See Bob Hugin Visit The New Monmouth Diner Tuesday

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Bob Hugin stopped by the New Monmouth Diner on Hwy. 35 in Middletown Tuesday. Monmouth and Ocean counties are two Republican strongholds in New Jersey, and Hugin will have to win both today if he wants to take Bob Menendez's Senate seat.

The video was taken and posted by popular local blog More Monmouth Musings. Hugin was warmly greeted and accompanied by two of the Republican candidates seeking to keep their seats on the Middletown Township Committee, Pat Snell and Tony Perry.

Hugin said a voter texted him this morning, "I went (to vote) at 6:30 a.m. and had the longest line I've ever had. Our town, Hasbrouck Heights (which is in Bergen County) is so solid for you. So that's gotta be a good sign."

Former Middletown Township Committeeman Gerry Scharfenberger, also a Republican, led Hugin around the diner as he greeted and shook hands with people eating. Many diner patrons wore stickers that said "I voted."

Hugin was interviewed at the end of the video and he said Tuesday's high voter turnout today is "good for democracy."

That's quite a change from just Monday in Toms River, when he joked to a crowd that Tuesday's non-stop rain is “Republican weather.”

“This election is about who gets the vote out and who doesn’t,” Hugin said Monday according to the New York Times. “And I hope it rains hard tomorrow.”

Scharfenberger is running in an election of his own today, to keep his seat as a Monmouth County Freeholder. He is widely expected to run for the Assembly seat soon to be vacated by Amy Handlin, who announced she is retiring. As he held high-level jobs in the Christie administration, the Asbury Park Press described Scharfenberger as "the consummate New Jersey Republican insider."

Photo: Bob Hugin for Senate