Skip to content

A town square for an unsquare town

redbankgreen

Standing for the vitality of Red Bank, its community, and the fun we have together.

IN A STUNNER, BECK PLOWS KARCHER UNDER

Beckwins1

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.

12ld_07

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.”

Img_8165Beck 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.

Email this story

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
redbankgreen Classics
Partyline
SIDEWALK GOES FROM WORST TO FIRST
P (photo by Brian Donohue) What had been, in our estimation – and apparently in the eyes of the several people who have emailed and te ...
RED BANK: PEERING FROM ON HIGH, ACROSS THE DECADES
Roofers on the Azalea Red Bank top off the project in the shadow of a sculpture depicting another generation of construction workers who toi ...
BRICK FACELIFT CONTINUES ON MONMOUTH STREET
A million-dollar brick sidwalk makeover of Monmouth Street in Red Bank continues.
JAY AND SILENT EAGLE
A very loud blue jay squawks at an indiferent bald eagle in a treetop alongside the Swimming River in Red Bank this week. (Partyline photo b ...
PIZZA LOVING SQUIRREL SPOTTED IN RED BANK
Pizza squirrel spotted in Red Bank. (click to read)
GET YOUR MA SOMETHIN’ NICE AT THE RED BANK FARMERS MARKET
It’s a beautiful and sunny Mother’s Day for the first instance of the farmer’s market, held every Sunday, beginning in May ...
SIGN? WHAT SIGN?
Folks in Red Bank Wednesday exercising their riparian rights to access tidal waters first encoded into Roman law in 500 AD and later adopted ...
FANTASTIC MR. FOX
Partyline contributor captures photo of backyard fox.
STRIPER RUN AT MARINE PARK
An angler pulls in a striped bass from the Marine Park bulkhead Tuesday evening. (photo by Partyline contributor Boris Kofman)  
COLD AS CANADA? CHECK.
A pair of goose sculptures propped atop an air conditioning unit on River Street in Red Bank.
SUNRISE OVER A GLASSY NAVESINK
Sunrise over the Navesink River, seen from NJ Transit Train 3320. (photo by Partyline contributor Karly Swaim)  
A BLAST FROM THE PAST
NJ Transit "heritage" locomotive makes an appearance at the Red Bank station.
RBFD SNUFFS OUT SMALL APARTMENT FIRE
A small fire that started in a light fixture at the Colony House apartments in Red Bank was quickly put out by members of the Red Band Volun ...
HEAVENLY RED BANK
Rays burst from behind clouds at the sun begins to set over the Navesink River. (photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus)
IN THE FLOW STATE AT RIVESIDE GARDENS
Flow artists in Riverside Gardens Park Friday night. ( photo by Partyline Contributor Karly Swaim)
MAILBOXES HEAD TO HISTORY’S SCRAP HEAP
Sign of the digital age: mailboxes hauled away from Red Bank post office to storage.
HOVERING CHOPPER
What’s going on here? Last Sunday. Hovering around for quite a while. (Photo and text by Partyline contributor Rosaleen Perry)   ...
RBMS HOOPS CHAMPS HONORED
The Red Bank Middle School girls basketball team is honored for their championship season. (click for more)
NAVESINK SUNSET
Sunset sunburst over Riverside Gardens Park (photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus)
RIVERSIDE SUNSET
Sunday’s sunset shot from Riverside Gardens Park. (Photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus) —