We did it! Congratulations to all of you who worked tirelessly through the past few months to help bring about a Republican statewide win. Not only did Chris Christie capture the Governor’s office, but dozens of our endorsed local candidates exceeded expectations throughout the state. Building the New Majority endorsed and supported sixty-one candidates for Assembly, Freeholder, Mayor, Committee and Council. On Tuesday, Thirty-three of those candidates were elected by the voters! Perhaps the best news is that twenty of the winners were NOT incumbents.
Here’s the link to the detailed results:
Of course the real winners are the dozens of communities across the state that moved toward more limited, ethical and responsible government.
The freeholder board in Monmouth County is back in good hands with a solid victory by John Curley. Montgomery Township in Somerset County is also back because of the excellent campaign run by Thom Carter and Mark Caliguire. Dan Lockwood became the first Republican in 40 years to win a Committee seat in Middle Township, Cape May County. And the legislature now has several new members fighting to get our economy moving and reduce the size of government, Assembly member-elect Tony Bucco in the 25th; Bob Schroeder in the 39th; and John Dimaio and Erik Peterson in the 23rd who join newly elected state Senator, Mike Doherty representing Warren and Hunterdon County.
In Bergen County, despite coming up a bit short in the statewide count, chairman Bob Yudin helped lead a resurgence of the party, capturing freeholder seats and seeing many of our local candidates to victory. Paul Cordts and Johnny Porco in River Edge and Alan Brundage and Michael Rohdieck in Paramus surged to victory and helped push up the vote totals helping the freeholders win and helping Chris Christie keep the margins close. In Morris Township, Morris County, we got two seats back on the Committee thanks to the tireless efforts of two great campaigners, Bruce Sisler and Scott Rosenbush.
Congratulations to Jay Taylor who won a seat on the Cranbury, Middlesex County committee. He ran a great race with his running mate, Dan Mulligan. And to the four winners in Galloway, Atlantic County where county chairman Keith Davis helped lead a focused campaign resulting in Dennis Kleiner, Don Purdy, Whitney Ullman and Tom Bassford being elected to the Council.
In some areas we lost, but the margins were closer than anyone could have predicted. Our friend Frank Vitolo lost his bid for a council seat in Morristown, Morris County by on 56 votes. And Tim Matthews lost his race for Committee in East Amwell, Hunterdon County by only 53 votes! Even in Essex County, where chairman and State Senator Kevin O’Toole had his work cut out, we were successful taking our message to the inner city. Although our endorsed candidate for Register, Terriann Moore-Abrahms fell short, she ran a great grassroots campaign that will serve as a base for future elections in the area. Also in Essex, We’re also proud of the job done by Barry Funt and Mark Meyerwitz as they fought hard in a very tough race in the 27th.
Marty Marks and his running mate Bo Vastine came closer than expected to winning seats in the 22nd district covering parts of Union County as did Joe Sinagra and Bob Jones in the 18th.
In Mercer County, chairman Roy Wesley and his team helped turn out Republican voters that kept the Democrats fighting in areas they formerly took for granted. Werner Graf and Kim Taylor ran a particularly good campaign for Assembly, and although they didn’t win, they too established a strong grassroots presence that will help us as we turn our focus to the future. Cindy Randazzo, Russ Wojtenko and Shirley Guerieri also ran an outstanding race for freeholder despite overwhelming odds against them.
Many of our incumbent friends also got re-elected and will continue to serve their constituents in the honorable and effective manner that got them the job in the first place. Congratulations to Dave Rible and Mary Pat Angelini who were re-elected to the Assembly in the 11th district in Monmouth County and to Jay Webber in Morris County who also serves as our State Party chairman.
Congratulations to new Council member Toni Marie Angelini who was elected handily in Matawan, Monmouth County and Rich Green in Old Bridge, Middlesex County, who won with a whopping 65% of the vote! Scott Smith also surged to victory in Upper Deerfield, Cumberland County. And our endorsed candidates in Raritan, Hunterdon County, John King & Rich O’Malley and Raritan, Somerset County, Greg Lobell and Stefanie Gara also won impressive victories.
Thanks to the great race run in Deptford Township, Gloucester County by Jim Capone, Barbara Gallagher, Jay Madera and Jon Mangel we’ve got a base to build on for the next cycle. Same goes for Mary Chyb and Jordan Rickards who earned 46% and 45% respectively in a race in North Brunswick where no one expected them to break the 30% mark. Middlesex County Chairman Joe Leo and Municipal Chairman Tom O’Neill played a big role in that success.
We know that Mike Donohue and John McCann, who fell just short of an upset in the 1st district, will be a part of the GOP future for years to come after the thoughtful, hard-hitting campaign they conducted. Same goes for Dan Marley in Lambertville and for Rick Miller and Ginny Bigley in Lawrence Township who also fell just a couple points shy of victory.
Thanks again for all that you do to help build the party and support your community. Together we made a strong first step toward restoring responsible and limited government to the Garden State. Our next mission is to help elect thoughtful, responsible candidates to school boards across New Jersey in the spring of 2010. Beyond that we’ll be focused on the mid-term elections and the state senate elections in 2011 where we hope to gain momentum going into the next statewide contest in 2012. Stay Informed by following us on Facebook www.facebook.com/billspadea
See you at the inauguration…