April 8, 2009 - 8:03am
Inside Edge

Whitman seeks local office

After losing a convention for Somerset County Freeholder in 2007 and a congressional primary in 2008, former first daughter Kate Whitman seems poised to launch a career in public office this year.  She has become a candidate for Peapack-Gladstone Borough Councilwoman, running on the organization line in a three-way primary.  Whitman and incumbent Michael Seboria will face Kathy Howes, a local Zoning Board member.  The borough is reliably Republican - John McCain won by twenty percentage points last year - and a GOP nomination is tantamount to victory.

A Republican pundit says the run for municipal office is a good move for the 31-year-old former political operative, who once served as Communications Director for the Republican Party of New Hampshire.  When she ran for Congress, one of the gripes against Whitman was that she hadn't held local office.  And while the relatively small size of Peapack-Gladstone (pop. 2,480) may not offer Whitman much of a base, it will enable her to network among the county's local elected officials.  She'll get more press than most municipal officials from a town that size normally do. 

Whitman would not be the first Peapack-Gladstone resident to hold higher office: John Ewing was a Somerset County Freeholder from 1966 to 1968, an Assemblyman from 1968 to 1978, and a State Senator from 1978 to 1998.

Wally Edge can be reached via email at politicsnj@aol.com.