Joseph Oxley

Former Monmouth County Sheriff Joseph Oxley will be a partner at Scarinci & Hollenbeck, one of the state’s most politically powerful law firms.  Oxley, a Republican who did not seek re-election last year after four terms as Sheriff, will head the firm’s Freehold office.  Partners at Scarinci & Hollenbeck include Democratic powerhouse Donald Scarinci and Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero.

A New Jersey fundraiser for John McCain's political action committee, Straight Talk America, raised about $125,000 last night. The Arizona Senator is preparing to seek the Republican nomination for President in 2008. Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance, former Republican National Committee Finance Chairmen Lewis Eisenberg and Lawrence Bathgate, Assemblyman Bill Baroni, Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson, Monmouth County GOP Chairman Adam Puharic, Camden County GOP Chairman Richard DiMichelle, Monmouth County Sheriff Joseph Oxley, former state Transportation Commissioner (and Kean '81 campaign manager) Roger Bodman, and former state Insurance Commissioner (and Whitman '93 Campaign Chair) Hazel Gluck.

There are reports from Monmouth County that Sheriff Joseph Oxley told some party insiders today that he would not run for Republican County Chairman. Possible candidates include: Rumson Mayor John Ekdahl ; Madeline Ferraro, a former Appointments Counsel to Governor Christine Todd Whitman and now a lobbyist for Atlantic Health Sysems; former New Jersey Republican State Committee Executive Director Brian Nelson; and former Monmouth County Freeholder Edward Stominski.

If 2006 turns out to be the kind of bad Republican year some pundits are predicting -- and if the President's job approvals continue to decline -- it could mean defeat this November for U.S. Senate candidate Thomas Kean, Jr. and Congressman Michael Ferguson. That could set up a 2008 race for Congress in the seventh district between Linda Stender and Kean.

There is much speculation among Monmouth County Republicans that Frederick Niemann will not seek re-election to a second term as GOP County Chairman. Niemann won the post two years ago when he ousted 17-year incumbent William Dowd. Niemann has been under fire for comments made regarding terrorists, for public statements aimed at circumventing rules regarding fundraising by county organizations, and for the defeat of several candidates perceived to have had his backing at county conventions. Several Republican sources say that Sheriff Joseph Oxley wants to replace him.

Monmouth County Sheriff Joseph Oxley is preparing to run for Congress next year, either against ten-term incumbent Frank Pallone, Jr., or for an open seat if Pallone runs for the United States Senate. Pallone has spent the last year seeking support for the Senate seat to be vacated in January by Governor-elect Jon Corzine. The 47-year-old Oxley served as an Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor and as Mayor of Middletown before winning election as Sheriff in 1996. He was re-elected with 59% of the vote in 2004. Pallone, who won re-election in 2004 with 67% of the vote in a district that John Kerry carried with 57%, has not faced a serious Republican challenge since State Senator Joseph Kyrillos ran in 1992. If Pallone does not seek re-election, possible Democratic candidates include: State Senator Barbara Buono, Assemblyman John Wisniewski, and Maggie Moran, a Democratic strategist who served as Senator Corzine's State Director. State Senator Ellen Karcher could also run (she grew up in the Middlesex County portion of the district), even though her she lives in the part of Marlboro that is in the 12th district -- and Assemblyman Michael Panter, who appears to have won re-election to a second term, might move into the district in order to run. Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula of Somerset County had formed a campaign committee earlier this year in case Pallone does not run, but he has clearly offended Pallone allies by publicly calling on Corzine to appoint Robert Menendez to the Senate.