A group of Democrats have launched a grass roots effort to draft Dana Wefer to run for the State Assembly in the 25th district, against incumbents Michael Patrick Carroll and Richard Merkt. Wefer, a 24-year-old law student, ran strong, but uphill, races for Morris County Freeholder in 2005 and 2006. In her last race, the Democratic rising star ran 3,595 votes ahead of her running mate and won endorsements from the Daily Record and eleven weekly newspapers. Some Democrats view the 25th as potentially competitive, although Carroll and Merkt have had little trouble winning the district by solid margins in past elections. In 2005, Democrats Thomas Jackson and Janice Schindler lost by nearly 5,000 votes. Democrats have not carried the 25th since 1993, when Gordon MacInnes unseated Senate Majority Leader John Dorsey in a contest that was almost entirely about Dorsey’s ethics and his decision to block the reappointment of a Superior Court Judge. Four years later, MacInnes lost his seat to Republican Anthony Bucco. The last Democrat to represent the district in the Assembly was Rosemarie Totaro, who won an open seat in 1977 against Republican Joseph Maraziti, a 65-year-old former Congressman and State Senator who has spent nearly forty years in politics. Maraziti had considerable political liabilities: as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Maraziti emerged as a staunch defender of President Richard Nixon, and his friendship with one of his congressional staffers — female secretary with no typing skills — received national attention.