More than 40 GOP County Committee members didn't show up to elect a new Senator

Marcia Karrow won a State Senate seat by 42 votes, 195-143, boosted by receiving 70% of the vote (125-54) in her home county of Hunterdon and by holding Michael Doherty to 56% (89-70) in his home county of Warren.

Voter turnout in Hunterdon was 86%; thirty Republican County Committee members from Hunterdon County did not show up to vote today.  GOP County Chairman Henry Kuhl told PolitickerNJ.com this week that there were three vacancies out of 212 seats.

Karrow's vote tally in Hunterdon (125) was nearly equal to the votes received by Kuhl (124) in his 2008 re-election bid.  But while Kuhl's opponent, Bloomsbury Mayor Mark Peck, received 78 votes, Doherty won just 54.
 
All but a few of the 181 County Committee seats in Warren were filled.  Today, 159 votes were cast from Warren County.  A Warren County Republican will need to do substantially better than Doherty's 19-vote margin in Warren County to win Karrow's Assembly seat in a special election convention.

Running unopposed in the 2007 Republican primary, Doherty ran 448 votes ahead of Karrow.  Doherty finished first in Warren County by 225 votes.

Following the retirement of Assemblywoman Connie Myers in 2005, six Republicans competed for the two District 23 Assembly seats.  Doherty, seeking his third term, was the top vote getter with 10,641 votes.  Karrow, a Hunterdon County Freeholder, was nominated for the second seat with 6,592 votes, beating Peck by 301 votes. 

Kuhl put three candidates on the Hunterdon line: Doherty, Karrow and Hunterdon County Freeholder Frank Fuzo.  Doherty received the most votes in Hunterdon, running 832 votes ahead of Karrow.  Karrow finished 50 votes ahead of Fuzo and 929 votes ahead of Peck in Hunterdon.  Warren County Freeholder John DiMaio finished fifth, and Washington Township Committeewoman Susan Wagner-Glaser came in last.

In 2003, Doherty and Myers faced a primary challenge from former Assembly Speaker Garabed "Chuck" Haytaian, who had left the Assembly eight years earlier and then served as Republican State Chairman.  Doherty received the most votes, 11,495, followed by Myers with 10,830 votes.  Haytaian lost his comeback bid, winning just 5,289 votes. 

Doherty won an Assembly seat on his second try in 2001, winning the open seat of Leonard Lance, who was running for State Senator. He beat Karrow 9,708 to 7,041, a margin of 2,667 votes.  Doherty challenged Lance and Myers in 1999 and lost.