Tom Fitzsimmons

RED BANK - Monmouth County Democrats, eager to hold the 3-2 Freeholder majority they won last year after being out of power for two decades, seldom use the words "Gov. Jon Corzine" in their campaign literature.

Democrats know it's going to be tough to win this year as Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie tries to flex base Republican voters and suburban independents in his challenge of Corzine, whose focus is mostly elsewhere in Democratic strongholds like Essex, Hudson, Bergen, Union and Middlesex.
 
So Democrats here keep their focus on the Freeholder Board and build around their candidate, Middletown Committeeman Sean Byrnes.

"We had 23 years of Republican rule - we can't go backwards. They're doing everything they can to pull the plug on us," longtime Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vic Scudiery told a crowd of party members at a fundraiser here at the Downtown Wednesday night for Byrnes, the man Democrats see as their most important player on the field in Monmouth County this season.

It's Byrnes' face, not Corzine's that fronts the party's website in Monmouth.

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).

Chris Christie and Jon Corzine as The HoneymoonersRead PolitickerNJ.com's The Year in Review 2007, our annual lists of Winners & Losers of the Year, Politician of the Year, Best & Worst Campaigns, People to Watch, Rising Stars, and much more.

The list of Best Operatives of 2007 is headed by Raiyan Sayed, who managed Jim Whelan's Senate race, and Tom Fitzsimmons, who ran the campaigns of Jennifer Beck for State Senate and Caroline Casagrande and Declan O'Scanlon for Assembly.

Find out why Rodney Frelinghuysen is tougher than he looks, why Don DiFrancesco doesn't shock us, how Joe Roberts made the worst prediction of 2007, and what Jim Devine, Gerald Lange, Malik Cupid, Chris Daul and Chris Thieme have in common.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM POLITICKERNJ.COM

Tom Fitzsimmons becomes the first Republican campaign manager in ten years to oust an incumbent Democratic State Senator with Jennifer Beck’s defeat of Ellen Karcher. The last one was Michael DuHaime, who managed Anthony Bucco’s campaign against Gordon MacInnes in 1997. DuHaime is now the National Campaign Manager of Rudy Giuliani’s White House bid.

If it were a Lex Luthor-lookalike contest between the campaigns' respective leading men it would be difficult to pick a winner, but it is not that in the 12th district, though the chief handlers of two proud and competitive women here are not unaware of their own head-to-bald-head rivalry.

Tom Fitzsimmons, campaign manager for Republican Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck, likens the Democrats to the out-of-sorts and ultimately out-of-their-element Hessians on the eve of the Battle of Trenton. Mike Premo, campaign manager for Democratic Senator Ellen Karcher, chooses another metaphor - but he sticks with the military imagery.