Michael Patrick Carroll

PolitickerNJ.com is pleased to welcome our two newest columnists: Michael Patrick Carroll and Carla Katz. Carroll, a Morris County Republican, was re-elected to his seventh term in the State Assembly last week. Katz is the President of the Communications Workers of America Local 1034; with over 16,000 members, Local 1034 is the largest CWA Local in the nation.

The Daily Record has endorsed GOP Assemblyman Rick Merkt for re-election, and is backing Democrat Dana Wefer over GOP incumbent Michael Patrick Carroll.  READ

So far, Democrats haven’t seemed anxious to field and financially support a real challenger to Rep. E. Scott Garrett. But amongst Republicans, there’s discontent with Garrett brewing just beneath the surface of the fifth congressional district.

Some complain of Garrett’s steadfast conservative ideological commitment which has led to cast votes against bills considered no-brainers to Democrats and more moderate Republicans. Whether this is a strength or weakness is up for debate, however.

It used to be that New Jersey had 120 legislators – forty from the Senate and eighty in the General Assembly.  Then Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll brought the number up to 127 – his critical argument was that the seven Justices of the New Jersey Supreme Court were acting like legislators.  Now The Inside Edge can increase the total to 128.

Who wins the award for the most inane attack of the week? It's a close contest between Dana Wefer and Gina Genovese.

Alison Littell McHose entered the State Assembly in 2003 with a strong political pedigree. Her grandfather served as Senate President, her father has spent forty years in the Legislature, and her mother was the Republican State Chair in the 1990’s.

But the 42-year-old Sussex County Republican has emerged in her own right as one of the most reliably conservative legislators in Trenton. She is consistently pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, anti-tax and spend, and opposes civil unions, and civil unions. She is an unabashed supporter of George W. Bush -- her husband, Morgan McHose, served on active military duty in Iraq -- and was Lynne Cheney’s aide at the National Endowment for the Humanities.

In Morris County, it's almost a tradition: challenge an incumbent in a primary and your political future is secure. 

Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen ran against two-term incumbent James Courter in the 1982 congressional primary, and ousted incumbent Assemblyman William Bishop in the '83 primary.  Michael Patrick Carroll took on Frelinghuysen in the 1993 GOP Assembly primary, and won an Assembly seat two years later.  Richard Merkt challenged Carroll in 1995 and won in 1997.  Joseph Pennacchio ran against Dean Gallo in a 1994 primary for Congress (he did not know Gallo had cancer), and later won primaries for Freeholder, Assembly and State Senate. 

A group of Democrats have launched a grass roots effort to draft Dana Wefer to run for the State Assembly in the 25th district, against incumbents Michael Patrick Carroll and Richard Merkt. Wefer, a 24-year-old law student, ran strong, but uphill, races for Morris County Freeholder in 2005 and 2006. In her last race, the Democratic rising star ran 3,595 votes ahead of her running mate and won endorsements from the Daily Record and eleven weekly newspapers.

Some Democrats view the 25th as potentially competitive, although Carroll and Merkt have had little trouble winning the district by solid margins in past elections. In 2005, Democrats Thomas Jackson and Janice Schindler lost by nearly 5,000 votes.

Democrats have not carried the 25th since 1993, when Gordon MacInnes unseated Senate Majority Leader John Dorsey in a contest that was almost entirely about Dorsey's ethics and his decision to block the reappointment of a Superior Court Judge. Four years later, MacInnes lost his seat to Republican Anthony Bucco.

The last Democrat to represent the district in the Assembly was Rosemarie Totaro, who won an open seat in 1977 against Republican Joseph Maraziti, a 65-year-old former Congressman and State Senator who has spent nearly forty years in politics. Maraziti had considerable political liabilities: as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Maraziti emerged as a staunch defender of President Richard Nixon, and his friendship with one of his congressional staffers -- female secretary with no typing skills -- received national attention.

CARROLL AND MERKT CALL FOR LEGISLATIVE HEARINGS ON BPU CLEAN ENERGY PROGRAM FIASCO

GREGG AND CARROLL SAY PERSISTENT ABUSE OF
EMINENT DOMAIN REQUIRES ACTION

Assemblymen Guy Gregg and Michael Patrick Carroll said today that it has become increasingly clear that legislative action is needed to curb the improper use of eminent domain.