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RED BANK: BRIDGE RENAMED FOR KYRILLOS

State Senator Joe Kyrillos at the opening of the new bridge in May, 2015. Freehold John Curley is at left. Below, a Google Satellite view of the bridge. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

For who knows how long, the West Front Front Street bridge connecting Red Bank and Middletown has been colloquially known as “Hubbard’s Bridge.” To Monmouth County, which owns the span and replaced it three years ago, it’s “S-17.”

As of Thursday, though, the 488-foot connector over the upper Navesink River has a new name: the “Senator Joseph M. Kyrillos Bridge.”

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RED BANK: WHELAN RUNNING FOR ASSEMBLY

Red Bank Councilman Mike Whelan and Ocean Township Deputy Mayor Robert Accera Sr. will anchor a ticket headed by state Senator Jen Beck. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

After just 14 months on the Red Bank borough council, Mike Whelan is taking aim at Trenton.

The 25-year-old Republican plans to mount a bid to recapture an 11th-District Assembly seat for his party from first-term incumbents Joann Downey and Eric Houghtaling, he told attendees at the GOP’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner in Freehold Friday.

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RED BANK: O’SCANLON, HANDLIN TO FACE OFF

o'scanlon 031316nj-districtsAssemblyman Declan O’Scanlon, seen here at Rumson’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade last March, announced plans Friday to run for the 13th-District state Senate seat being vacated by Joe Kyrillos.

O’Scanlon’s announcement sets up a Republican primary battle with his 13th-District colleague and fellow Republican Assemblywoman Amy Handlin of Lincroft, who told the Asbury Park Press on Thursday that she is seeking Kyrillo’s spot.

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MIDDLETOWN: KYRILLOS WON’T RUN AGAIN

joe kyrillos 051815State Senator Joe Kyrillos at the opening of the new Hubbard’s Bridge between Middletown and Red Bank in May, 2015. Freeholder John Curley is at left. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

HOT-TOPIC_03After 28 years in the New Jersey legislature, Senator Joe Kyrillos of Middletown won’t seek re-election in 2017, according to media reports.

In an email to supporters Tuesday, the nine-term Republican senator cited “the constraints and frustrations of serving in the minority” and the legislative “process” as factors in his decision.

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LIVE: ASSEMBLY RACE RESULTS

Courtesy of NJ Spotlight and the NJ News Commons, here’s a live display of Assembly race results across the New Jersey. Click on the plus arrow to enlarge and drag then on districts region for details, which will be updated as results come in after polls close at 8 p.m. The colors on the map will shift according to which party is leading.

 

RED BANK: ZIPPRICH OWNS ‘ASTROTURF’ URL

zipprich 102413Councilman Ed Zipprich, seen at the Red Bank NAACP candidates’ forum at Calvary Baptist Church Thursday night, acknowledged he set up a website that now attacks Republican candidates. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank Councilman Ed Zipprich has admitted having connections to an apparent ‘astroturf‘ website that slams Republican politicians and has boosted his own candidacy for state Assembly.

In response to questions from redbankgreen Friday morning, Zipprich acknowledged that he owns the domain name SayWhatNJ.com and is a former owner of an active website at that address. The site bills itself as a watchdog of “policy makers and the people who influence them.”

Among the site’s activities was a comment posted on redbankgreen Friday morning to bolster a claim by Monmouth County Democrats that GOP council candidate Sean Di Somma was the subject of a three-year-old arrest warrant in Dallas. Di Somma calls the allegation a lie; police in Dallas were not immediately reachable for comment.

Di Somma calls SayWhatNJ’s latest action “a straight-up violation” of state election laws.

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GOP CLUB CLAIMS WEBSITE HACKING

The GOP says its website was hacked to include a link to a site for Democrat Ed Zipprich, below.  (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Why does the Monmouth County Affiliated Republican Club website contain a link to one for Red Bank Democrat Ed Zipprich?

“Someone has hacked our site,” club official Wayne Pomanowski tells redbankgreen via email. “They did a redirect to old Ed.”

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SEA BRIGHT: HANDLIN TARGETS TAX FORMULA

By WIL FULTON

Last month, Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long called a school-tax formula that would sock struggling residents with a 13-percent hike for sending their high schoolers to Shore Regional High School “painful before, but after Sandy, unbearable.”

Now, Assemblywoman Amy Handlin, right, has stepped up to bat for the storm-shattered borough, offering to find a legislative solution to ease such shocks in the future.

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