Special Election Convention

The resignation of Elizabeth Muoio to take a pension-boosting county job means that Democrats will hold a Special Election Convention on March 15 to elect a new Mercer County Freeholder.  Potential candidates include: Mike Maloney of Hamilton, the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local Union No.

Atlantic County Republicans have called a Special Election Convention to fill Bill Gormley's State Senate seat on Tuesday, February 20, according to a report filed by radio personality Harry Hurley. The vote is set for five days after Gormley's resignation is effective. State law requires these Special Election Conventions to be held seven to 35 days after the vacancy occurs, but like many election laws, those dates appear to be flexible. In 2006, Essex County Democrats filled Evelyn Williams' vacant Assembly seat just a few days after she resigned, and there was no challenge to Oadline Truitt's election.

Gormley is backing Assembly Minority Whip Frank Blee as his successor. Egg Harbor Township Mayor Sonny McCullough has announced that he will run in the June Senate primary, but has not yet said if he will compete at the Special Election Convention.

If Blee wins, the Atlantic County Republican Committee will need to return for a future vote to fill his Assembly seat.

Assemblyman Samuel Thompson is testing the waters to see if he has enough support with in the Republican caucus to run for Minority Whip. The post is expected to become vacant next month, assuming Frank Blee prevails at a Special Election Convention to succeed Bill Gormley in the State Senate. Statehouse insiders say that Assemblyman Jon Bramnick has emerged as the leading candidate for the #3 GOP leadership post.

If Bramnick wins Blee's job, Republicans will then need another election to replace Bramnick as the Assistant Minority Whip. There will be several leadership posts available if the Republicans retain the minority in the 2007 mid-term election. Policy Committee Chairman Steve Corodemus is not seeing re-election, and Assistant Minority Whip Sean Kean and Republican Appropriations Officer Joseph Pennacchio are running for the State Senate.

To put contested legislative leadership contests into a proper context, it should be noted that fourteen of the 31 Republicans in the State Assembly are in leadership. 26 of 49 Assembly Democrats are in leadership.

The resignation of Bill Gormley from the State Senate on February 15 is not a surprise; he had let Atlantic County Republicans in on his plan earlier this month. People who know Gormley say that he is not exactly a lame duck kind of guy, and the early exit starts the clock on his two-year ban from working for Atlantic City casinos.

Republicans will hold a Special Election Convention between 7 and 35 days of his resignation to elect a new Senator, who will serve the remaining eleven months of Gormley's term. Assembly Minority Whip Frank Blee is the leading contender for the seat, and party insiders say that a convention is a better venue for Blee than a primary; he is facing Egg Harbor Mayor Sonny McCullough, who has the support of Congressman Frank LoBiondo. McCullough has not decided whether he will challenge Blee at the convention.

If Blee goes to the Senate early, Republicans would hold a second Special Election Convention to fill his vacant Assembly seat. The leading candidate to replace him is Brigantine Mayor Philip Guenther. One Republican leader says that the GOP should consider replacing Blee with McCullough in order to prevent a contested Senate race. Republicans will still need to recruit a second Assembly candidate to run in November.

Democrats are expected to run Assemblyman James Whelan for Senate; they will also need two Assembly candidates.

Blee's resignation will also trigger a contest for his post as the Assembly Minority Whip. Eric Munoz, the Deputy Conference Leader, is next in line, but could some Trenton insiders say that his promotion is hardly automatic. Kevin O'Toole and Alison McHose are among the possible candidates.

The President of the Latino-American Democratic Association wants State Senator Loretta Weinberg to apologize to the Bergen County Latino community for "her continued attacks on Latinos within the Bergen County Democratic family."

The group is upset that Weinberg opposed Charles Gonzalez, the only Latino candidate in a contest for Teaneck Councilman earlier this month. "Senator Weinberg often talks about inclusiveness and representation, but her behavior shows that she is interested only in including and representing those who tow her line," said Jerard Gonzalez, the LADA President. "Prior to her elevation to the senate, she refused to endorse Wilfredo Caraballo for Majority Leader in the state Assembly, despite the fact that he was the only Latino running for that post. She also does not have one Latino in a senior level staff position in her Senate office."

After an extended legal challenge, Weinberg defeated former Assemblyman Kenneth Zisa in a Special Election Convention last September. Democratic insiders say that Zisa is strongly considering a primary challenge against Weinberg next year.

Burlington County Republicans are expected to endorse Freeholder Vincent Farias for Surrogate. Farias, a five-term Freeholder and former Mayor of Edgewater Park, will run for the seat being vacated by Elton Conda, an 86-year-old Republican who has held the post since 1966. If Farias wins, the Burlington GOP will hold a Special Election Convention in January to fill his seat on the Board of Freeholders; he would be up for election in 2007.

The race for the Democratic nomination for State Senator in the 37th district has begun: former Assemblyman Kenneth Zisa is holding a fundraiser in two weeks to raise money for a possible challenge to incumbent Loretta Weinberg in 2007. Zisa thought he was heading to the Senate last fall, when he narrowly won a Special Election Convention to replace Byron Baer in the Senate. But a legal challenge to some of Zisa's votes narrowly shifted the election to Weinberg. Weinberg celebrated her 71st birthday last night with her own '07 fundraiser.

Former Newark Board of Education President Evelyn Williams is scheduled to take the oath of office to fill the State Assembly seat of the late Donald Tucker, who passed away in October. Williams won a Special Election Convention last month, easily defeating Essex County Freeholder (and former Assemblyman) Ralph Caputo. The Assembly seat left vacant by the election of Loretta Weinberg to the Senate will remain vacant until the new Legislature takes office in January. Bergen County Democrats were unable to get a quorum at their Special Election Convention in the 37th district, where Valerie Vainieri Huttle was running unopposed. Huttle, a Bergen County Freeholder at odds with the county Democratic leadership, was elected to the Assembly in November and will take office in Janaury.

Democratic County Committee in the 37th district will hold a Special Election Convention on Thursday to fill Loretta Weinberg's seat in the State Assembly. Weinberg resigned after being sworn in as a State Senator. Bergen County Freeholder Valerie Vainieri Huttle was elected to a two-year term that begins in January, and she is likely to be unopposed in her bid to fill the remaining five weeks of Weinberg's current term.

The other Senate race already taking shape is in the 21st district, where Republican Assemblymen Eric Munoz and Jon Bramnick are already getting their ducks in order in the event that State Senator Tom Kean, Jr. wins the 2006 U.S. Senate race. Kean would resign his Senate seat in January 2007, necessitating a Special Election Convention to fill the remaining year of his current term. Munoz and Bramnick are no strangers to the Special Election Convention -- that's the way each of them got to the Legislature in the first place: Munoz won in 2001 when Kevin O'Toole replaced Louis Bassano in the State Senate; Bramnick won in 2003 when Kean took Richard Bagger's Senate seat -- he defeated Phil Morin, now the Union County Republican Chairman, by just three votes. Republicans say this contest would be decided a the convention and that the winner would be unlikely to receive a challenge in the June primary. The elevation of one of the two Assemblymen would, of course, trigger another Special Election Convention for an open Assembly seat -- the fourth in this district in five years.