Middlesex County Election Results: WOW!

At the gubernatorial level, Democrat counties voted Democrat, Republican counties voted Republican, but only in Middlesex County, (and in one small South Jersey county, perhaps one quarter of our size), did our Republican candidate, Governor-Elect Chris Christie, win in a Democrat County, carrying Middlesex County by several percentage points. In a major part, it was our work that made the difference. As those of you who have been reading this newsletter know, campaign phone calls were made, on an on-going basis, for our Republican team, at the MCRO headquarters in Woodbridge and in South Plainfield, etc. and we also had people walking. The Middlesex County statistics for just the last 5 days of the campaign: 54,474 phone calls made out of the headquarters and 13,117 doors knocked.

We handily re-elected Sam Thompson, (former MCRO chair), and Amy Handlin to the state assembly by about a 2-1 margin over their Democrat opponents. Joe Sinagra, in the 18th Legislative District - an all in Middlesex County district - got a better percentage vote than almost any other Republican challenger anywhere in the State of New Jersey, (closely followed by his running mate, Bob Jones), even with just a fraction of the resources spent in “targeted” districts. Some of the media called these great results “surprising” and, I would quess, some of those who made the targeting decisions may also have been surprised. It was no surprise to many of us here in Middlesex County. (I would note that this also happened in 2001 in the 18th Legislative District, where our untargeted Republican candidates for state senate and state assembly did better than all of the Republican legislative candidates in “targeted” districts.)

On a local level, we did better than we have done in at least 15 years. We elected 22 Republicans to local office in Middlesex County, which represents a gain of 15!!! Therefore, the number of Republicans in local elected office in Middlesex County will increase by almost 50% - from the low 30s to the high 40s.

This is the story:

In Cranbury, James Taylor was elected to a Democrat seat on the Township Committee, so that, come January, the Republicans will hold 2 of the 5 seats.

In Dunellen, the Republican administration continues to roll along - maintaining control - where Republican Councilmen Kenneth Baudendistel and Anthony Aversa were re-elected without opposition.

In East Brunswick, Republican Camille Ferraro was easily elected to the council - breaking up what had been an all Democrat council for several years. Since the seat Camille won was for an unexpired term, she will take office within the next week, as soon as the results are certified.

In Jamesburg, Republican GOP Chair, (and active Scouter), Greg Newton, was elected to the Council, breaking up a several year Democrat monopoly.

In Middlesex Borough, Robert Sherr was elected as Mayor, the first Republican Mayor there since 1972 and Jeff First and Michael Paff replaced two Democrats on the Council. (Mayor-Elect Sherr, elected to a 3 year unexpired term, will take office later this month after the results are certified.) The Republicans will now have the Mayoralty and a majority on the Council by 4 to 2 margin. Middlesex was a municipality where a short few years ago we didn't even have a municipal chair!

In Milltown, where for a number of years, many of the victories - or losses - were by paper thin margins, Republicans Robert Owens and Gary Holsten were elected to the Council by comfortable margins, keeping the seats Republican and maintaining Republican mayoral and council control.

In Monroe, Republican Mike Leibowitz defeated an incumbent Democrat, breaking the monopoly the Democrats had on the Council for around 20+ years.

In Old Bridge, Republicans Richard Greene and Lucille Panos were re-elected to the Council from their respective wards and Republican Mary Sohor beat an incumbent Democrat for a seat on the Council, which gives the Republicans 4 seats on the 9 member council. As another example of how true the statement is that every vote counts, Republican Debbie Walker lost her ward race against an incumbent Democrat by a small double-digit margin. A change in only a few votes in each district in her ward would have also elected her - which would have given the Republicans control of the Old Bridge Council for the first time in many years.

In Sayreville, Republicans Frank Bella and Nicholas Perrette will replace 2 Democrats on the Council, so that the Republicans will have a Republican Mayor and 5 to 1 Republican Council.

In South Brunswick, Republican John O'Sullivan broke the Democrat monopoly on the Council. Since John was elected to an unexpired term, he will also take office this month after the results are certified.

In South Plainfield, Matthew Anesh and Robert Bengivenga, Jr. replaced two Democrats on the Council - coming back after their loss in the Obama landslide last year, bringing back Republican control to the Council by 4 to 2 majority.

In South River, Republican John Trzeciak was re-elected and Republican GOP Chair, (and Eagle Scout), John Krenzel, defeated a Democrat to return to the Council after his loss last year. South River will have a Republican Mayor and a 4-2 Republican Council majority.

In Woodbridge, Democrat Councilman Bob Luban, who switched to Republican in the spring, was re-elected in his ward, to the Woodbridge Council as a Republican.

Congratulations to all our winners and condolences to all of our Republican candidates who did not win. Thank you for carrying the Republican banner in this election.

HOLT TOWN MEETING

I am advised that Congressman Rush Holt, who presently holds the New Jersey's 12th Congressional District seat - which includes about half of Middlesex County, is holding a Town Meeting on Thursday, November 12th from 7:00 - 8:30 pm at the Grover Middle School, 10 Southfield Road, West Windsor, NJ 08550. This would be an excellent time to give him your positions on Health Care “Reform”, etc.

