Can the GOP recruit strong candidates in the 36th?
By Wally EdgeSome Republican leaders believe Nutley Mayor Joanne Cocchiola and Rutherford Mayor John Hipp would make a strong ticket for the State Assembly against incumbents Frederick Scalera and Gary Schaer in the 36th district next year. Last won by Republican Paul DiGaetano in 2003, the 36th was the closest race in the state last year in a district where the EnCap development at the Meadowlands has led to the defeat of more than a dozen local officials.
Cocchiola, a Republican, was re-elected Mayor last May in Nutley’s non-partisan municipal election – the first incumbent to win a second consecutive term in nearly forty years. She has turned down chances to seek higher office before. Hipp ousted incumbent Bernadette McPherson in 2006 by a huge margin.
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Scalera and Schaer would be
Scalera and Schaer would be easy to beat...
Scalera is a Triple Dipper and Schaer is a Double Dipper... plus you add encap in there
McPherson was beaten last year
by some 1,600 votes.
This will be a targeted race in 09 and in 2011 the district will be chopped up like a tomato.
Vote Column - All the way!
Plus you add their voting record
These two pinkos have a 100 percent pro-Corzine voting record, including his support for hundreds of Low Income Housing units forced into their suburban towns. They support every Corzine-Codey-McGreevey tax including the sales tax hike and the $500 small business tax. Plus both support unrestricted abortion, funded by taxpayers, for any reason at all, up to and including the day of delivery. The list of silly votes and ridiculously unpopular positions goes on and on.
Hipp is a class act...
smart, thoughtful, and not afraid to bash Encap facilitators like Sarlo.
36 is winnable...
but the best candidate the Republicans could have is a Democrat.
North Arlington Councilman Steve Tanelli has been front and center screaming to the hilltops about how the destructive COAH regulations will change the face of suburbia. He sounds more conservative (Republican?) than anyone else out there.
The COAH fiasco, combined with ENCAP, Xanadu, the Ferriero and Kaiser follies, combined with the putrid record of the two invisible incumbents makes for a targeted race.