Hunterdon County

FLEMINGTON -- Facing a string of recent U.S. House special election wins for Democrats in Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi and uncomfortable reminders of nearly losing New Jersey's 7th Congressional District in 2006, Republicans gathered at state Sen. Leonard Lance's primary election night victory party on Tuesday said they were confident that the GOP would be able to hold on to the seat of retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson in November.

"Demographics are destiny," state Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington) told PolitickerNJ.com at the American Legion hall in Flemington, in the heart of Lance's Hunterdon County base. Doherty said Democrat Linda Stender would have a difficult job capturing the reliably Republican congressional district, despite Stender's near defeat of Ferguson two years ago. The 7th district "was really drawn as a Republican district."

Update: Dick Zimmer has won the GOP U.S. Senate primaryPRINCETON -- With preliminary results pouring into the headquarters of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dick Zimmer this evening, it looks as though Zimmer, a late entry into the contest, has taken an early lead in Somerset and Hunterdon counties despite the party organizational lines there being awarded to state Sen. Joe Pennacchio.

"That's where he lives, people know them there," says spokesman Ken Kurson, "people that know Dick Zimmer, love Dick Zimmer."

With 62% of the vote reported, Zimmer a resident of Delaware Township in Hunterdon County currently leads Pennacchio nearly two-to-one, 58-30%.

Dick Zimmer’s campaign for the United States Senate suffered a setback last night when he lost a bid for the organization line in his home county.  Hunterdon County Republicans voted 34-40 to keep Joe Pennacchio as their endorsed candidate, rather than switch to Zimmer, who represented Hunterdon as an Assemblyman, State Senator and Congressman from 1981 to 1996.  Some insiders suggest that Zimmer’s defeat last night was more of a problem for longtime GOP County Chairman Henry Kuhl, who is expected to face a challenge for re-election in June against Mark Peck, the Mayor of Bloomsbury.