Tom Goodwin

HAMILTON -- Mercer County Republicans endorsed restaurant owner Rob Calabro as their candidate in the 14th Legislative District at their convention tonight.

Calabro, a Hamilton resident who ran unsuccessfully for freeholder in 2007, did not attend tonight’s event, opting instead to stay home with his pregnant wife and two young children.  He was nominated by Hamilton Republican Municipal Chairman Frank Ragazzo and introduced by state Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Mercer).  He fills the spot in which Republicans hoped to have Hamilton Council President Kelly Yaede, who flirted with a run but decided against it, leaving the local GOP scrambling to find a suitable replacement.  

Calabro’s name was the only one entered for the party’s endorsement to run against incumbents Wayne DeAngelo (D-Mercer) and Linda Greenstein (D-Middlesex).

Baroni said that Calabro, who owns Porfirio’s Market and Café, will not merely be a placeholder until the party can find someone higher profile. 

Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan is confident he'll keep his matching funds as he pursues the Republican nomination for Governor.

Without commentary on the merits of an issue that threatens the public financing of Steve Lonegan's campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, one thing is an absolute certainty: if the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission were to rule that he was ineligible for matching funds - and if the courts were to back up the decision - it could mean the end of the Lonegan campaign.  Lonegan's strategy is dependent upon public financing that gives him $2 for every $1 he raises.

The ELEC investigation is the result of an Associated Press story that suggests the former Bogota Mayor was obligated to disclose the details of his relationship with Americans for Prosperity, an anti-tax lobbying group for whom he served as New Jersey Director.  State law requires candidates to disclose their connection to issue advocacy groups to avoid a conflict, such as avoiding spending limits that come with the public financing of gubernatorial elections.

The Lonegan campaign maintains that the candidate could not disclose AFP contributions, since he did not have access to their donor list.  And they say that AFP was created and organized more than seven years ago, before Lonegan was involved.

There is good news and bad news for Lonegan when it comes to ELEC.  It's helpful that the commission traditionally lacks extraordinary testicular fortitude. But it's potentially hurtful that the panel is hard to predict.  In 2001, they allowed former U.S. Rep. Bob Franks to simply take over the campaign treasury of Gov. Donald DiFrancesco when he replaced him on the ballot, and then allowed Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler to change his mind and accept public financing.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie, left, is greeted in the Golden Dawn by owner Chris Kurnellas.

HAMILTON – The floorboards of the Golden Dawn Diner are worn with the scuffling soles of many a politician on the move in Mercer County, and some of them are here today as a black bus with the words “Strong Leadership Now” emblazoned on its side, pulls into the parking lot and GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie descends to street level amid a wave of cheers. 

“He’s the right man at the right time,” Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo says in the glass-enclosed entranceway. “He’s tough, and he knows government.” 

Christie has his family with him as he plunges into a hoard of cameras and reporters intermingled with well-wishers and he drags them all with him as he trots up the diner’s front steps hearing the other cries come louder now from the sign-shaking Laborers International Union of North America protesters on Mercerville-Whitehorse Road: “Christie equals Bush! Christie equals Bush! Christie equals Bush!”

Republicans in the 14th  Legislative District will have to pull together a slate of challengers without former Mercer County GOP Chair Cathy Tramontana, the niece of former Hamilton Mayor Jack Rafferty. 

“I’m absolutely not running for the Assembly,” Tramontana, the Director of Health and Recreation in Hamilton Township,  told PolitickerNJ.com. 

Hamilton Township Councilman Tom Goodwin and Ewing businessman Adam Bushman have already said they don’t intend to run again against Assemblyman Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro) and Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton).

Hamilton Township Councilman Tom Goodwin sent out a release today announcing he intends to seek re-election to the Hamilton Township Council in 2009, and therefore will not pursue another run for the Assembly in the 14th Legislative District. 

“It has been both flattering and humbling to have received sincere encouragement from present and former elected officials, state political leaders and so many friends and colleagues,” said Goodwin. “But four years ago we set out on a mission to improve Hamilton government and restore stability in our municipal business and that job is not yet completed. 

Goodwin ran on a Republican Assembly ticket with Jamesburg software engineer Adam Goodwin. Both men lost to the Democratic team of Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein (D-Monroe) and former Hamilton Councilman Wayne DeAngelo. At the top of the ticket, Goodwin and Bushman’s running mate, state Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Mercer) defeated former ratepayer advocate Seema Singh. 

Beaten last year in the 14th District Assembly race, Jamesburg software engineer Adam Bushman told PolitickerNJ.com that he is very likely to sit out a 2009 challenge of Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein (D-Monroe) and Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton).

“I don’t think it’s going to happen,” said Bushman, who ran on a Republican ticket with state Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Mercer) and Hamilton Councilman Tom Goodwin in one of the state’s Clean Elections districts, in which candidates raised $10 per donor to qualify for the same amount of state money.

“I’m going to focus on finishing my PhD (in IT management) at this point,” said the former candidate, who has young children.

Hamilton Township Web site

Hamilton Councilman Tom Goodwin, who just narrowly lost a bid for the State Assembly in 2007, says he's considering running again next year

Hamilton Councilman Tom Goodwin, having narrowly lost his assembly race last year to Democrat Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton), has not ruled out another run next year.

“I would have to sit down and analyze the situation now and going forward. I haven’t made up my mind yes or no,” said Goodwin. “I have to sit down and think about it. So right now I don’t have any decision.”

District 14, which encompasses the Trenton suburbs and is dominated by the working-class swing town of Hamilton, is one of the few split districts in the state, with Bill Baroni (R-Hamilton) in the state senate and DeAngelo and Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro) in the assembly. It is likely to be one of the top Republican targets in next year’s assembly election, although Greenstein, a long-time incumbent, appears a lot less vulnerable than the first-term DeAngelo.

Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) knows that Republicans have him in their sights for next year, but says that this time is different: he’s a known commodity.

“Being in District 14 and in Hamilton Township where politics is very much independent minded individuals, I expect all races to be close,” he said. 

Close, but not like last year, when DeAngelo edged out Republican Tom Goodwin by about 700 votes, while his entrenched running mate, Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro), ran 3,000 votes ahead of him. 

Two Republicans on the Hamilton Township Council are expressing interest in running for the State Assembly in 2009, creating a potential fight between Tom Goodwin and Kelly Yaede for the support of the GOP organization in the fourteenth district. The two want to challenge incumbents Linda Greenstein and Wayne DeAngelo.

Hamilton Mayor John BencivengoStrengthened by what he described as a "shared vision with my people, a cause to be accomplished and a dream come true," John Bencivengo officially became mayor of Hamilton today as he was sworn in by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith in the ballroom of the Nottingham Firehouse in front of a crowd of 350 people.

"I wish that I could have given a more cheerful address today," said Bencivengo in a nod to the town’s $10 million budget deficit. "But even if our fiscal circumstances had been better, even if we had ample surplus, I’d be saying the same things. It should be our goal, no matter the circumstances, to do more with less."

The former Republican Party municipal chairman and fired government worker ran and won on a platform of restoring common sense and accountability to government. Today Bencivengo swore always to remember that working families fund the town, and promised to present the 2009 budget on time in July.

He made the second of these vows in defiance of the record of his predecessor, Glen Gilmore, who sat on the document last year until a judge ruled he had to release it to the Township Council prior to the November election. The release of the 2008 budget, which initially showed a $5 million shortfall, helped propel the Republican Bencivengo to victory over Gilmore by fewer than 500 votes.