District 14 still most competitive in state

Assemblyman Bill Baroni won big in the 14th district state Senate race, blowing out Democrat Seema Singh with 62% of the vote.  He won Hamilton Township with 76%.

But the politically competitive district remains split, with two Democrats capturing seats in the State Assembly.

Incumbent Linda Greenstein prevailed in her bid for a fifth term, and her running mate, labor leader Wayne DeAngelo, outpaced Baroni’s running mates, Tom Goodwin and Adam Bushman.  Greenstein received 28,172 votes; DeAngelo, 25,037; Goodwin, 24,245; and Bushman, 23,663.

Greenstein was facing some handicaps in the race: Baroni’s emergent star power at the top of the rival ticket; a state ethics investigation against Singh; an 11th hour unraveling of the candidacy of Democratic Mayor Glen Gilmore in Hamilton (who ultimately lost to John Bencivengo); and a sustained ad campaign launched against her by a conservative organization called Common Sense America. 

That helped Greenstein get $100,000 in rescue money from the Clean Elections program – the public financing program that both parties participated in.                              

But she stayed competitive in Hamilton, where voter turnout was 49%.

Early in the evening Baroni knew a lot of voters were going to the polls in his hometown.

"As a candidate what do you do on Election Day?" he said. "I go around to every polling place and take cookies to the workers. What I was seeing is that the turnout was like a gubernatorial election year, if not greater. When I voted, I stood on line."

Baroni's running mates won in Hamilton, with Goodwin getting 13,051 votes and Bushman receiving 12,500. Greenstein weighed in with 11,758 votes and DeAngelo racked up 10,595. With those numbers in the bank in the biggest town in Mercer County, the Democrats relied on their edge in Greenstein’s home county of Middlesex, where they scored in the two biggest towns there, South Brunswick and Monroe. 

A pair of Libertarian candidates received 1,743 and 1,283 votes, respectively.  One of the Libertarians, Jason

Workhorse Greenstein was matter-of-fact in picking up the win.

"People in the district know me," she said.

In her brief victory speech, Greenstein thanked Baroni’s opponent, Seema Singh, for her efforts during the campaign, and noted that the Democratic state Senate candidate was the hardest-working member of the ticket, who would definitely "be back."

She also savored DeAngelo’s win, which meant the Democrats picked up a seat in the lower house.

"I’m very excited to have a partner in the legislature," Greenstein said.

 Looking beyond the district, Baroni said legislators in Trenton must address overspending.

"We're taxing too much," he said. "There's too much debt. People fear whether or not they will be able to stay in New Jersey.  A lot of people talked about reform in this election. Now it's time to put up."

Baroni was back at Seton Hall University today, where he was teacing two courses: one in labor management in the role of education, and the other in vote recounts in New Jersey elections.

In his victory speech at La Villa in Hamilton, DeAngelo said, "We need desperately to bring economic development back to the State of New Jersey."

DeAngelo and Greenstein had both addressed a labor rally earlier on Election Day at the Colonial Firehouse in Hamilton, where they thanked representatives of over twenty Mercer County locals for going to the 14th district to work on their behalf.

AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech was at that rally and today said labor's organization in the district 14 race paid off.

"We did something special in that district, which was we used professional canvassing and I think that was an important part of Wayne's victory," said the labor leader.

The same workers were also canvassing for the pro-labor Republican Baroni.

When sizing up the three victors in the 14th, labor is the most obvious identifying factor, as all three candidates: Baroni, Greenstein and DeAngelo - had the endorsement of the AFL-CIO and support of the powerful locals, including the Communications Workers of America.

But in the end the split ticket victors Baroni, Greenstein and DeAngelo could also claim name recognition built on their own respective work records. Said Elizabeth Meyers, campaign spokeswoman for Greenstein and DeAngelo, "If you work hard and they get to know you here, they put partisanship aside in this district."

Not to ever be discounted was Baroni the operator, assisted by his campaign manager Steve Quain.

"We had six months of get-out-the-vote recruitment," said the senator-elect. "This was as scientific and targeted a race as I've ever run."