EDISON – The first stop of Gov. Chris Christie’s election eve diner tour was Paramus, ground zero for the Bergen battleground of LD38, where a state Senate seat is in play. But the second stop was more interesting – LD18, Democratic bastion of Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono (D-18), of Metuchen.
It’s considered a safe district for Team Buono, but Christie and the state GOP aren’t treating it as such. With the governor here today and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno fresh off a weekend stop, the contest is gaining some traction as in-play in the late hours of campaign season, Republicans said.
An Assembly gain here is a real possibility, according to state Republican Party spokesman Rick Gorka, who credits the candidates’ crossover appeal and backlash against incumbents for turning blue voters red.
Republican state Senate candidate Gloria Dittman called the recent demise of former Gov. Jon Corzine’s firm MF Global “the cherry on top of the cake” for voters here: They’ve had enough of Democrats.
Polls show GOP opportunity in five districts, Christie said at the diner: LDs 38, 2, 14, 18, and 7 – even though in the next sentence he said the odds are stacked against Republicans there. “In districts like this one, we’re not supposed to have any chance,” the governor told reporters.
The Assembly candidates here are Joe Sinagra and Marcia Silva, who’s the candidate garnering slightly more appeal in the race. East Brunswick Mayor David Stahl, a Democrat who was at the diner today, has endorsed Silva over the Democratic lower chamber team of Assemblymen Pat Diegnan, (D-18), of South Plainfield, and Peter Barnes, (D-18), of Edison.
Stahl told PolitickerNJ that he thinks Silva will work as aggressively for his community as she does in her role as public defender in South River, where Stahl practices law.
He was disappointed that the Democrats opposed pension and benefit reform that has been a boon to mayors.
The election landscape this year is riddled with mailers attacking public payroll jobs on both sides, foremost a state party-funded salvo at Diegnan and the $1.5 million he has made on government contracts over years.
Middlesex County Chairman Sam Thompson, (R-19), an assemblyman who’s running for the state Senate in the neighboring district, said all of the Middlesex legislative districts were in play not that long ago. Nowadays, target areas for the GOP include East Brunswick, where the party has secured a council majority, and parts of Edison that currently show up in blue on Election Day maps.
