Jim McSorley

Former Mercer County sheriff candidate Jim McSorley

Former State Police Captain Jim McSorley said today that he’s been asked whether he’s interested in running for a District 14 assembly seat, but that he’s very unlikely to do it. 

“My DNA is in law enforcement.  There have been a few people that have approached me to do it, but I doubt it very much to tell you the truth,” he said. 

McSorley just wrapped up an unsuccessful run for Mercer County Sheriff.  Although he ran an active and spirited campaign, he was crushed by incumbent Kevin Larkin, 63% to 37%. 

“I’d be pretty pompous, after having just lost an election only nine days ago, to think along those lines,” he said. 

Mercer County Republican Sheriff candidate Jim McSorley has a question: if incumbent Sheriff Kevin Larkin is not allotted sick days, then why does he get reimbursed for unused ones at the end of the year.

Reacting to a quote in the Trenton Times in which the newspaper paraphrases deputy county counsel Sarah Crowley saying “constitutional officers like Larkin who are elected are in charge of setting their own hours and are not allotted any vacation or sick days.” 

“The 2007 payroll records for the Sheriff’s Office show that Sheriff Larkin was paid over $2,400.00 as a buy back for five days of unused sick time.  Yet, according to Mercer County’s attorney, he is not allotted sick time,” said McSorley, who’s requested hundreds, if not thousands of page of documents relating to the sheriff’s office under McSorley’s tenure. “Just how does the Sheriff receive extra money at the end of the year for time he was not entitled to?”

Retired state police captain mounts uphill battle to oust Sheriff in Blue Mercer
It's a tough race for Jim McSorley, the Republican running for sheriff of Mercer County against incumbent Democrat Kevin Larkin.

Not only is it looking to be a strongly Democratic year in New Jersey, let alone in Democrat-dominated Mercer County, but during periods of previous decades when Republicans controlled the county, the sheriff was still a Democrat.

In fact, nobody seems to be able to recall the last time Mercer County elected a Republican sheriff.  McSorley said it's been at least for duration of his own life - 52 years.

"I tell people I intend to be the first one, at least in most of our lifetimes," said McSorley, a former state police captain who most recently worked as U.S. Rep. Chris Smith's policy director.

But as much as a long shot as the odds may make him, nobody accuses McSorley of running a lackadaisical campaign.

Republican Mercer County Sheriff candidate Jim McSorley said that three OPRA requests he filed last week for information about the sheriff’s office have either been ignored or have been answered with incomplete information.

McSorley, a retired state police captain who’s challenging incumbent Democrat Kevin Larkin, said that he was informed that the office has not kept a table of organization for the last three years.

“Each local police department in Mercer County has a table of organization to serve the same purpose. Even McDonald’s doesn’t run without a table of organization and the fact that Sheriff Larkin has been running his office in such a reckless manner for so many years once again proves his record of mismanagement,” said McSorley.

One candidate worth watching is Jim McSorely, a retired State Police captain who is waging an impressive, low-budget campaign for Mercer County Sheriff. As a Republican, McSorley faces an uphill battle against incumbent Kevin Larkin in heavily Democratic Mercer County; the GOP has not won countywide since 1999.  But Larkin is a potentially flawed incumbent, and McSorley does not lack testicular fortitude.  A former aide to U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith, McSorley has inherited Smith's political organization in Mercer and seems to share Smith's skills of hard work and grass roots campaigning.  Back in 1980, Smith ousted a personally flawed thirteen-term Congressman with little money or organization.

Mercer County Republicans voted to postpone the endorsement of a U.S. Senate candidate tonight and will wait and see if biotech millionaire John Crowley decides to enter the race.

“We have two new candidates, one from Mercer County,” said Mercer County GOP Chairman Roy Wesley. “So it’s almost like we have one of our own who we need to give some consideration to.”

Crowley, 39, was a Bristol-Myers Squibb executive eleven years ago when he found out his 15-month-old daughter and four-month-old son had a rare and fatal neuromuscular disease. He wound up leaving to head up a series of biotech firms and has raised a reported $200 million for research of genetic diseases. Harrison Ford is expected to play Crowley in a film about his life.

In an informal vote, taken by a show of hands, Mercer Republicans overwhelmingly supported deferring a formal endorsement in the Senate race, and authorized the party’s executive committee to award the organization line sometime before the April 7 filing deadline.

State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio and Ramapo College Professor Murray Sabrin attended the convention. A third candidate, millionaire businessman Andy Unanue, is vacationing in Vail.