County Chair Laura Ali talked about a future so bright for Morris County Republicans that, “we will all need sunglasses.”
Meanwhile, her Democratic counterpart, Amalia Duarte, looked ahead with trepidation, saying:
“As we process the outcome and envision the next four years with dread, please take care of yourself. If you need a respite from politics and the news, take it. Check in on family and friends who are feeling upset and vulnerable. It’s a beautiful day. Go outside for a walk, or just to sit.”
In the wake of a polarizing election, there are always overreactions and that, to some extent, seems to be the case here.
Let’s begin with the GOP.
As Ali happily points out, Morris County Republicans won “big up and down the ballot, contributing over 138,000 votes for President Trump and Vice President-elect Vance.”
The salient point here is that both Trump and Senate candidate Curtis Bashaw carried the county by about 10,000 votes each. That was a significant change from 2020 when both Joe Biden and that year’s Democratic Senate candidate Cory Booker won Morris County.
The party’s county candidates – three commissioners and one surrogate – also prevailed, prompting Commissioner John Krickus to say:
“We want to thank the voters of Morris County for their decisive support … Our record was reflected in our campaign priorities of supporting law enforcement, expanding education opportunities, investing in infrastructure and preserving open space, all while maintaining fiscally conservative policies. We are honored to serve all the residents of Morris County who clearly responded well to our positive campaign and governing record. Morris County is the best run county in New Jersey, and we look forward to making it even better.”
Ali also said in a release:
“We’re proud that Morris County Republicans enthusiastically embraced Early In-Person Voting, with over 35,000 GOP voters casting their ballots ahead of election day. Simply put, we had a machine that ran meticulously, and we all had so much fun being a part of it.”
The chairwoman is certainly correct. The Morris GOP has encouraged early voting for the last few years and this time around, it paid off.
But all was not fun for Republicans.
Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill won Morris County in winning reelection to a new term. She has now carried the county every cycle since she first ran in 2018. To those around, say, 20 years ago, it still seems inconceivable that a Democratic candidate would have such sustained success in a Republican-leaning county.
In the CD-7 part of the county, which tends to be more conservative, voters backed Tom Kean Jr. by about 7,000 votes over Sue Altman.
Besides Sherrill’s win, Duarte did have a few positive points to make.
“At the local level, we picked up four new seats and I am thrilled that our incumbents won re-election. We now hold every seat in Chatham Township and Mountain Lakes. In Morris Plains, the candidates won overwhelmingly, flipping the council from Republican to Democrat. And, we may see more success in the coming days. In Boonton, the Ward 1 seat race is very tight, at a 13 vote-difference, with Vote by Mail and Provisional ballots still to be counted.”
In the wake of the presidential election, it is tempting to dismiss what’s going on in Morris Plains, or if you prefer, the Community of Caring. Still, it is significant that Dems as of next year will have political control of a string of towns in the eastern part of the county – Chatham, Chatham Township, Madison, Morris Township, Morristown and Morris Plains.
When one election ends, the next one begins. And that’s for governor.
Republicans are on a high this week, but a spirited philosophical battle is on the horizon between more establishment Republicans like Jack Ciattarelli and Jon Bramnick and right wingers like Bill Spadea.
All say they are running for governor.
Bringing this back to Morris, Ali, who was just elected the chair of all statewide Republican county chairs, is no fan of Spadea.
On the Dem side, you have to figure Sherrill’s continued success running in a GOP-leaning county is going to help her presumed gubernatorial bid.
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