Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vic Scudiery will announce his retirement next week. He will complete his current term, which ends in June. Scudiery will have served for 23 years.
Scudiery’s protoge, Vin Gopal, spent most of this week working the crowd at the League of Municipalities Convention in Atlantic City for support to take over for his mentor.
MMM has learned that the fight will be with Marlboro Councilman Frank LaRocca.
Gopal is a business owner and Scudiery’s partner in Community Publications, the publisher of four monthly newspapers and a magazine serving Aberdeen, Atlantic Highlands, Colts Neck, Fair Haven, Hazlet, Highlands, Holmdel, Keansburg, Keyport, Matawan, Middletown, Red Bank, Rumson, Sea Bright, and Union Beach. He was an Assembly candidate in the 11th legislative district this year.
LaRocca, along with his running mates, Mayor Jon Hornick and Council President Randi Marder were reelected in Marlboro earlier this month. LaRocca, Hornick and Marlboro Deputy Mayor Larry Rosen are law partners.
With the chairman’s election not until June, there is plenty of time for other players to enter the race.
There has not been a contest for the Monmouth County Democratic chairmanship since 2000 when then Red Bank Mayor Ed McKenna unsuccessfully challenged Scudiery for the post.
What you will find there is the Marlboro forum on NJ.com where Paul J. Schlaflin of Marlboro, a supporter of the incumbent Democrats running for reelection in Marlboro, is telling readers not to come to this web site. Thanks for the traffic Paul. So far today I’ve picked up at least 80 new readers.
Schlaflin also declares that I am a Republican operative that the Marlboro Republicans have bought because Strong New Jersey has an ad on this site supporting the Marlboro Republican team.
All of that is pretty funny. Especially considering that the Marlboro Democrats have a banner ad on the NJ.com forum that Schalfin is unwittingly using to send MMM traffic.
But there is other Schlaflin material on that site that is not funny. It is disgusting and disgraceful.
Schlaflin is waging an ugly and unsubstainitated smear campaign against Marlboro Republican Council Candidate Christopher Dean. He has used the comments on this site and at NJ.com to do so. He has alleged that Dean is a racist and anti-Semite.
Schlaflin also said that I am tolerant of and complicit towards racism.
This from a man, Schlaflin, who on 9-11-01 painted the words “Death to the Sand Niggers” on his truck and parked it at a Marlboro bar.
This from a man who resigned from the Marlboro Planning Board, an appointment he received from Mayor Hornick, in disgrace over an Ethics Board finding, later overturned on a legal technicality, about similar vile behavior on the Internet during another Marlboro campaign.
I don’t know Christopher Dean well. However, people I do know well and trust, Whites, Blacks and Jews, tell me that there is no way that Dean is a racist or an anti-Semite. Schlaflin has a vile track record. I believe my friends. You should too.
Mayor Hornick should immediately condemn Schlaflin’s behavior. Hornick should go on NJ.com and come to this site and reputiate Schlafin. He should pledge never to appoint Schlaflin to another municipal position and to ban him from his campaign.
I deplore the type of politics in which Schlaflin is engaging. For now, I’m giving Hornick the benefit of the doubt that Schlaflin is a rogue. Yet Hornick needs to deal with the rogue. Immediately.
Over the years since I started this blog there have been several occassions where someone has offered damaging personal dirt on an elected official or a candidate. Every time my response has been, “Bring me proof.” Proof was never forth coming.
A few months back, someone suggested that I OPRA police reports in Marlboro and Freehold involving Jon Hornick. My response to the person was, “Do your own dirty work. I don’t have an axe to grind with Hornick.”
As I told Mary Pat Angelini on the Real Jersey Guys Radio Show this afternoon, I was an “anti-bullying specialist” in my youth. If anyone I liked, loved or cared about was bullied, I handled it.
Schlaflin involved me personally and my site in his bullying. He did so on behalf on Jon Hornick, Frank LaRocca and Randi Marder.
Suddenly I am motivated. That is why Schlaflin’s actions are really stupid. If Schlaflin is an off the ranch rogue, Hornick, LaRocca and Marder need to say so in the strongest possible terms. That would make me a lot less motivated to grind my axe.
Maybe there is nothing in those police reports and the tipster was attempting to spin my wheels. I’d rather not know.
Its four weeks before election day, yet it hardly looks like campaign season throughout much of Monmouth County. Lawn signs are scarce in the parts of the county where I’ve traveled. I’ve only received one mailer.
The Asbury Park Press is doing their usual interviews of legislative and county candidates, but you’d have to go looking to find the write ups.
Governor Chris Christie’s presidential consideration has commanded much of the political attention and dominated the news. The legislative races are uncompetitive. Campaign money is scarce due to stifling pay to play laws and the poor economy.
Voter turnout is historically very low in years when the legislature is the top race. 2007 was the last such year. In Monmouth County 128,169 people voted in 2007. The following year, when Obama was elected, 292,037 people voted. 200,199 voted in the gubernatorial election of 2009 and 179,133 voted in the congressional elections last year. There are 379,431 registered voters in Monmouth County, according to Labels and Lists.
Marlboro is the exception. The Democratic incumbents, Mayor Jon Hornick running with Council members Frank LaRocca and Randi Marder are running hard to retain their offices. On paper, the municipal race in Marlboro should be a sleeper like the rest of the races in the county. Democrats have a 2619 voter registration edge in the township. The Republican organization is fractured and much of its best talent is supporting the Democrats. The underfunded Republican upstart candidates are relative newbies to the political process.
Yet legacy Mayor Jon Hornick and his team are running as if their lives, or livelihoods, depend upon it. They been advertising on NJ.com, they have billboards, lawn signs and mailers. They raised a lot of money and they are spending it.
With little organizational support, the scrappy underfunded team of Craig Marshall for Mayor running with Christopher Dean and Marianne Duffy-Longobardi for Council appear to be making a race of it.
The legislative races are snoozers. The county races are comatose, as are most municipal races. Marlboro is the only game around so MMM will focus on it over the next few weeks.
Republican Candidates Craig Marshall, Christopher Dean, and Marianne Longobardi respond to contest set forth by the Democrat incumbents
With just over a month to go until the election, Democrat incumbents Jon Hornik, Frank LaRocca, and Randi Marder have shown that they will do anything it takes to get elected; even if it means to buy a vote.
In the recent article published on Patch.com, Jon Hornik and the rest of his team are now trying to earn votes by offering a $250 reward for this so called “game” they have initiated. “I find it distasteful and certainly not what an election decision should be about.” Craig Marshall, candidate for Mayor, said “it is interesting that instead of talking about the issues that matter most to the citizens of Marlboro like taxes, jobs, spending, Mayor Hornik along with his running mates are trying to divert attention from their out of control spending and actions.”
Craig Marshall is referring to the sky rocket legal and engineering fees the town has endured over the last four years, as well as, Randi Marder’s husband doing business with the town while she is serving as a member of the council.
“The use of the car as a campaign gimmick only illustrates their failure to grasp the concerns of the taxpayers” said Marianne Longobardi, candidate for Town Council, “Instead of a one time $250 contest, the taxpayers of Marlboro would be better suited by leadership that will reduce their property taxes.”
Marshall, Dean, & Longobardi have pledged that if elected they will put to an end to the reckless spending and always put taxpayers first!
