Noticias

In a move that appears to assure Assemblyman Sean Kean (R-Wall) another term, Democrats are focusing on winning a second term for Assemblyman Avi Schnall (D-Lakewood) and not making a play for a second seat in the heavily Republican 30th legislative district.

Democrat Claire Deicke withdrew from the race a few weeks ago; the 82-year-old former Belmar council president was always just a placeholder as he party decided if it was going to try a two-seat strategy and attempt to take out Kean.

For a while, it looked like Kean, 62, could be in trouble, but the veteran lawmaker – he served in the Assembly from 2002 to 2007, in the Senate from 2007 to 2011, and then as an assemblyman again when redistricting ended his upper house career – but the Wall Republican has done his constituent service with the Orthodox Jewish community that dominates Lakewood and surrounding towns and they had no bone to pick with his record.

The decision was to focus on re-electing Schnall, who faces a rematch with former Assemblyman Ned Thomson, 72, whom he ousted in 2023.  To replace Deicke, Democrats went with Joanne DeBenedicts, a 75-year-old retired public fifth-grade teacher from Belmar.

Two years ago, Schnall didn’t enter the Assembly race until late August, and went on to crush Thomson, a former Wall mayor who had entered the Assembly in August 2017 and won three races without much trouble.

Democrats focused on Thomson in 2023, leaving Kean alone.  Kean won 37,450 votes and defeated the Democratic sacrificial lamb, former Jersey City police detective Sal Frascino, who worked security for the Lakewood school board, by 28,582 votes.

Schnall, a Rabbi who was the New Jersey director of Agudath Israel of America, received 29,482 votes to 18,076 for Thomson, a member of the Assembly GOP leadership team.

Under normal circumstances, the 30th district wouldn’t be remotely competitive. It backed Republican Jack Ciattarelli by 28 points in the 2021 gubernatorial election, and hasn’t elected a single Democratic legislator since 1992, when the district first became based in Lakewood.

But Orthodox Jewish leaders saw an opportunity to defy those statistics and elect a member of the Democratic majority caucus. To do so, they had to supercharge turnout in Lakewood and get vast numbers of Orthodox voters to pull the lever for Schnall, a longtime Orthodox leader and a former Republican.

They also needed to avoid provoking a backlash in Howell and Wall, two other 30th district towns that are quite Republican but have minimal Orthodox populations – and in fact were liable to be hostile to Schnall’s Orthodox-focused messaging.

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Lillian Beneforti Burry, who served as a Monmouth County Commissioner from 2006 to 2024 and enjoyed a political career that began as a Matawan councilman in 1970, has passed away.  She was 89.

Burry retired at the end of 2023 after eighteen years in county government.

State Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Long Branch) called Burry “a trailblazer who dedicated her life towards public service and protecting open space” and called on Monmouth County to “protect her legacy by creating a permanent memorial in her name.”

“She was always deeply committed to her hometown of Colts Neck,” said Gopal.  “She was instrumental in the redevelopment of Fort Monmouth and passionate about all aspects of Monmouth County.”

She was first elected to the Matawan Borough Council in 1970, at the age of 34, after serving two years on the Zoning Board. She later moved to Colts Neck, where she eventually became a township committeewoman and mayor.

But in the 1973 Democratic Watergate landslide, Burry lost her bid for re-election by roughly 400 votes to Ralph Dolan, the Democratic municipal chairman, and his running mate, Walter Blaine.

The second woman to win a local office in Matawan – the first was Genevieve Donnell in the 1950s — Burry, and Planning Board Chairman Salvatore Millazzo defeated Democrats John Colins and John Byrd.  Burry was the top vote-getter and won by about 250 votes.  Both seats had been held by retiring Republicans.

Burry became the chair of the Monmouth County Library Commission.

In 1997, she resumed her political career as a candidate for the Colts Neck Township Committee.  She won a contested Republican primary in a municipality split by the approval of an assisted living facility; Burry supported it and had the backing of the county line, despite Monmouth County GOP Chairman Bill Dowd representing the anti-assisted living group.   Burry and her running mate, Mike Southcott, won easily.

She became mayor in 1999.  She was easily reelected in 2000 and 2003.

Burry was elected freeholder in 2005 when a Green Party candidate, Brian Unger, became a spoiler after receiving over 18,000 votes.  Burry defeated Democrat Barbara McMorrow by 1,792 votes.

Republicans backed Burry to run with incumbent William Barham.  She defeated Holmdel Councilwoman Serena DiMaso and Howell Councilwoman Cynthia Shoemaker at the GOP convention.  (Spring Lake Councilman Gary Rich entered the race but then dropped out before voting.)

