Rick Merkt

Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Township) at home

MORRIS TOWNSHIP -- Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Township) is not the type of candidate to scurry around his district trying to squeeze out possible last minute votes.  Instead, he is spending the day painting his living room and taking his kids to a firing range. 

"Today there's really nothing much I can do.  In Morris County all the votes that I think can be gotten out already have been gotten out," said Carroll, an attorney, from the home he also uses as his law office. 

Motivating Republican voters in Morris County - the home of their gubernatorial candidate, Chris Christie - is not hard this year.  And Carroll, who sits in a relatively safe Republican district, is not expected to be defeated by Democrats Rebekah Conroy and Wendy Wright. 

That is not to say that Carroll has never faced competition.  After his district-mate, Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham), decided not to seek reelection, Carroll found himself caught up in a three-way primary with Anthony Bucco, Jr. and Freeholder Doug Cabana.

With New Jersey teetering on the brink of insolvency and already unable to pay its bills without shorting public pension funds, it is hard to believe that anyone could advocate that the State borrow yet another $400 million.  Yet this is precisely what is happening, so allow me to present, in brief, the case for voting against the proposed bond issue.

First, the State of New Jersey has already issued roughly $40 billion in state-authorized debt (most of it, by the way, without voter approval).  But $40 billion is not what the people of our state will have to pay; it is just the "principal" sum.  Factor in the interest costs over the life of the bonds, and the real payback figure is more like $70 billion.

The story of the day on Tuesday was not as much a new Quinnipiac University poll showing Christopher Christie with a nine-point lead over Jon Corzine in the race for governor, but rather the House Judiciary Committee's release of Karl Rove's testimony.   While Rove says that Christie never discussed his duties as U.S. Attorney, the two did chat about the 2009 campaign for governor.  The Corzine campaign is almost sure to turn Rove's interest in New Jersey politics into a TV ad that continues to tie Christie to George W. Bush, as they have with a mega million dollar federal monitor contract Christie gave to former Attorney General John Ashcroft.   And Rove's testimony is likely to fuel allegations by Democrats that he launched his statewide campaign from the Department of Justice.  Watch Democrats to renew their interest in statements made by Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham) over an incident last summer, when other Republicans tried to push him out of the gubernatorial race.

Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Steven Lonegan reaffirmed his support for GOP nominee Christopher Christie in an email to supporters today, but under the condition that Christie sticks to the conservative principles he professed in the primary.

"Our nominee for Governor has openly embraced conservatism and if he continues on that path, all of us should work hard for his election," wrote Lonegan.  "As the Republican nominee Chris Christie will also have to maintain his positions on the issues that convinced many Republicans he was a conservative, and convince many in the GOP establishment to go with him."

Christie beat Lonegan by 13 points in last week's primary - 55% to 42%.  Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham) received 3% of the vote.

"You have moved your party to the right," Lonegan wrote to his supporters.

The Republican gubernatorial primary is over, but Democrats apparently have no intention of letting fade away the accusation by former candidate Rick Merkt that a friend and advisor of newly minted Republican nominee Chris Christie tried to buy him out of the gubernatorial race.

Assembly members Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton) and Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Englewood) today again called on Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra to investigate whether John Inglesino, a former Morris County freeholder, offered Merkt, an assemblyman from Christie's home town of Mendham, a plum position on the campaign and in a future Christie administration if he dropped his plans to run for governor.

"Three weeks ago, Assemblyman Gusciora and I called on law enforcement to investigate a report of impropriety and see if the law had been broken," said Huttle.  "The politicking of the primary election is now behind us, but the specter of corruption remains. Now is the time to determine if, and to what extent an illegal act took place.  Now that the election is over we need to get to the bottom of this."

Merkt wound up getting a miniscule portion of the vote in Tuesday's primary, although his impact on the race was not clear when he announced his intention to run late in the summer.

More New Jerseyans wanted Jeff Boss, who claims to have witnessed the U.S. government planning the 9/11 terrorist attack, as the Governor than Rick Merkt, a seven-term Republican Assemblyman from Morris County.  Boss received 15,981 votes (8%) in the Democratic primary, while Merkt won 9,018 (3%) in the GOP primary.  There's a strong chance that many of Boss' votes were cast by Democrats looking to send a message to his chief opponent, but there won't be an asterisk in the Fitzgerald's red book offering an explanation.

