Seema Singh

Hamilton Township Councilman Tom Goodwin sent out a release today announcing he intends to seek re-election to the Hamilton Township Council in 2009, and therefore will not pursue another run for the Assembly in the 14th Legislative District. 

“It has been both flattering and humbling to have received sincere encouragement from present and former elected officials, state political leaders and so many friends and colleagues,” said Goodwin. “But four years ago we set out on a mission to improve Hamilton government and restore stability in our municipal business and that job is not yet completed. 

Goodwin ran on a Republican Assembly ticket with Jamesburg software engineer Adam Goodwin. Both men lost to the Democratic team of Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein (D-Monroe) and former Hamilton Councilman Wayne DeAngelo. At the top of the ticket, Goodwin and Bushman’s running mate, state Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Mercer) defeated former ratepayer advocate Seema Singh. 

Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow and Hunterdon County Freeholder Matthew Holt are both potential candidates for Leonard Lance's 23rd district State Senate seat

Assemblyman Michael Doherty seems to be playing out of the Bill Baroni playbook: Doherty is rapidly rolling out endorsements to scare the Assemblywoman from his district out of a race for an open State Senate seat.  Two weeks after Leonard Lance won a seat in Congress, the Doherty for Senate campaign is in high gear, and Marcia Karrow has a deer-in-headlights thing going on as she mulls her own chances to move up to the Senate. 

Karrow, according to Republican leaders that have spoken with her, believed her Hunterdon County base would propel her to victory in a special election convention where the voters as GOP County Committee members.  But Karrow is reportedly frightened to give up her Assembly seat and move up to the Senate, just to be taken out by Doherty in a Republican primary, where the conservative Warren County legislator might have an advantage.  If Karrow passes on the race (she may have to now that she's lost two crucial weeks in a short campaign -- Doherty is now the strong front runner to succeed Lance), it is because of her fear of being out of a job after just one year in the State Senate.

One possible miscalculation by Karrow: Doherty is a blinker who has already passed up a number of chances to run for higher office, including a primary challenge against Lance last year and a race for the U.S. Senate.  Had Karrow been the incumbent Senator, it's possible that Doherty would have blinked and not given up his Assemblys seat to run for Senator.

As Jeanne Fox prepares for her Senate confirmation hearings following her nomination to another term as President of the state Board of Public Utilities, it is interesting to note that her husband, Steve DeMicco, was the consultant on the 2007 campaigns against two Republicans who now serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee.  DeMicco worked for Ellen Karcher and Seema Singh, who lost to Jennifer Beck and Bill Baroni, respectively. 

Assemblyman Bill Baroni won big in the 14th district state Senate race, blowing out Democrat Seema Singh with 62% of the vote.  He won Hamilton Township with 76%.

But the politically competitive district remains split, with two Democrats capturing seats in the State Assembly.

Incumbent Linda Greenstein prevailed in her bid for a fifth term, and her running mate, labor leader Wayne DeAngelo, outpaced Baroni’s running mates, Tom Goodwin and Adam Bushman.  Greenstein received 28,172 votes; DeAngelo, 25,037; Goodwin, 24,245; and Bushman, 23,663.

Not a great cycle for Message & Media hotshots Steve DeMicco and Brad Lawrence: their two State Senate candidates got beaten – Ellen Karcher received 46% in District 12, and Seema Singh took just 37% in the fourteenth.

And now DeMicco and Lawrence have a bigger problem: their mail in the 37th district for Democrats Loretta Weinberg, Gordon Johnson and Valerie Huttle – the reformer pieces – seems to have really annoyed Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero. Does this but DeMicco and Lawrence in a war with the powerful Ferriero?

Elizabeth Meyers, campaign spokeswoman for state Senate candidate Seema Singh, Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, and Assembly candidate Wayne DeAngelo, goes over the ground game at Democratic Party HQ in Hamilton.

Republican mayoral candidate John Bencivengo peruses the town's financial assessment statement in Hamilton.

It’s all politics in Hamilton a day before Election Day as Republican mayoral candidate John Bencivengo climbs out of his sport utility vehicle and walks into the office of Council President Dave Kenny.

Kenny and the Republican Council have been fighting with Democratic Mayor Glen Gilmore over the town’s budget and pressuring the mayor through the courts to release details of Hamilton’s financial health before, and not after, the mayoral election.

Moments earlier, the appellate division of the state Superior Court upheld Kenny’s appeal, and denied Gilmore’s motion to issue a stay in the release of the town’s annual financial statement. Now Bencivengo watches as Kenny receives by fax the financial statement from Bowman and Company, the company charged with preparing the information.

District 13 Sen. Joseph Kyrillos huddles with Assemblyman Sam Thompson.Stumping throughout central Jersey on Sunday, Gov. Jon Corzine dismissed the recently formed Common Sense America as a closeted anti-gay group masquerading as a champion of fiscal conservatism.

In defiance of Fair and Clean Elections in the 14th district, the Princeton-based outfit has spent an estimated $450,000-worth of ads against Democratic Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein and by extension, her running mate, labor leader Wayne DeAngelo.

"It’s not going to end up having a major impact," said Corzine, with Greenstein, DeAngelo and state Senate candidate Seema Singh, at his side in Hamilton’s Golden Dawn Diner.

Governor Jon Corzine campaigned in the 14th district today in support of Democratic State Senate candidate Seema Singh -- unlike last week, when he practically endorsed Republican Bill Baroni on his way out of a Democratic breakfast he had attended with Singh.

The Trenton Times has endorsed Republican Bill Baroni for State Senate, Democratic Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein for a fifth term, and Republican Tom Goodwin for Baroni's open Assembly seat.  READ