Endorsed Republican Candidates Face Challenger in Today's Primary

Three Republicans battle it out at the polls today for the chance to run for two open seats on the Barnegat Township Committee, and all three expressed cautious confidence Monday as they discussed campaigns – and traded a few last-minute barbs.

“We feel pretty good,” said incumbent Martin Lisella, a Realtor who is running alongside retiree and former Committee member Maxine Blumenthal. “We’ve got a lot of support.” Lisella said he’s made it his aim to improve Barnegat across the board while in office by bringing down costs, including orchestrating a switch to every-other-week recycling pickup that officials say saved the township hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“If people like what I did, they’ll vote for me,” Lisella said. “If not, that’s the choice they have. And we’ll honor their choice.”

The pair claimed in recent campaign literature that their opponent, challenger Philip J. Checchia, was “hand picked by the local Democrats” as a candidate meant to deceive the “true Republican voter,” an accusation Checchia dismissed.

It was his Republican friends who pushed him to run, Checchia said, and he feels confident that many will turn out to support him and his platform of greater transparency and spending cuts in today’s primary.

And while he’s friendly with some local Democrats, he said, “not one Democrat would ever pick me."

Michael P. Howard, running alongside incumbent Leonard Morano in the uncontested Democratic primary, chuckled at the idea that he and other Democrats pushed Checchia into running to better their own chances.

People are friendly with one another in town regardless of political affiliation, he said, "but for anybody to even imply they could talk Phil into doing something is crazy."

Checchia, who has been a vocal critic of the current Committee, called himself a true Republican – one whose main priority would be slashing spending. “I’m a constitutionalist first, then a conservative and then a Republican,” he said – but that doesn’t stop him from talking to people with different views.

Blumenthal said the campaign flier was meant to inform residents that only she and Lisella have the official nod from local Republican organizations.

“We know for a fact that there has been support for (Checchia) to run from both sides of the political fence,” she said, and if residents want to be sure they’re voting for Republican values, they should support the endorsed candidates.

She and Lisella have the backing of the local club, county Republicans and state elected officials. “That’s why we’re in column A, running together,” she said.

As for how they’ll fare at the polls, “it’s very hard to know,” Blumenthal said. “You won’t know until you see the numbers. But our primary interest is in people coming out to execute their right to vote. People have gotten blaise. It’s sad.”

To that effect, they’ve been busy getting the word out about the , Blumenthal said.

The addition of two districts and a reshuffling of a few polling place locations means that “some people are going to go to the wrong place,” she said.  “It’s not a question of it hurting our vote, it’s a question of the electoral procedure being hurt. But it’s part and parcel of the fact that Barnegat is growing.”