Beck Unseats Karcher In 12th (NJ)

NJ POLS ^ | 11-7-07 | Shane D'Aprile

[Cagey]

State senator-elect Jennifer Beck received a rousing welcome from the packed house her at the GOP's election night party in Freehold as she stood with Monmouth County Republican Chair Adam Puharic and her running mates Declan O'Scanlon and Caroline Casagrande. "It is an honor for me to be called your state senator," Beck told the crowd of supporters as they released a long-awaited roar of approval.

Her victory came "in the face of enormous odds," Beck said, a reference to the massive financial disparity between the two candidates. Beck defeated incumbent Sen. Ellen Karcher, despite being outspent by an estimated 5-to-1 margin.

"The negative aspect of [Karcher's] campaign just weren't able to take hold," Beck told NJpols. "It was the grass-roots campaigning that we did [that helped overcome Karcher's financical advantage]. We walked door-to-door from April right up until Election Day."

"There were times when I was out there for seven, eight hours a day."

The unofficial tally is 55 percent for Beck; 44 percent for Karcher.

As the four giant screens at Republican campaign headquarters in Freehold flashed 100 percent of precincts reporting the large crowd erupted.

"This is a big win in the sense that it was always a district that we never should have let Democrats take from us to begin with," state GOP Chair Tom Wilson told NJpols.

Victory in the 12th was crucial for Republicans, particularly given the Democratic victories in the 1st and 2nd state Senate contests in South Jersey.

On the Assembly side in the 12th, the results were much closer, but unofficial results give the edge to GOP challengers Declan O'Scanlon and Caroline Casagrande. O'Scanlon and Casagrande both garnered 26 percent of the vote, while incumbent Democrat Mike Panter trailed with 25 percent, but less than a thousand votes separated Panter and Casagrande.

Two years ago the 12th District Assembly race saw a recount when Democrat Mike Panter held just a 65 vote margin over O'Scanlon.

The Republican sweep here in the 12th is an important victory in a year that was not kind to the GOP statewide.

As the polls closed, the mood at Karcher headquarters was muted, with only a handful of supporters having arrived by 8 p.m. At election night headquarters for the 12th District Republican slate in Freehold it was a marked difference with scores of supporters buzzing around the large banquet room, seemingly confident as they awaited election results.

On the county level in Monmouth, Republican Kim Guadagno defeated Democrat Jack Hill in the race for Sheriff. And in the race for Monmouth County Freeholder, two Republican incumbents -- Rob Clifton and Jeff Cantor -- have razor-thin margins over their Democratic challengers in a race that looks like it could be decided on absentee ballots.

[Cagey]

Beck defeated incumbent Sen. Ellen Karcher, despite being outspent by an estimated 5-to-1 margin.

Surprisingly, a good news ping.

[Calpernia]

Related:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1922114/posts?page=17#17

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1922114/posts?page=20#20

I’m still disappointed. I thought we would have even better results with the voter registration “legacy” system now purged.

[jmaroneps37]

Good things happened in New Jersey last night. Is everything now the way we want or need them to be? No not yet. Are these results a positive step toward where we need to go next year? Absolutely! If Beck could throw an entrenched rat like karcher out, using the same rationale Republicans always try, and make it work there may actually be light in the tunnel. The Batter Voter Syndrome victims in New Jersey may be recovering their sanity. This plus telling that little PoS Michael J. Fox to get lost means there is reason for optimism for NJ in 08 which would be a big punch in the beast’s gut.

[Renegade]

Bad things happened in New Jersey last night . VanDrew ,a Demonrat, unseated Nick Asselta , Republican for the State Senate seat in the first district. This is the FIRST time a Demonrat has been elected to the Senate from this district .

[tcostell]

This upset came about for no other reason than Anthony Mauro, and the NJOA. Karcher and her assembly counterpart Mike Panter, attempted to introduce a bill to ban hunting and fishing in NJ and it cost them the election.

I’ve written about it here:

http://freenj.blogspot.com/2007/11/someone-dropped-house-on-my-assemblyman.html

and here:

http://freenj.blogspot.com/2007/10/torches-and-pitchforks-tar-and-feathers.html

And here:

http://freenj.blogspot.com/2007/09/banning-hunting-guns-and-goose-liver.html

[TNCMAXQ]

State Senate is now 27D, 13R? Not too good considering they were in the majority for most of the 1990s and into this decade, weren’t they? In any case, I guess it is good that Repubs at least are competitive. They are not in MD, MA, RI and other Demo states.

Is there a total on the lower house? I think the Repubs kept their majority in the VA state house, but lost by a narrow margin in the state senate, though some GOP senators defeated were “moderates.”

That stem cell defeat is a shocker, IMO. These propositions have usually passed, like the one in Missouri last year. If this goes down in liberal NJ, then there is hope. Meanwhile if pro abortionists want funding for “research” they should go crying to Soros and Theresa Heinz.

[gridlock]

That stem cell defeat is a shocker, IMO. These propositions have usually passed, like the one in Missouri last year. If this goes down in liberal NJ, then there is hope. Meanwhile if pro abortionists want funding for “research” they should go crying to Soros and Theresa Heinz.

The Stem Cell question was a tax increase, barely disguised. If the embryonic stem cell research funded by the bond issue failed to produce profitable result (a given, since embryonic stem cell research has never produced a profitable result), the question authorized an increase in the sales tax and a Personal Property Tax to pay off the bonds. It is these increased taxes that the Democrats were really after.

NJ voters are stupid, but we're not that stupid.

[Sooth2222]

TRENTON — BALANCE OF POWER: With no national or statewide races on the ballot, the races in New Jersey's 40 legislative districts determined that Democrats retained their hammerlock on the Statehouse. Democrats gained a seat in the Senate, for a 23-17 advantage, and captured at least 48 seats in the Assembly, where they have held a 50-30 advantage.

Pubbies lost 2, won 1 in the Senate.

Can Monmouth County secede from New Jersey?

(With a population of 615,301 (2000 Census) it is larger than Vermont and Wyoming!)

[Sooth2222]

"It is these increased taxes that the Democrats were really after."

I suspect that the demographic that scuttled this was Catholic Democrats.

It's about the only explanation I can think of as to why voters killed the Stem Cell boondoggle but reelected all the same old crooks, and maybe a few more.

I'm happy they did but it does not bode well for either 2008 or the Future of the Garden State (if any). North Carolina or Florida are looking better and better. Last one to leave, turn off the lights!

[Alberta's Child]

Gridlock is right. The vote against the stem cell initiative was a good one, but it had nothing to do with the voters opposing the kind of medical experimentation that should have been consigned to the dustbin of history after the Nuremburg Trials.

The voters simply realized that a state like New Jersey that is currently insolvent and is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy has no business issuing bonds for any kind of bullsh!t spending measures.