She replaced Harry Larrison.

In 2008, Burry was narrowly re-elected after finishing 1,022 votes ahead of Democrat Amy Mallet; her running mate, John Curley, ran third, 346 votes behind Mallet.

Burry was re-elected in 2008 – Rich unseated Mallet – and again in 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2020.

Her retirement came after feuding with Monmouth GOP Chairman Shaun Golden and County Commissioner Director Tom Arnone.  She was expected to face Shrewsbury Mayor Eik Anderson in the 2023 Republican primary.

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During the Democratic primary for governor earlier this year, much debate was held over whether officials should work to amend the state Constitution to codify the right to an abortion. Several candidates, including eventual nominee Rep. Mikie Sherrill, said they supported such an effort, while some legal experts and abortion rights activists said the move would be unnecessary. 

Such an amendment would have to be approved by three-fifths of both of New Jersey’s legislative chambers and then approved by voters in a referendum. Some states, though, allow their residents to bypass their respective legislators.

More than two dozen states offer residents some sort of citizen-led referendum process. Sherrill on Thursday said she’s open to implementing a public ballot initiative process, saying people should have the chance to have a more direct say on the issue.

“I think people should have the ability to weigh on this a little more directly,” the congresswoman said while visiting small businesses in Haddonfield. “And certainly I remain convinced we should have a constitutional amendment for abortion within the current mechanism, but certainly, I think having voters be able to weigh in on this to get it on the ballot would be important.”

A constitutional amendment on abortion was heavily considered in the fall of 2022, the autumn after the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade. Those efforts were called off at the request of key proponents, including Planned Parenthood of New Jersey. The right to an abortion is codified in New Jersey state law and in state-level court cases.  

More than 20 states have held ballot referenda on abortion since Roe was overturned. The measures, many of which were citizen-led, have seen success, including some in red states like Montana and Ohio. 

While the governorship and General Assembly are up for election this fall, the state Senate will not be up for election until 2027, leaving Democrats with guaranteed control of the chamber until then. Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican nominee for governor, has said he wants to find “common ground” on abortion rights; his issues page says he would aim to prohibit elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and implement other restrictions.

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Green Party candidate Lily Benavides has dropped her bid for governor of New Jersey after Democrats successfully challenged enough nominating petition signatures to bring her below the required 2,000.

Benavides, a late replacement candidate after Steven Zielinski, Sr. withdrew earlier this month due to serious health issues, determined that she had no path to remain in the race.  The attorney for the Democrats, Raj Parikh, still had hundreds of challenges to go.

Administrative Law Judge Tama Hughes rejected 446 of the 2,444 signatures on Benavides’ petition, bringing her to 1,998 – two short.

“I do it because I’m basically forced to do it,” Benavides said.  “I can’t stay here for 100 hours and seeing all the signatures being invalidated, so there’s no point.”

The move is viewed as beneficial to the Democratic nominee for governor, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair).  Green Party candidates tend to get about one-half of one percent in New Jersey – about 10,000 votes – and with Benavides out of the race, Sherrill could pick up at least some Green Party votes in her campaign against Republican Jack Ciattarelli.

New Jersey election law requires independent candidates to refile petitions to protect their ballot position if a candidate drops out.  Zielinski had filed with close to 4,000 signatures.

“We are losing a battle, not a war,” said Benavides.  “And this is not going to stop me or stop the Green Party of New Jersey from continuing, doing what we do, working for the community.

A former Democratic state legislator in New Hampshire, Benavides was the Green Party candidate for Congress against Sherrill in New Jersey’s 11th district in 2024.

Benavides’s exit renders one of Parikh’s challenges moot: the Green Party paid Geoff Sebesta, a political operative from Winchester, Kentucky, to come to New Jersey and secure petition signatures.

Parikh maintained that the state election law requires petition circulators to be eligible to vote, and that would disqualify eighteen books of petitions witnessed by Sebesta since a Kentucky resident isn’t eligible to vote in New Jersey.

Sherrill and Ciattarelli face two independent candidates: Vic Kaplan (Libertarian) and Joanne Kuniansky (Socialist Workers Party).  This is the fewest number of independent gubernatorial candidates since 1922, when Democrat George Silzer and Republican William Runyan faced only Socialist George Goebel.

The dramatic drop in independent candidates follows a move by the New Jersey Legislature this year to double the number of petition signatures needed to get on the ballot, from 1,000 to 2,000.

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