“It’s certainly something I’m considering, and it’s a matter of where I think I can make the most difference,” said Peck, who failed in his 2005 primary bid for the Assembly, and last year challenged Hunterdon County Republican Chairman Henry Kuhl and lost.

“We needed new direction and new energy in the Republican Party and to date I’m pleased to see a lot of the reform aspects I called for have been adopted,” Peck said of his challenge to Kuhl. “The party is more open and inclusive, they’re having more lower-cost events, they have a website up and running, and there is more of an effort to communicate electronically.”

Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.)

In order to make that leap to the next level, it comes down to this abbreviated week of eleventh-hour phone calls and handshakes for Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) and Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.), each of whom wants to be the next state senator from the 23rd Legislative District.

This is not a battle of opposing ideologies, so much as it is a muscle-flexing exercise for each candidate to prove he or she can sap votes out of the other’s home county.

In a big rural legislative district encompassing portions of the state’s western region where towns have names like Independence, Liberty and White, the Hunterdon-based Karrow and Warren-based Doherty consider themselves tough-nut conservatives.

They want to get rid of the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) and ditch the Abbott Schools system. They’re pro-death penalty and anti-gay marriage. Doherty’s straight arrow pro life; Karrow against partial birth abortions.