2007 Election Summary

by Paul Eisenman [courtesy of Blog for America]

2007 Election Summary

The 2007 election campaign ended on Tuesday with mostly predictable results. The statewide turnout of about 35% is fairly typical for an off-year election in which the highest office on the ballot is a Senate seat in the State Legislature.

For Bergen Grassrooters, the biggest story was the election in District 37. After a bruising primary period in June, when BCDO Boss Joe Ferriero threatened to run a slate of candidates against them, Loretta Weinberg and her Real Bergen Democrats easily won re-election, Loretta by a 75-25 margin. Her running mates Valerie Vainieri Huttle and Gordon Johnson also won, although Gordon appears to have received a mild slap on the wrist—in the shape of fewer votes than Valerie—for his acknowledgment that he had given almost $2,000 to the perennial presidential candidate and convicted felon Lyndon LaRouche over 2005 and 2006. To their credit, Loretta and Valerie did not defend him blindly, expressing disappointment about his judgment and pointing instead to his excellent voting record in the Legislature.

If you read our endorsement notice a few days ago, you know that the Bergen Grassroots Steering Committee concluded it could not endorse the Democratic candidates for Freeholder and for Senate and Assembly in the other Bergen legislative districts because it is overwhelmingly apparent that these officeholders and candidates count their loyalty to Joe Ferriero well above their obligations to their constituents. We think we proved that during the campaign. The three Freeholder candidates won, as did the Paul Sarlo slate in District 36 and the Robert Gordon slate in District 38. In 39, incumbent Gerald Cardinale, an easy-to-define conservative, defeated Democrat Joe Ariyan by some 12 points, despite tons of money "wheeled" into the district by Ferriero and others.

In another very expensive contest in Monmouth County, considered to be the top of the card in New Jersey this time around, Democratic incumbent Senator Ellen Karcher lost her seat to Republican challenger Jennifer Beck. As in the Cardinale-Ariyan campaign, the GOP was outspent 6 to 1, but the Republicans candidates won by a comfortable margin. In both cases, very little of substance was discussed.

In Englewood, Charlotte Bennett Schoen won handily, continuing a circumstance in which our good guys dominate governmental life while...