The biggest upset of Primary '07

The biggest upset of the night was in Morris County, where Freeholder John Inglesino lost his bid for re-election in the Republican primary.  Inglesino, the former Mayor of Rockaway, has been considered one of the young rising stars of Morris County politics, and widely viewed as a likely candidate for higher office in the future. Inglesino has played a leading role in the reform of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, where his law firm (he is partner's with former federal Judge and U.S. Attorney Herbert Stern) had been named as  the federal monitor.   

Few political insiders believed he was in trouble, and his campaign spent little money -- he sent out just one direct mail piece, jointly with incumbents Douglas Cabana and Jack Schrier.  Now Republicans -- some admittedly dumfounded -- are trying to figure out how one of their best prospects finds himself out of office.  The winner was James Murray, a 68-year-old retired county engineer who finished ninth in a field of nine candidates in the '06 Freeholder primary.

One insider suggested that a clearly overconfident Inglesino might have been an early casualty of the 2009 gubernatorial election. Inglesino is exceptionally close to U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, the perceived front runner for the GOP nomination, and that one possible Christie challenger, Morris County Freeholder John Murphy, may have quietly tubed Inglesino just as the incumbent was asleep at the electoral switch.

Could Inglesino follow in the footsteps of Christie, whose defeat in a 1997 re-election campaign for Morris County Freeholder set the stage for his appointment as federal prosecutor?  Inglesino was an early backer of Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign.