Red Bank Republican Jennifer Beck trounced incumbent state Senator Ellen Karcher at the polls yesterday, despite having been outspent more than fivefold in a campaign widely noted for its bitterness.
In bootstrapping herself to the Senate, Beck helped secure Assembly wins for Little Silver Councilman Declan O’Scanlon and Caroline Casagrande of Marlboro. They ousted incumbent Mike Panter of Shrewsbury and denied Amy Panter of Fair Haven Beck’s seat in the lower chamber.
“I never thought we’d get a sweep,” Rumson Mayor John Ekdahl told redbankgreen early this morning at a GOP bash at the Dublin House. He said the win came about because “Karcher went negative too early and poured in a lot of money to stay negative at the end. Voters get turned off by that. She stayed negative too long.”
Beck on TV behind the bar at the Dublin House. That’s running mate Declan O’Scanlon on the left.
Beck’s margin of victory was unclear early this morning, but members of her campaign variously estimated gaps between her and Karcher of eight to 11 percentage points. Monmouth County posted results showing Beck pulled 55 percent of 43,716 votes cast, compared to Karcher’s 44.7 percent. Results from Mercer County portion of the district were not immediately available.
Beck told redbankgreen that the win was a “huge honor,” and that after having spent much of her two years as an Assembly member introducing herself to constituents in Mercer County, she now plans to spend more time here. She said she intends to focus on issues of particular concern to Red Bank, including improved state funding of schools and the property tax system.
“This is my hometown,” she said, in the stairwell of the Dublin House while a party raged in the next room. “I will always protect Red Bank.
Beck told redbankgreen that she had received a congratulatory call from Mayor Pasquale Menna, with whom she has been friends since her seven-year tenure on the Red Bank council. Menna recently formed a law partnership in Shrewsbury with Casagrande and a third attorney.
Karcher did not mention Beck by name in her concession speech, according to a television report.
The meandering 12th was one of three districts seen as key battlegrounds for the Democrats. It was the only one in which Republicans were victors, according to a report from the Gannet Statehouse Bureau.
For the race, Karcher amassed a war chest of $2.4 million compared to Beck’s $340,000, Gannet reported.
good job Jen, now please let us get some control over Red Bank
So Ellen spends almost $100 bucks per vote in a losing effort.Tha'ts gonna take a lot of Christmas trees to recoup.
I didn't know Mike was married to his running mate? LOL.
"They ousted incumbent Mike Panter of Shrewsbury and denied Amy Panter of Fair Haven…"
Voter turn-out for yesterday's election was estimated to be about 26%.
Here's a few solutions for the problem of low voter turn-out: (1) Move Election Day to a Sunday when most folks are not working; (2) Permit voting via the Internet (If I trust Amazon.com enough to hand over my credit card information on their web site, then surely we can develop sufficient anti-fraud measures that would make voting via the Internet a feasible option) and; (3) Allow the electorate the very real option of casting a ballot for "NONE OF THE ABOVE."
When I say that voters should have a real option to vote "none of the above," I mean there should be an actual button that I can push or an actual lever that I can pull that says that I disapprove of all of the candidates running. If the "none of the above" option should happen to win an election, then there would be a run-off election in three weeks in which "none" of the candidates that lost the first election would be permitted to appear on the run-off ballot. And what if by chance the "none of the above" option should win the run-off election? In that case we would keep voting until we found some candidate that the electorate tolerates.
Oh, and while I am rambling, here is another proposed solution that I have for the problem of low voter turn-out: (4) GIVE VOTERS A WILDCARD VOTE.
Here's how the wildcard voting scheme works: In addition to casting a ballot for all of the current offices and/or questions that are normally presented to a voter, the voter would get a single wildcard vote that he could use in any election. If the voter really liked a particular candidate in his own district/state, he could use his wildcard vote to vote for that candidate twice. If, however, the voter wanted to vote in an election where he was not a resident, he could use his single wildcard vote to cast a ballot in that particular election as well. (e.g., a voter in Texas could cast his wildcard ballot for whomever is running against Ted Kennedy, a US Senator from MA)
The Wildcard Option might require some tinkering with the Constitution, but I think it's worth it. Voting should be at least as much fun as is watching the NBA Draft or American Idol.
One more proposal: (5) Outlaw political contributions to campaigns, including contributing to one's own campaign. People don't willfully hand over their hard-earned money unless they expect something in return. It's that "something in return" part that corrupts the whole process and which has left us in the mess we are currently in. Let the taxpayers fund each and every political party and/or candidate with the same amount of cash and then let the games begin. If we did that, we would be hearing from voices that are otherwise never heard from. And that would be a good thing. I have to believe that all too many people that are sitting on the couch on Election Day feel that no one adequately speaks for them.
If these proposals fail to draw a sufficient number of voters to the polls, then we should consider doing what the churches do now: (6)offer free food and (7) free daycare for a few hours.
God bless America! Any thoughts?
"Wild Card"…..put away the bottle of the Old Grand Dad.
"Free food" & "Free Child Care" would not be free to the tax payers and I can only imagine the abundance of law suites. And I might drop my kid off with some crusty dude who was given the day off from DMV to baby sit. And New Jersey might be the Garden State, but I will go somewhere else to grab a salad.
"None of the above" only works in Puerto Rico.
Perhaps if we make voting like going to a Blue Claws game we will have people pushing buttons who have no idea about any of the issues.
Sad to say that there were low voter turn out especially in the west side. Either people cannot vote because they went to jail,or people do not want to be involved in their community.
West sider
Westsider you forgot the third choice called the Daley choice, 'here is a hundred bucks, go home and don't vote, or vote this way for a hundred', that seems to a common concession around town today
I have seen comments on here that the Red Bank Democrats paid for votes. If this is true and someone has evidence of it, they should go to the authorities.
Nobody paid anyone for votes. At least no one came to my house with any greenbacks. and I for the first time voted out of my party.
I would like to thank all the canidates for there time and concern with Red Bank and our state, I just hope that the next time we go thru this a rain forest will not be killed and sent to my mailbox.
Is that a breeders cup picture?
Did this horse win?
Damn that a whole lot'a teeth!!
"Crest" made their money tonight