August 3, 2009 - 7:50am
Inside Edge

Gove emerges as 9th district Assembly candidate

There is some speculation that the leading candidate to replace Daniel Van Pelt (R-Ocean) in the ninth district State Assembly seat is DiAnne Gove, a Long Beach Commissioner and former Mayor.  Van Pelt resigned on Friday, a little more than a week after he was arrested on federal corruption charges.  There is really only one voter in this race: Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore. Gilmore will need to call a special election convention sometime between August 7 and September 4.  The timing is not critical; the new legislator is not likely to get sworn in before the Assembly goes back into session after the November election.

Gove was mentioned as a possible Assembly candidate in 2007, when Van Pelt received the endorsement of the Ocean County Republican organization for an open seat.

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