Harry Hurley, “Hurley in the Morning” WIBG Radio, Atlantic City has confirmed that Atlantic County Freeholder Board Chairman Frank Formica has ended his bid for a New Jersey General Assembly seat in District 2.
Formica had been in an intense intra-party battle with Atlantic City attorney Chris Brown, who is also a decorated Iraq War combat veteran.
Formica’s rise in Atlantic County electoral politics has been an impressive one. He became the Chairman of the Atlantic County Freeholder Board after just one year of elective office service. This is unprecedented.
However, despite this level of instant success for Formica, Brown’s candidacy has been nothing short of a phenomenon in Atlantic County in its own right.
Additionally, Formica also has certain legitimate business interests that would have had the potential to create a conflict of interest, because he does substantial business with the Atlantic City casinos.
Formica will exit the race as a gentleman and lend his full support to the likely nominee, Brown, who will join Assemblyman John Amodeo on the ticket in the Nov. 8 general election.
Formica’s polite exit also short-circuits what could have been a contentious March Atlantic County Convention floor fight.
Assemblyman Vince Polistina will head up the Republican ticket, taking on State Sen. Jim Whelan, (D-2).
This means that Polistina, Amodeo and Brown will go unchallenged at the upcoming Atlantic County Republican Convention.
This is one of the most important election cycles in Atlantic County history, with high stakes on the line:
The state Senate seat (Jim Whelan), both Assembly seats, (Amodeo and open seat), County Executive (Dennis Levinson), County Sheriff (Frank Balles), County Clerk (Ed McGettigan), two freeholder-at-large seats (Alisa Cooper and Jim Schroeder) and the district 5 freeholder seat, vacated when James Curcio won the race last year for Atlantic County Surrogate.
It looks more and more likely that Cooper will run for the General Assembly and leave her freeholder seat.
