Michael Luther

Parsippany Town Hall

PARSIPPANY - Mayor Michael Luther four years ago won by 39 votes in a town of 50,000 against a Republican Party undermined by a civil war.

This year, the Democratic mayor's challenger, Councilman Jamie Barberio, believes he will win, in part because he trusts he has a better vision for Parsippany, but also because he helped weld his party back together and stands a better chance mechanically to drive voters into his column.

"There's not a single Republican official who doesn't back me," Barberio told PolitickerNJ.com. "One of my goals before I set out to run was securing their support. I knew I had to close the gap with every Republican I could think of." 

In a gubernatorial election year in particular, a unified GOP helps when one considers the numbers of registered voters in Parsippany: 6,860 Democrats versus 9,710 Republicans with 11,564 independents usuaully leaning reliably Republican.

Parsippany, the largest town in solidly Republican Morris County, has not had a Republican mayor in fourteen years.  In 2005, Democrat Michael Luther won his first term as mayor by a scant 39-vote margin - a contest that spent two years in court.  Luther faces Republican Councilman Jamie Barberio this fall.  If Luther wins, look for some Democrats to recruit him to run for State Senator in 2011 against the incumbent, Joseph Pennacchio (R-Montville).

Parsippany (pop. 50,649), is a town of ticket-splitters.  Despite Democratic victories in the last four mayoral races, Republicans have held a firm grip on the Township Council. Barack Obama and Frank Lautenberg both carried the town by more than a thousand votes in 2008.  Robert Menendez lost it by less than 100 votes in 2006, and Jon Corzine lost it by less than 700 votes in 2005.  But Republicans like Pennacchio and U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-Harding) carry the town easily as well.

If you have some time next week and want some free entertainment, go to the courthouse in Morristown and watch Angelo Genova and John Carbone duke it out in the case that never ends: a challenge to the 2005 Parsippany mayoral election.  Democrat Michael Luther, who took office two years ago after seemingly defeating Republican Rosemarie Agostini by 39 votes, now faces a court fight to keep his seat as Agostini, who has lost four races for Mayor and lost her Council seat in a GOP primary last year, seeks to become Mayor amidst allegations that several dozen Luther votes were cast by people who did not live in Parsippany.

In Fairfield Township, where Democratic Township Committeeman Albert Beverly lost re-election to Republican Patrick Conahey by just five votes, lawyers for both sides will be before a Cumberland County Superior Court Judge this month to discuss the legal merits of a recount.  Clearly, Beverly wants a recount and Conahey does not. 

Two of New Jerseys most prominent election law experts, Angelo Genova and John Carbone, will face off in a Morristown courtroom on January 8 to decide the November 2005 race for Mayor of Parsippany. Republican Rosemarie Agostini, who lost to Democrat Michael Luther by 39 votes, alleges that as many as 124 voters were either illegally turned away from the polls or voted improperly.

The expedited trial was scheduled after a state appellate panel overturned a Superior Court Judge's denial of Agostini's challenge. Genova, Luther's attorney, has asked the state Supreme Court to issue a stay of the appellate decision. Genova is challenging the constitutionality of a state law that permits elections to be challenged. In that effort, he will be opposed by state Attorney General Stuart Rabner.

The results of two North Jersey mayoral elections are being challenged in court, even though the certified winners will take office on January 1. In Parsippany, a suit alleging voting irregularities filed by Republican Rosemarie Agostini will be heard in Superior Court on January 4. Agostini, a Councilwoman who has run for Mayor four times, lost to Democrat Michael Luther by 40 votes. The case has attracted two high-profile lawyers: John Carbone will represent Agostini and Angelo Genova is Luther's attorney. Former Edison Councilman William Stephens, a Democrat who ran for Mayor as an Independent, say his 270 vote loss to Democrat Jun Choi was also a result of irregularities and campaign finance fraud. A Middlesex County Judge has not yet decided whether to hear Stephens' complaint.

REPUBLICANS BACK MICHAEL LUTHER FOR MAYOR

Coalition aims to take party politics out of local election