Sonny McCullough

Senator Sonny McCullough and Assembly candidates John Amodeo and Vince Polistina said today that, when elected, they will work as a team to direct the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority to undertake greater investment in infrastructure improvements in the immediate Atlantic County region rather than contribute millions of dollars to unrelated projects throughout the state.

Atlantic County Democratic Chairman Ron Ruff says that state Sen. Sonny McCullough is trying to take credit that he doesn’t deserve for property tax relief.

McCullough told the Atlantic City Press yesterday that he was “pleased that local and state officials have worked together to secure desperately needed, supplementary property-tax relief for three communities."

In one of the most competitive Senate contests in the state, CWA Local 1034 President Carla Katz is sticking with the Republican incumbent, Nicholas Asselta, the New Jersey AFL-CIO endorsed candidate. Katz attended a fundraiser for Asselta and GOP Assembly candidates Norris Clark and Michael Donohue yesterday, where she found an unlikely defender: conservative State Senator James "Sonny" McCullough. McCullough told the crowd that the Republican leadership is being too hard on Katz in their pursuit of private e-mails between her and Governor Jon Corzine, and that he was personally grateful for her loyalty to Asselta, who faces Democratic Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew in the fall.

The key battleground of the 2007 general election will be in Atlantic County, where two-term GOP County Executive Dennis Levinson faces a strong challenge from Democrat James McGettigan, the three-term Sheriff.

In the second legislative district, which includes nearly all of Atlantic County, State Senator James “Sonny” McCullough, a Republican who won a Special Election Convention to replace Bill Gormley in February, faces Democratic Assemblyman James Whelan, the former Mayor of Atlantic City.

There are two open Assembly seats in the second, where seven-term Republican Frank Blee, who lost the Senate race to McCullough and is now backing Whelan, is not seeking re-election. Republicans are running former Linwood City Councilman John Amodeo and Vincent Polistina, who runs an Egg Harbor Township engineering firm. The Democrats are Egg Harbor City Mayor Joseph Kuehner and former Claridge casino counsel Blondell Spellman.

Also at stake is control of the Atlantic County Board of Freeholders, where Republicans currently have a 5-4 majority. Two Democratic seats and one GOP seat are up this fall.

Joined by local religious and community leaders, Atlantic County Democratic Chairman Ronald Ruff says State Sen. Sonny McCullough should apologize for making a joke about a chinese couple and an African American baby.  McCullough told the joke to PoliticsNJ.com reporter Max Pizarro during an interview in Atlantic County last week.

Assemblyman Jim Whelan, the former Mayor of Atlantic City, is challenging incumbent Sonny McCullough for a State Senate seat the GOP has held since 1982

Put a bunch of Irish politicians in the same party and what you’ve got is an old Hudson County primary, but put them in opposing parties, add gambling, boxing and war-time middle class angst to the mix, and you’ll find them down in present day Atlantic County, throwing punches long before you ever have to tell them to come out swinging.

In this case it’s Senator James "Sonny" McCullough, the longtime mayor of Egg Harbor Township and a Republican, in a district 2 standoff with Assemblyman James Whelan, the former long serving mayor of Atlantic City and a Democrat.

Sonny McCullough won a special election convention for Bill Gormley's State Senate seat last February

"We build a brand new school every five years," says the 65-year old McCullough. "I tell my fellow mayors, ‘Every three years I build a neighborhood bigger than your whole town.’"

Whelan, 59, the ex-mayor of a city where the county’s most notorious industry is concentrated, has to demonstrate that he can step beyond the boundaries of Atlantic City and deliver pragmatic solutions to this tax burdened and still Republican-leaning region - even as he fights the tag of being a field hand for Camden County mega-boss George Norcross.

Just Resign, Sonny!  Democrats Blast McCullough's Hypocrisy on Dual Office Holding

(Linwood, NJ) – Second district Democrats blasted State Senator and Egg Harbor Township Mayor James "Sonny" McCullough (R-LD 2) for promoting an immediate ban on dual office holding while refusing to hold himself to that very same standard. Senator McCullough, who became a dual office-holder on February 20th, voted for a bill today that he claims didn't go far enough. McCullough continues to hold two offices himself, despite proposing a bill that calls for an immediate ban on the practice of dual office holding. 

Republicans say the Democrats have fashioned a weak-kneed bill that does away with dual office holding but for those elected officials currently in office.

To that the Democrats have an answer: Republican State Sen. (and Egg Harbor Township Mayor) James “Sonny” McCullough, who is in a battle in the 2nd district to hold onto a seat he filled earlier this year for retired Sen. Bill Gormley.

$50 Thousand for Baseball Tickets Wrong Priority for State Budget             Senator James J. McCullough, (R-2)  issued the following statement regarding certain additions to the state budget that are inconsistent with the Corzine Administration’s stated goal of setting priorities that would benefit the entire state rather than a few politically favored municipalities when preparing the state budget.

Son of a union printer and a teacher by trade, Democratic Assemblyman Jim Whelan Wednesday argued he should have AFL-CIO support based in part on his work as mayor of Atlantic City. A member of the General Assembly since last year, he didn’t receive the organization’s endorsement when he made his foray into the legislature.

"It bothered me, but I understand," said the state representative. "Now that Sen. Gormley has retired and Assemblyman Blee is not running, I offer myself as someone who has a progressive, pro labor record."