Mark Peck

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.

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.

• 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 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.

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.

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.”

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.”

Henry Kuhl and parlimentarian Tony Maglio 

FLEMINGTON - The veterans picked the veteran here tonight and the county committee responded in kind as Hunterdon County Republican Chairman Henry Kuhl won re-election over Bloomsbury Mayor Mark Peck.

The Hunterdon GOP faithful are proud and excited to have two residents on the general election ballot in important races: Dick Zimmer running for U.S. Senate and Leonard Lance for U.S. Congress in the 7th District.

Both candidates backed 28-year chair Kuhl for another term.

7th Congressional District GOP nominee Leonard Lance 

FLEMINGTON - State Sen. Leonard Lance, the Republican candidate for Congress in the 7th District, just thanked the overflow crowd here in GOP headquarters.

"I'm grateful to everyone in this room," said Lance, who last week romped to victory in the GOP primary.

The candidate, who made his remarks moments before heading out the door to attend reorganization meetings in Somerset and Union counties, endorsed chair Henry Kuhl for another term over challenger Mayor Mark Peck of Bloomsbury.