Michael Patrick Carroll

Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Twp.)

MORRIS TWP. – While his Democratic Party family forbearers probably found the nickname “Little Adlai” endearing, Michael Patrick Carroll hardly panned out as the ideological offspring of every  liberal’s favorite bumper sticker  - Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson - who was twice demolished by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Pro-life, pro-gun, pro-voucher,  and a proponent of scrapping Mount Laurel and Abbott who likens some of the Abbott Schools to “educational Taj Mahals,” veteran Assemblyman Carroll (R-Morris Twp.) remains one of the most outspoken conservative members of the New Jersey Legislature.

“I don’t generally do as well in my hometown of Morris Township as I do in western Morris County – places like Roxbury and Randolph,” Carroll said. “We’re like everywhere else in New Jersey – the farther east you go, the bluer it gets.”

Rick Merkt's announcement that he won't seek re-election to a seventh term in the State Assembly next year - possibly to run for Governor - will create a chain reaction that will reach the local level. Four Freeholders are considered potential candidates for the solidly Republican District 25 seat, and three of them - John Murphy, Gene Feyl, Bill Chegwidden - would have to give up their Freeholder seats to run for the Legislature in 2009. That would create another hotly contested primary for open Freeholder seats. If Doug Cabana were to win the Assembly seat, Morris County Republicans would need to hold a January 2010 special election convention to replace him.

If Rick Merkt and Chris Christie both wind up in the race for the 2009 Republican nomination for Governor, it will be the first time in 28 years that two former running mates and two candidates from the same small town compete in a statewide primary.  Merkt and Christie, who live in Mendham, ran as a team in the 1995 State Assembly primary in District 25; they lost to incumbent Anthony Bucco and newcomer Michael Patrick Carroll, who was seeking the open seat of retiring Assemblyman Arthur Albohn.   Merkt went to the Assembly two years later when Bucco ran for the State Senate.

If Rick Merkt gives up his State Assembly seat to run for Governor next year, there will most definitely be a long list of Republicans interested in seeking the open seat in the 25th district. Possible candidates include: attorney Anthony Bucco, Jr., the son of the incumbent State Senator; Morris County Freeholder John Murphy, who ran for Governor in 2005; Freeholder Douglas Cabana, who unsuccessfully challenged Merkt and incumbent Michael Patrick Carroll in 2003; Freeholders Bill Chegwidden and Gene Feyl; and Mount Arlington Mayor Art Ondish. Another possible candidate is former Freeholder John Inglesino, who lost the 1997 GOP primary to Merkt by less than 250 votes. But Inglesino is actively involved in Chris Christie’s campaign for Governor and might not want to take time away from that effort.

One hint on U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie’s political ideology comes from his 1995 campaign for the State Assembly, when he attacked two other candidates, Anthony Bucco and Michael Patrick Carroll, for supporting a repeal of the ban on assault weapons. A reader sent PolitickerNJ.com a copy of the mailer from that campaign after Matt Friedman’s story on conservatives wanting to know where the federal prosecutor stands on some state issues.

As PolitickerNJ.com begins a subjective tournament to choose New Jersey's Smartest Legislator, state Sen. Leonard Lance could be the early front runner. Lance has faced some criticism from members of his own party for being more of a statesman than a politician, but several statehouse watchers and former legislators say he may be one of the brightest people in Trenton.

"Leonard Lance is the one guy who sits in the legislature today that could have sat in the Senate in the late 1960's and early 1970's," said lobbyist/public relations executive Alan Marcus, who served as Clerk of the General Assembly in 1969, at age 21. "Leonard is a throwback to that era of the noblesse oblige, of quiet brilliance -- of people who don't speak on every issue, but who become conversant on every issue."

Lance isn't the only name that comes up in discussions about smart legislators. In the Senate, the most repeated names were Raymond Lesniak, Nia Gill, Kevin O'Toole, Bill Baroni, John Adler, Dick Codey, and Barbara Buono.

In the Assembly, Joe Roberts, Michael Patrick Carroll, Joe Malone, David Russo, and John Wisniewski were frequently mentioned as among the brainiest.

Absorbing some former backers of Fred Thompson and at least one defector from the camp of Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Joseph Kyrillos, state chairman of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, today assembled an official, updated team of Romney backers at a breakfast in Parsippany.

Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, one of the state's most conservative legislators, has endorsed Mitt Romney for the GOP presidential nomination.  Carroll has represented Morris County in the State Assembly since 1995.

Fifteen State Senators who were elected in the 2003 election did not seek re-election in 2007 – a record number of voluntary retirements in a chamber where Senators are more likely to die in office than to walk away. The next Senate election is in 2011 -- in newly-drawn districts that will reflect the next census.

Three Senators on the possible retirement list are Republicans Gerald Cardinale, who will be 77, and Anthony Bucco, who will be 73, and Democrat Loretta Weinberg, who will be 76 in 2011.

The announcement that Gov. Jon Corzine’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Jeannine LaRue, will join Rutgers University as a government relations advisor has drawn criticism from Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, a Morris County Republican.