TGIO

Thank God It's Over!

Ah, the peace and serenity when I slipped into bed tonight... I'm grateful silly season is over.

It was a night of narrow victories and a few surprise defeats.

The biggest surprise, in my mind, was the 12th District loss of Mike Panter and Bob Morgan, Democrats, to Jen Beck and Declan O'Scanlon, Republicans. Beck, who pulled out a victory at the Monmouth County GOP convention in April where she wasn't a favorite going in, really proved her mettle. Beck and O'Scanlon campaigned aggressively and non-stop and Monmouth Republicans are rightfully very excited to regain control of seats they lost but two years ago.

Republicans retained control of the 11th and 13th Districts. I'm pretty surprised that the 13th District Dems, with their lack of funds or even campaign staff, weren't thoroughly stomped, though Republicans did attain a sizable victory. In the end Middletown proved the Democrats' undoing, with a 2,200 vote deficit in the township that they didn't have much of chance of recovering from.

At the local level, Republicans won two seats in Atlantic Highlands, Highlands, Holmdel, Red Bank and Middletown. Democrats won four seats in Matawan for control of the borough; two seats in Hazlet; three seats in Aberdeen; and two seats in Keyport.

With the Democrat victories in Aberdeen and Matawan and a three-seat Republican victory in Mercer's Hamilton Township, it wasn't a very good day to be Jack Morris. Morris, a Piscataway-based developer, had proposed a redevelopment project of the Aberdeen-Matawan Train Station; opposition to Morris's plan became a major part of the Aberdeen and Matawan races. In Hamilon Township, three Republicans who came to run to office because of their opposition to a Morris-company project in their town, won handily in a Democrat stronghold.