Josh Welle and Amber Gesslein could run for the Dem nominations for Assembly in LD 13 next year.
Assemblywoman Amy Handlin’s announcement that she will not seek reelection next year inevitably creates speculation on who will run to replace her. While party leaders on both sides of the aisle would rather their troops stay focused on the election coming up next month, the jockeying has started given how infrequently a vacancy occurs in the 13th district.
Democrats, who normally lose badly in the district will likely have a contest for the two Assembly nominations next year, given Handlin’s vacancy and Serena DiMaso serving her freshman term. DiMaso put something of a target on her back with the Dems when she made a robocall criticizing LD 11 Assemblymembers Eric Hougtaling and Joann Downey for voting for Governor Murphy’s tax increases. Houghtaling and Downey responded to DiMaso’s robocall with an ethics complaint.
With the Assembly on top of the ballot next year, Dems will likely be motivated and funded, even in LD 13.
Potential Democrat Candidates for LD 13 Assembly in 2019 who are running for other offices this year:
State Senator Vin Gopal last week withdrew his support for Teddy Price, 58, a Democrat candidate for Ocean County Freeholder, ostensibly because of Price’s arrest record for alcohol fueled youthful indiscretions 37 years ago.
In a conveniently leaked letter to Ocean County Democrat Chairman Wyatt Earp, Senator Gopal asked that the $10,000 donation he made to the Ocean Dem coffers not be used for Price’s freeholder campaign because Price was arrested twice in 1981. The way Gopal tells the story, the charges against Price were pretty serious. “Mr. Price’s criminal history is deeply disturbing,” Gopal wrote. Assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest, interfering with and fighting with police were the charges Gopal mentioned in his letter to Earp.
Democratic Freeholder Candidate Lawrence Luttrell at the 2014 Four Seasons debate in Manalapan. photo by Rhoda Chodosh
Larry ‘The Lunger’ Luttrell , a Democrat lawyer from Holmdel, is running for Monmouth County Freeholder for the third time, according to report at InsiderNJ.
Luttrell earned the moniker TheLunger as a freeholder candidate in 2014. During a debate at the Four Seasons Club House in Manalapan, Luttrell jumped from his seat and lunged towards Freeholder Lillian Burry when she asked him, “Is your name Pinocchio?” in response to a comment he made distorting her record.
This year maybe we’ll call Luttrell The Masochist because he apparently likes to be beaten. In addition to losing his freeholder race to Burry in 2014, he lost to Serena DiMaso in 2013. He lost a bid to be elected to the Holmdel Township Committee in 2012 and again last year.
Kim Guadagno will be elected the 56th Governor of New Jersey by less than 2000 votes.
The Associated Press will not call the NJ gubernatorial race until Thursday due to the failure of the vote reporting systems in Essex, Hudson, Camden and Middlesex counties which will prevent the vote from being counted. CNN and NJ.com will report rumors that the New Jersey election was hacked by the Russians.
Steve Sweeney will survive the millions spent against his reelection by the NJEA. The teachers’ union will lose considerable influence in Trenton and its membership will revolt against leadership and reform the association. Guadagno and Sweeney will have a stronger and more effective reform agenda than Christie and Sweeney had during the first Christie’s term. Read the rest of this entry »
When we last heard from Lawrence “The Lunger” Luttrell, the three time election loser, was scurrying into obscurity while threatening to sue the Monmouth County Republican Committee for a radio ad that claimed his law license was “suspended” when in fact he had been ruled ineligible to practice law.
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To our knowledge, no one has actually investigated whether or not Luttrell actually practiced law during his ineligibility. He claimed he was unaware that he had been ruled ineligible, so maybe he did perform legal work when he was not legally authorized to do so. That would be a problem.
Now, nearly a year later, Luttrell has resurfaced in an apparent attempt to keep the voters of Marlboro in the dark about Councilwoman Randi Marder’s ethics violations and worse, the waste of $16,000 of Marlboro tax dollars that Mayor Jon Hornik and the Marlboro Township Council authorized to be spent in legal fees to appeal the New Jersey Local Finance Board’s findings that Marder committed eight ethical violations associated with the Township doing business with her husband’s companies.
