Anthony Bucco

Rick Merkt's announcement that he won't seek re-election to a seventh term in the State Assembly next year - possibly to run for Governor - will create a chain reaction that will reach the local level. Four Freeholders are considered potential candidates for the solidly Republican District 25 seat, and three of them - John Murphy, Gene Feyl, Bill Chegwidden - would have to give up their Freeholder seats to run for the Legislature in 2009. That would create another hotly contested primary for open Freeholder seats. If Doug Cabana were to win the Assembly seat, Morris County Republicans would need to hold a January 2010 special election convention to replace him.

If Rick Merkt and Chris Christie both wind up in the race for the 2009 Republican nomination for Governor, it will be the first time in 28 years that two former running mates and two candidates from the same small town compete in a statewide primary.  Merkt and Christie, who live in Mendham, ran as a team in the 1995 State Assembly primary in District 25; they lost to incumbent Anthony Bucco and newcomer Michael Patrick Carroll, who was seeking the open seat of retiring Assemblyman Arthur Albohn.   Merkt went to the Assembly two years later when Bucco ran for the State Senate.

One hint on U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie’s political ideology comes from his 1995 campaign for the State Assembly, when he attacked two other candidates, Anthony Bucco and Michael Patrick Carroll, for supporting a repeal of the ban on assault weapons. A reader sent PolitickerNJ.com a copy of the mailer from that campaign after Matt Friedman’s story on conservatives wanting to know where the federal prosecutor stands on some state issues.

Mike DuHaime is now running John McCain's political operation
New Jerseyan Mike DuHaime is the new political director for John McCain’s presidential campaign, according to published reports this morning.  DuHaime, the former Executive Director of the New Jersey Republican State Committee, will assume the management of McCain’s political operation following a management shakeup earlier this week. 

He had been campaign manager of Rudy Giuliani’s bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

New Jersey had a political realignment of sorts yesterday when the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce took Republican legislative leaders by surprise and endorsed Democratic Governor Jon Corzine’s Financial Restructuring and Debt Reduction Plan.  As in most places, organized labor has long been allied with the Democrats, while the GOP has enjoyed an alliance with the business community.  

State Senator Anthony Bucco is asking New Jersey businesses to drop their chamber membership and join other business groups, and conservative activist Steve Lonegan has called on Republican officials to boycott the Chamber of Commerce train trip to Washington tomorrow.