Steve Corodemus

In the 1970's and 1980's, the Villapiano family was fairly prominent in Central New Jersey, largely due to the athletic prowess of Phil Villapiano, an All-State high school football player who spent eight years as an NFL linebacker with the Oakland Raiders and Buffalo Bills.  He played on four bowl teams, and was a member of the Super Bowl XI championship team.

Belmar Councilman Matthew Doherty has decided not to seek a State Assembly seat in 2007. Doherty, the husband of Corzine Deputy Chief of Staff Maggie Moran, ran a strong race in 2005 against GOP incumbents Sean Kean and Steve Corodemus. He had been expected to run again.

The two Republican Assemblymen from the eleventh district have never been very close -- Steve Corodemus worked fairly hard to defeat Sean Kean in a 2002 Special Election Convention after the death of Thomas Smith -- and the relationship became even more competitive in September 2004, when longtime State Senator Joseph Palaia announced that he would not seek re-election in 2007. Palaia's early announcement created a three-year contest for an open Senate seat that by all accounts created some internal problems in running a competitive re-election campaign in 2005.

There is little chance of a Corodemus vs. Kean primary; party insiders say the contest will be decided at an open GOP convention -- if it goes that far -- and that the loser will keep his Assembly seat. And several Republican insiders with an ability to count County Committee votes say that Kean seems to have become the front runner over Corodemus, who was first elected in 1991. Kean seems to have been more aggressive in courting potential delegates -- and filling County Committee seats -- over the past three years, and appears to have a fundraising edge. One state Republican leader told PoliticsNJ.com that Kean, who won several key labor endorsements in his last re-election campaign, seems to be a safer bet for the GOP in a district where Democrats have pledged to spend money next year.

Possible Democratic candidates for Palaia's seat include former Assemblyman John Villapiano, who lost to Corodemus in the 1991 GOP landslide, and '05 Assembly candidate Matthew Doherty, now a candidate for Belmar Councilman.

A comment at a Assembly Republican campaign meeting last August has helped Democrats Matt Doherty and Jim Reilly raise an estimated $10,000 from donors who would not normally have taken an interest in the ouster of incumbents Steve Corodemus and Sean Kean. During a review of voter turnout projections in the 11th district, Assembly GOP Executive DIrector Rick Wright noted that "gays in Asbury Park don't vote."