Republicans will nominate a candidate for Governor today, with former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, former Bogota Mayor Steven Lonegan, and Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham) seeking the chance to run against Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine.

Corzine has three primary opponents: former Glen Ridge Mayor Carl Bergmanson, Roger Bacon, and Jeff Boss, who claims to have witnessed the U.S. government planning the 9/11 terrorist attack.

In District 23, Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan) faces a GOP primary challenge from Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Oxford).  Three candidates are seeking two Assembly seats: incumbent John DiMaio (R-Hackettstown), Hunterdon County Freeholder Erik Peterson, and Edward Smith, Doherty's Chief of Staff.

In the Morris County-based 25th district, where Merkt is giving up his seat to run for Governor, three candidates are seeking the Republican nod for a pair of Assembly seats: incumbent Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Twp.), Morris County Freeholder Douglas Cabana,  and Anthony Bucco, Jr., the son of four-term State Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Boonton).

Former Assemblyman Craig Stanley (D-Irvington), who lost his seat by 127 votes in the 2007 Democratic primary, is seeking a comeback in the Essex County-based 28th district.  He is challenging incumbents Ralph Caputo (D-Belleville) and Cleopatra Tucker (D-Newark).

In District 40, which includes parts of Bergen, Essex and Passaic counties, incumbents David Russo (R-Ridgewood) and Scott Rumana (R-Wayne) face primary challenges from Joseph Caruso and Anthony Rottino. 

In the 3rd district, which includes parts of Gloucester, Cumberland and Salem counties, Republicans will pick two candidates to challenge Democratic incumbents John Burzichelli (D-Paulsboro) and Celeste Riley (D-Bridgeton).

Democratic mayors face primary challenges in Edison, , Morristown,  Atlantic City, Plainfield, and East Orange. 

GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan says his own campaign polling shows him trailing Christopher Christie by just four percentage points

In a radio interview tonight, gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan called a Fairleigh Dickinson Poll that showed him trailing rival Chris Christie by 24 points in the Republican primary "retarded."

The poll was brought up by NJ 101.5 "Jersey Guys" host Casey Bartholomew, who used it to argue his point that Lonegan was unelectable.  When he heard Lonegan use the term "retarded", he checked to make sure he heard correctly.

"I said just that: retarded Fairleigh Dickinson poll," said Lonegan.

Fairleigh Dickinson pollster Peter Woolley, for his part, did not take offense at the comments.

"I have a great deal of respect for Mayor Lonegan, and not least of all because he is an alumnus of Fairleigh Dickinson University," he said.  "I wish him the best of fortune."

But on March 31, one of Lonegan's core supporters, conservative activist and blogger Michael Illions, posted a quick note on Conservatives with Attitude asking readers to be aware of the harm that can come from the derogatory use of the word "retard."

"Most people don't think of this word as hate speech, but that's exactly what it feels like to millions of people with intellectual disabilities, their families and friends," wrote Illions, who became an advocate for the disabled after his own son was diagnosed with hydrocephalus.  "Using ‘retard' as a term of derision is just as cruel and offensive as any other slur."

Lonegan's appearance on the show tonight was notable in light of Friday's tense exchange between Bartholomew and Christie.  Bartholomew told Christie that he could not trust him because he would not remove his friend and advisor, John Inglesino, from the campaign over his $3,000 a year job with state Sen. Joe Pennacchio (R-Montville), which kept Inglesino in the pension system after he lost reelection as a Morris County freeholder.

In the Morris County-based 25th district, Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Township), Freeholder Douglas Cabana, and Anthony Bucco, Jr., the son of a popular State Senator, are seeking the GOP nod for two Assembly seats.  Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham) is giving up his seat to seek the Republican nomination for Governor.

Carroll, one of the most conservative members of the Legislature, was first elected in 1995.  Carroll and then-Assemblyman (now State Senator) Anthony Bucco defeated Merkt and then-Morris County Freeholder Christopher Christie in the GOP primary.  Carroll has never been much of a fundraiser and doesn't always enjoy establishment political support, but his base has carried him through in Republican primaries.  Carroll won by 1,923 votes when Cabana challenged him in the 2003 primary.