CHARLIE DOWD - R.I.P.

Charlie Dowd, long-time active Edison Republican who served as GOP chair of Edison from 1979-1981 recently passed away. Our deepest sympathies to his wife Pat and the rest of his family. Condolence messages may be sent through the funeral home website at www.flynnfuneral.com.

ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE WOODBRIDGE TOWNSHIP REPUBLICAN ORGANIZATION

Woodbridge GOP Chair John Vrtaric has requested that I include the following announcement in my e-mail newsletter:

“The Woodbridge Township Republican Organization (WTRO) wishes to advise all Middlesex County Republicans that a rogue website run by a lone individual operating under the name woodbridgegop.net is NOT in any way associated with the WTRO. The views expressed therein have NEVER been approved by either the WTRO membership or the WTRO Executive Board. The site is an unreliable source for any information regarding Republicans in Woodbridge Township or Middlesex County. Questions or comments may be addressed to John Vrtaric, WTRO Chair, jvrtaric@gmail.com”

MORE ELECTION QUOTES…

* I must say the Senator's victory in Wisconsin was a triumph for democracy. It proves that a millionaire has just as good a chance as anyone else. (Bob Hope)

* Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book. (Ronald Reagan)

* If Governor Fields is right, I am going to stand by him because he is right. If he is wrong, I am going to stand by him because he is a Democrat. (Augustus O. Stanley)

* If you can't convince them, confuse them. (Harry Truman)

* In Washington, a man gets up to speak and doesn't say a thing, and the other men disagree with him for three hours. (Milton Berle)

* One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. (Plato)

* As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing. (Karl Rove)

NOTE REGARDING COMCAST.NET

The last two newsletters I sent out had an unusually disproportionate number of bounce backs from “Comcast.net” e-mail addresses. If you know someone who has been getting my newsletters and didn't get the one or two I sent out during the immediate pre-election period, have him or her do whatever he or she needs to do with their internet service provider to make sure my e-mails get through to them.

BUY POPCORN AND HELP THE BOY SCOUTS

Since you are probably going to be buying presents for the holidays or for other reasons, I would like you to consider buying popcorn and support the scouts at the same time. You can now buy on line by visiting www.orderpopcorn.com and when the home page comes up, there is a space that reads “Enter Order Key.” In that space please enter TEV4T3E. This is my special order key that allows the tracking of the sales generated from my efforts. This will take you to a new page where you can purchase all varieties and types of popcorn and other edibles, such as Trail Mix, Chocolatey Crunch, etc.). If you forget my order key number, you can shop without a key. Just make sure that when you select a council to receive credit, you select “NJ” and then: “Monmouth Junct: Central New Jersey Council.” (The Central New Jersey Council includes most or all of Middlesex, Mercer and Hunterdon Counties, and small portions of Somerset and other adjacent counties.)

UPDATED CALENDAR

What follows is an updated calendar. If you have any municipal or countywide fundraisers or functions you would like me to include in my e-mail calendar from time to time, please contact me at dkatzlaw@aol.com. Please note that organizations and campaigns sometime provide added information, change dates or cancel events, which information I include in this calendar if I receive the information in time. Therefore, if you plan to attend an event, please make sure you review the calendar listing in my latest e-mail and, to the extent you may not have pre-registered for the particular event so the sponsoring group will be able to contact you about any changes, you may want to check with the sponsoring group before you go, to make sure the information has not changed.

November 19 (Thursday 7:30 pm) - Middlesex County Republican Women's Club. Joint meeting with the Monroe Republican Club - Garvey's Restaurant, 405 Spotswood Gravel Hill Road, Monroe. Speaker: political analyst, Debbie Walsh, Director of the Center for American Women and Politics of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers and our fabulous patriotic boutique including new items from the Reagan Library.

November 19 (Thursday 7:30 pm) - New Jersey Conservative GOP Meeting, Hopelawn VFW, 113 James Street, Hopelawn (Woodbridge Township) 08861. Please use entrance in the back parking lot. We will have a discussion of New Jersey's conservative movement post election. For further information contact: 732-596-2116 or njcgop@aol.com.

December 6 (Sunday 5:00 - 8:00 pm) - East Brunswick GOP Holiday Party, VFW, Cranbury Road, East Brunswick (Further details added when available.)

December 12 (Saturday 10:00 am) - Conservative Leadership Breakfast and Holiday Celebration sponsored by Conservatives with Attitude. Omega Diner, 1337 Route 1 South, North Brunswick. Registration is $10.00 if paid in advance or $12.00 at the door if space is available. For more information: michael@gopusanj.com.

Please forward this information to any Middlesex County Republican, or other individual, who you think might be interested in seeing it. Further, if you know of any Middlesex County Republican who would like to receive periodic e-mail reports about NJ Republican State Committee meetings and other information I believe might be interesting or useful, please have them send me, Donald Katz, an e-mail to dkatzlaw@aol.com, and I will add them to my e-mail list. By the same token, if you ever want to be removed from my e-mail list, send me an e-mail and I will remove you.

Donald Katz, Esq.
Republican State Committeeman - Middlesex County and Counsel
Middlesex County Republican Organization
dkatzlaw@aol.com