September 24, 2008 - 8:26am
News

A comeback for LaRossa?

Some Republicans think former State Sen. Richard LaRossa is preparing for another political comeback bid, this time as a candidate for State Assembly in the 15th district against Democratic incumbents Bonnie Watson Coleman and Reed Gusciora.  This week, LaRossa announced that he was filing an ethics complaint against Gusciora for sending out a political press release attacking GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin from his legislative office.  He also came to the aid of Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose after a Democratic staffer questioned her intellectual capacity.

LaRossa held the 15th district Senate seat for six years.  His surprise victory over incumbent Gerald Stockman in 1991 (the Florio tax hike year) was perhaps the biggest upset of many that cycle.  He held the seat in a rematch with Stockman in 1993, but lost it four years later to Shirley Turner.  LaRossa, who sought the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in 1996 (he lost the primary to Dick Zimmer), has subsequently lost races for Mayor of Ewing in 1998 and 2002.

Wally Edge can be reached via email at politicsnj@aol.com.

Comments

Go for it


Felon Mother Bonnie and Triple Dip Reed are among the worst NJ has to offer. Please Dick Run!

09/24/08 12:05 pm

How long?


If he won the seat against stockman in '91 and left in '97, he's been out of the limelight for a decade. Is that too long to be sitting on the sidelines and expect voters to recognize you?

I wonder if Crowley setting up shop in Mercer and organizing a PAC has enticed him to make a comeback at all?

I wish him well.

Veritas vos Liberabit
"Collecting more taxes than absolutely necessary is legalized robbery." - Calvin Coolidge

09/24/08 2:06 pm

Aim higher


He did more for that district then any legislator before or since. If his is shooting for anything, he should aim higher and I don't mean a rematch with Turner. This state just bought 200 million from Lehman Bros. with Corzine's buddies on the investment council and now they want to sue Lehman. If he's aiming, he should aim higher.

09/24/08 2:08 pm

Reed Gusciora...


lives in a subsidized affordable housing unit... you know... the type one ordinarily thinks of as being made available to a single moderate-income mom with a kid, not some lawyer/pol with a legislative salary, a salary from a college, and lawyer payments from a handful of towns in his district... yeah... Reed... squatting on that affordable housing unit and voting for legislation to jam more "affordable housing" units into neighborhoods around the State... maybe some of his double dipping legislator friends need subsidized housing too... whatever.

09/24/08 4:12 pm