Democrats maintain grip on N.J. Assembly

Democrats held on to their comfortable majority in New Jersey's Assembly, presenting a challenge to Christopher J. Christie, the former U.S. attorney who defeated incumbent Democratic Gov. Corzine for the governorship.

At the same time, both state Senate seats vacated as a result of last year's congressional elections were retained by their respective parties.

In the Senate, Democrat James Beach - a Voorhees resident who served as Camden County clerk and freeholder - bested Republican Joseph Adolf in the heavily Democratic Sixth District. The Camden County seat had been vacated by John Adler.

In Republican-leaning District 23, the GOP's Michael Doherty easily defeated Democrat Harvey Baron for Leonard Lance's Senate seat in Hunterdon and Warren Counties.

On the Assembly side, Republicans targeted a handful of districts where it believed gains were possible. One was the Fourth, covering mainly blue-collar areas in Camden and Gloucester Counties, where GOP contender Domenick DiCicco won.

DiCicco, a former independent, and chief counsel for the insurance company Zurich North American Claim Operation, ran for office, he said, believing that government should be better managed.

One of the Fourth's two Democratic incumbents, Paul Moriarty, was returned to office. A former TV news reporter, he has been in the Assembly since 2006 and was mayor of Washington Township until he decided against running for another term last year.

DiCicco's running mate was Republican Eugene Lawrence, a former Democrat and workplace ethics consultant who served on the Gloucester Township Council for five years and on the executive board of the Camden County East NAACP.

Moriarty ran with Democrat Bill Collins, who has served on the Gloucester Township school board 15 years, including three as president.

In the Third District, covering parts of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland Counties, Democratic incumbents John J. Burzichelli and Celeste M. Riley defeated Republican challengers Robert Villare and Lee Lucas.

Burzichelli, deputy speaker of the Assembly, sponsored bills that she said would reduce taxes, including one that would phase out nonoperational school districts and another that would set spending limits on municipal budgets.

Riley, a Greenwich, Cumberland County, teacher who served as president of the Bridgeton City Council, was appointed to the Assembly in March, replacing Assemblyman Doug Fisher when he became state secretary of agriculture.

In the Fifth District, taking in parts of Camden and Gloucester Counties, longtime labor leader Donald Norcross, brother of South Jersey political power broker George Norcross III, and Camden City Council President Angel Fuentes defeated Republicans Brian Kluchnick and Stephanie Velez-Gentry.

Donald Norcross is president of the 85,000-member Southern New Jersey AFL-CIO Central Labor Council. He is taking over the seat left behind by retiring Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr.

In the Eighth District, GOP incumbents Scott Rudder and Dawn Addiego fended off challenges by Democrats Debbie Sarcone and William Brown, who left the Republican Party in the spring. The district includes Medford, Evesham, Mount Laurel, and 14 other Burlington County towns.

Addiego, a lawyer and former Evesham councilwoman who went on to serve as county freeholder from 2000 to 2007, says she would like to reform New Jersey financial mismanagement through a constitutional convention.

Rudder, a manager at Lockheed Martin who spent a decade on the Medford Township Council through 2007, most recently as mayor, says he wants to take better advantage of technology to track spending, foster more communication between departments, and trim the workforce.

In the Ninth District, covering parts of Burlington, Atlantic, and Ocean Counties, Republican incumbents Brian E. Rumpf and DiAnne Gove defeated Democratic challengers Richard P. Visotcky and Robert E. Rue.

Rumpf, a Little Egg Harbor Township resident seeking his fourth full term, teamed up with Long Beach Township Commissioner Gove after Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt resigned on July 31.

Van Pelt, former Lumberton Township business administrator and the former mayor of Ocean Township, was arrested in a federal corruption sting that netted 43 others.

Rumpf is a member of the legislature's Higher Education, Transportation, and Public Works Committees, and a partner with his wife in a Little Egg Harbor law firm. Gove is a retired high school social studies teacher.

In the Sixth District, covering parts of Camden County, Democratic incumbents Louis Greenwald and Pamela Lampitt won reelection, besting GOP challengers Scot DeCristofaro and Brian Greenberg.

Greenwald, of Voorhees, will be serving his eighth term, and Lampitt, of Cherry Hill, will be serving her third.

Greenwald, a lawyer for Remington & Vernick Engineers, has chaired the powerful Budget Committee since 2002.

Lampitt, a general manager for conference services at the University of Pennsylvania, proposed legislation that would require various local government entities - municipalities, school boards, counties, fire districts - to communicate before setting their budgets to increase awareness of the impact their decisions would have on taxes.

In the riverfront Seventh District, incumbent Democrats Herb Conaway and Jack Conners won their race against GOP challengers Leah J. Arter and Harry Adams. The district comprises 17 municipalities, lining the Delaware River from Pennsauken in Camden County north to Florence in Burlington County and stretching east to Mount Holly.