Pam Brightbill

State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth), left, introduces former U.S. Attorney Chris Chrisite, with wife Mary Pat.

LINCROFT – On the second day of his two-day campaign kickoff, Chris Christie has sharpened his Wednesday speech into a few short bursts, and in front of a packed house at the Lincroft Inn in this one-time horse farm country turned box store sprawl zone, he toughens his anti-COAH (Council on Affordable Housing) rhetoric.

“If I am governor, I will gut COAH and I will put an end to it,” says Christie, an edited version of underdog gubernatorial candidate Assemblyman Richard Merkt’s (R-Mendham) “If I am governor, I will drive a stake into COAH’s heart, bury it, and make sure it never rises again” mantra.  

The comment gets a raise-the-roof response. 

“You just won the election,” Monmouth County Freeholder Lillian Burry tells the candidate.  

She’s standing behind him and facing the crowd along with other Republican elected officials, including state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Middletown), state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Red Bank), state Sen. Sean Kean (R-Wall), Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno, and Middletown Mayor Pam Brightbill.

In the Matawan Borough Council race, Republican Thomas Fitzsimmons and his running mate, Joseph Urbano, defeated their Democratic Party rivals. Fitzsimmons ran state Sen. Jennifer Beck's (R-Monmouth) victorious 2007 campaign over Ellen Karcher and remains a Republican Party Trenton insider and Beck confidante.

In Middletown, Republican Deputy Mayor Pam Brightbill and her running mate, Tony Fiore, defeated their Democratic Party rivals to maintain a Republican majority on the Township Committee.

In Wall Township, a ginned up McCain-Palin effort overseen by state Sen. Sean Kean (R-Monmouth) may have contributed to the loss of Democratic Mayor John Devlin. Republicans George Newberry and Ann Marie Conte defeated Devlin and his Democratic running mate Joseph Tonzola to strengthen GOP cntrol of the Towship Committee.  

In Monmouth County, every town comes intriguingly into play on some level, several more critically than others.

Republicans have owned the Freeholder Board for over 20 years, but in the last two elections Democrats picked up two seats to bring them to within one of county control.

A profusion of newly registered Democratic voters have boosted the party’s confidence heading into Nov. 4th, and now Democrats Amy Mallet and Glenn Mason are ready for that 11th hour jolt of cash from the Democratic State Committee.

State Party Chairman Joseph Cryan wants to win here.

He wants it more than he would like to pick up additional warm bodies in the Assembly next year, where his party’s already built a comfortable majority.

A victory by either Mallet or Mason would make a Democratic Party statement.  But neither is a name candidate running against incumbent Freeholder Director Lillian Burry and auto dealer vice president John Curley, an intensely focused campaigner who served as a Red Bank Councilman and has close political connections to state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth).

Deputy Mayor Pam Brightbill and fellow Republican candidate Tony Fiore: Politicker photo 

MIDDLETOWN - In his nightmares, Tony Fiore sees Democrats overrunning the landscape.

He grew up in Carteret, but the town changed with the population influx and the schools worsened, in his view, and government control shifted from Republican to Democrat, giving him Robert Menendez - of all people - as a congressman after redistricting.

Fiore ultimately re-entrenched beyond the border of Middlesex in that GOP-run county to the south - Monmouth, where he has lived for five years, and where he already fears his adopted home town is going the way of Carteret.

"You’ve seen an out-flux of people down here because their quality of life changed," said Fiore. "My town became more inner city, so my wife and I picked a place to live, and we picked Middletown. We don’t want it to turn into that. To tell you the truth, it keeps me up at night."