Republican incumbents hold off conservative challengers in Monmouth County

A quintet of Republican incumbents in Monmouth County has won renomination, fending off a trio of conservative challengers loosely affiliated with Bill Spadea’s campaign for governor, the New Jersey Globe projects, though one renegade Assembly candidate came closer to winning than might have been expected.

In the 13th legislative district, Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger (R-Middletown) and Assemblywoman Vicky Flynn (R-Holmdel) have defeated Rich Castaldo, a business owner and film director. All three appeared on the same ballot, but Castaldo had made it clear he was only targeting Flynn and had little issue with Scharfenberger.

Scharfenberger ended up in the clear lead with 39% of the vote, as of 10:20 p.m. and with nearly all election districts reporting. Flynn snagged the second slot with 34%, while Castaldo got 27% – a difference of a little under 1,900 votes.

Three incumbents in countywide offices also beat back challengers: Monmouth County Commissioners Thomas Arnone (R-Neptune City) and Nick DiRocco (R-Wall) defeated real estate agent Katie Kelliher, and County Clerk Christine Hanlon defeated Marlboro school board member Danielle Bellomo.

Those races were less close: Hanlon leads 71%-29%, while Arnone and DiRocco are up 43%-37%-20%.

Castaldo, Kelliher, and Bellomo were all part of the “Monmouth County Conservative Republicans” ticket, a slate unified by their distrust of the Monmouth County GOP organization led by County Sheriff Shaun Golden, who is also up for re-election this year (but did not draw any primary challengers).

With the Monmouth GOP strongly supporting Jack Ciattarelli’s campaign for governor, the renegade ticket allied itself with Spadea, who has long had a bad relationship with Golden and the Monmouth GOP. Since they had different slogans on the ballot and ran without a county line, however, many voters may have been unaware of the connection.

Early on in the campaign, the race for both State Assembly and county clerk were rocked by petition issues. Hanlon initially rejected Bellomo’s petitions to run for county clerk, though she was eventually allowed back on the ballot; Castaldo and Flynn, meanwhile, each challenged one another’s signatures in a case of potential mutually assured destruction that ended up destroying neither of them.