This morning we gave you the winners from the Battle for Monmouth. Without further adieu, the losers:
Vin Gopal. Underneath that boyish smile and pleasant demeanor is a nasty, dirty, ruthless political operative. The Monmouth Democratic Chairman showed his true colors in 2013 with his defamatory allegations against Sean DiSomma in the Red Bank Council race. Give him several hundred thousand dollars, which the NJ Democrats did this year, and he tries to destroy the good names of distinguished public servants simply because they hold offices he wants. Monmouth Republicans, particularly some in the legislative delegation, who are friendly with Gopal should reconsider their judgement about him. It no longer can be said that Vin is a wolf in sheeps clothing. He’s a wolf.
The NJ Democratic State Committee, Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin, Senator Cory Booker, Assemblyman Joe Cryan, various labor unions and anyone else who gave Gopal money. They got nothing for it.
The Asbury Park Press. Neptune Nudniks is no longer an appropriate moniker for them. They are not stupid or incompetent as “nudnik” implies. They are dishonest and lazy. Their coverage of the Monmouth County Freeholders race was spoon fed or edited by Gopal and his candidates Larry Luttrell and Giuseppe “Joe” Grillo. Gopal, Luttrell and Grillo used APP to counter MMM’s coverage of the race, which we find hilarious and complimentary. It didn’t work because APP no longer has influence in Monmouth County.
Their election night coverage was a disaster. While APP was reporting on software problems at the Monmouth County Clerk’s Office, MMM was reporting election results.
The Monmouth County Clerk’s Office. The Monmouth County Election Results website is the New Jersey equivalent of HeathCare.gov.
With all districts and vote by mail ballots counted, Freeholder Director Lillian Burry and Deputy Director Gary Rich have been reelected.
After a major software snafu with the tabulation software that kept election officials up all night, the numbers were reported on County Clerk M. Claire French’s website at 6:13:58 this morning.
Monmouth GOP Chairman Shaun Golden announces Congressman Chris Smith’s victory and Freeholders Lillian Burry and Gary Rich’s lead
Monmouth County election officials said that it will likely take until 4am to complete the count of ballots in today’s election.
With approximately 60% of the vote counted, Republican Freeholders Lillian Burry and Gary Rich are leading Democratic challengers Lawrence Luttrell and Giueseppe “Joe” Grillo by over 6,000 votes.
The U.S. Senate race on top of the ballot between Senator Cory Booker and GOP nominee Jeff Bell has generated no excitement and little media attention.
The congressional races in CD 4 and CD 6 are not competitive.
The action, and the money, in the 2014 election cycle in Monmouth County has been in the Freeholder race where Democrats statewide have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to get a foothold in the county.
Republican incumbents Lillian Burry and Gary Rich have been fighting off a spirited and well funded challenge from Democrats Larry Luttrell and Giuseppe “Joe’ Grillo. When all the money is counted, the Democrats will probably have outspent the Republicans by more than 2-1.
Monmouth County Democratic Freeholder Candidate Lawrence W. Luttrell, like all bullies, can dish it out but he can’t take it.
The litigiouslunger has spent two years campaigning for Freeholder (he came in last in 2013 and is heading that way again this year) by lying and distorting the records of his opponents, particularly over the farmland preservation deal involving Andrew Lucas. Yet when the truth about his own inglorious past gets revealed, Luttrell threatens legal action.
At the candidates forum sponsored by Lincroft Village Green last week in Middletown, Freeholder Director Lillian Burry was so upset that Luttrell blamed her for Operation Bid Rig that she would not shake his hand after the debate. “You’re taking this stuff too personally,” Burry reported Luttrell as saying.
At issue are Monmouth GOP radio ads and robo calls that refer to Luttrell and his running mate, Giuseppe “Joe” Grillo, as “Lawbreakers” and announce that Luttrell’s law license was “suspended” and “taken away.”
