Gerald Green

Four Democratic Assembly seats not expected to be in play in 2007 turned out to be especially close, including Linda Stender, who won re-election in 2007 about the same number of votes Mike Ferguson did in his congressional race against her 2006 bid.

Stender defeated Republican Robert Gatto, who spent about $100 and mounted no real campaign, by just 3,327 votes in the 22nd district.  Her running mate, Gerald Green, defeated Bryan Des Roschers by just 3,260 votes.  Gatto and Des Roschers have both lost bids for municipal office.

Several months ago, there were suggestions that Genovese might get support -- mostly financial -- from a group of key Democratic insiders who wanted to use the 21st district State Senate campaign as a form of retaliation for Kean's U.S. Senate race against Robert Menendez last year. But Democrats now concede that Genovese has turned out to be a weak and largely unfocused candidate with little chance to score an upset in a legislative district where Menendez won 46% one year ago. Genovese's failure to mount an effective campaign has allowed Kean to spend money in other districts. Kean will likely be re-elected, probably by his usual margins, and seems well positioned to become the next Senate Minority Leader.

Republicans say they have nominated three candidates through write in votes in the GOP primary: in the 22nd district, former Somerset County Freeholder Rose McConnell will take on State Senator Nicholas Scutari, and Robert Gatto, a former North Plainfield candidate, will join Bryan Desrochers in the race for State Assembly against incumbents Linda Stender and Gerald Green.

In District 36, former Lyndurst Board of Education member Michael Guarino, who was tossed from the ballot after failing to obtain 100 signatures on his petition, won the GOP Senate nomination. He'll challenge State Senator Paul Sarlo. Federal prosecutors have served Scutari and Sarlo with subpoenas as part of the state budget probe.

Republican Party officials have missed an opportunity to challenge an embattled State Senator in the 22nd district. And on Wednesday, two days after the primary filing deadline for Legislative races, the GOP leadership collectively offered no stirring endorsement of a candidate who hopes to ward off an Assemblywoman intent on upsetting a Republican Congressman next year.

"There was a mixup with the petitions and we didn’t get the requisite number of signatures," Union County GOP Chairman Phil Morin said of his party’s failure to field a State Senate contestant. "But we intend to write-in a candidate in the June primary."

The state Division of Elections initially listed Bryan DesRochers as a candidate for State Senate -- and a challenger to incumbent Sen. Nicholas Scutari, whom the Democrats nominated in 2003 when Joseph Suliga abruptly ended his re-election bid.

Scutari is one of three legislators served with a subpoena connected to a federal probe of legislators receiving an alleged personal benefit from state budget items. Scutari’s wife works for a non-profit organization that received state funds.

Elections officials admitted they made a mistake when they listed DesRochers as a candidate in the Senate race.