GOP leaders court Mitchell for Assembly bid

[politickernj]

GOP leaders court Mitchell for Assembly bidBy Wally Edge
Sidna Mitchell, who came within 880 votes of unseating Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro) in 2003, met with Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce and Mercer County GOP Chairman Roy Wesley today to discuss the possibility to entering the State Assembly race in the fourteenth district. The GOP leaders want to replace 21-year-old college student Brian Hackett with Mitchell, a 70-year-old former newspaper editor who served as Deputy Executive Director of the state Council on Affordable Housing under Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.

Correction: Reports that Middlesex County GOP Chairman Joseph Leo was at the meeting was incorrect.

Republicans, who tout the fourteenth as one of their target districts, found themselves without Assembly candidates against Greenstein and Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) last week after their two candidates, Hamilton Councilwoman Kelly Yaede and former Cranbury Councilman Wayne Wittman, unexpectedly pulled out of the race.

Rob Calabro, a Hamilton restaurant owner and former Freeholder candidate, agreed to run on the day of the Mercer GOP convention, and Hackett, the president of the College of New Jersey Republican Club, emerged on Saturday as a candidate at the Middlesex convention. Calabro is widely viewed as a placeholder candidate, but Hackett seems committed to running.

While Wesley has no obligation to give Hackett the organization line in Mercer, it is unclear whether Leo can simply withdraw party support in Middlesex since Hackett won the vote. DeCroce is prepared to tell Hackett that state Republicans will not fund his campaign.

Wally Edge can be reached via email at politicsnj@aol.com.

http://www.politickernj.com/wallye/28708/gop-leaders-court-mitchell-assembly-bid

[PolitickerNJ]

Middlesex Republicans pick 21-year-old for District 14 assembly seatBy Matt Friedman, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter

Brian Hackett, 21, will be the Middlesex Republicans' candidate for assembly in District 14

FORDS -- Middlesex County Republicans chose a 21-year-old college junior as their candidate for a 14th District Legislative assembly seat during their convention today.

Brian Hackett, a Monroe Township resident who’s the College Republican President at The College of New Jersey, was unopposed for the Middlesex County Republican Organization’s endorsement, giving him the party line along with restauranter Rob Calabro of Hamilton.

If elected, he’ll spend the second half of his senior year in the legislature.

The 14th District is supposed to be one of the most competitive in the state this year, with Assembly members Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) and Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro) up for reelection. DeAngelo, a freshman, is considered particularly vulnerable.

Hackett, who ran for the school board in Monroe in 2006, said that he is not a placeholder candidate. He became the party screening committee’s unanimous choice after South Brunswick Municipal Chairwoman Lynda Woods Cleary decided to run for freeholder instead of assembly.

“I think I can talk to people beyond party about issues that affect people across the board,” he said.

The District is represented by a Republican, Bill Baroni of Hamilton, in the state Senate.

“I plan to knock on 10,000 doors, just as Senator Baroni did,” he said. “Money is something, but it’s not everything.”

Assemblyman and gubernatorial candidate Richard Merkt (R-Mendham) was ecstatic about the choice, saying that Hackett breathes new life into the party.

“That kid’s got more leadership and more moxy than most of the people in the legislature. He’s a comer, and shame on the Republican Party if we don’t recognize people like that,” he said. “I think the Republican Party needs to take a chance on someone who is young, has energy and already has an impressive presence.”

Hackett made news recently after inviting controversial conservative commentator Ann Coulter to speak at TCNJ.

http://www.politickernj.com/matt-friedman/28588/middlesex-republicans-pick-21-year-old-district-14-assembly-seat