Point Beach Mayor Gets Ocean County GOP Nod In Assembly Run: Report

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, NJ — Point Pleasant Beach Mayor Paul Kanitra will be one of the Republican candidates for Assembly in the 10th District, after he received the backing of Ocean County Republicans at the county GOP convention, according to a report.

Kanitra and Gregory McGuckin, who currently serves the 10th District in the Assembly, will have the party line on the June primary ballot in Ocean County after they were the top vote-getters Wednesday night, the Asbury Park Press reported.

McGuckin received 63 votes and Kanitra received 50, edging Ruthanne Scaturro, who had 35 votes and Ashley Lamb, who had 25, according to the report.

Scaturro is a former Brick Township councilwoman, and Lamb is a member of the Toms River Regional Board of Education. Lamb ran last year seeking a seat on the Ocean County Board of Commissioners but was defeated in the GOP primary.

John Catalano of Brick, who was elected to the Assembly when David Wolfe did not seek re-election in 2019, decided not to seek re-election to the Assembly, choosing instead to run for mayor of Brick Township after John G. Ducey resigned to become a Superior Court judge.

"After Assemblyman Catalano decided to run for mayor of Brick, he called and asked me personally to consider screening for the newly created opening," Kanitra said in February, ahead of the county GOP convention. "I obviously took it as a huge honor that he and others viewed my qualifications so strongly."

"In the past, seats in the state legislature have been reserved for only the largest towns in our district and that certainly isn’t right," he said.

Kanitra has not been shy in his criticisms of Gov. Phil Murphy and state officials, from expressing frustrations over the state's response to pop-up parties to the response to a string of whale deaths, where he has called for a moratorium on offshore wind projects.

McGuckin was being challenged by Lamb, who has had the support of Ocean County Republican chairman George Gilmore since Gilmore returned to the political arena after he was pardoned from serving jail time following his conviction on federal tax charges.

McGuckin will be seeking his sixth term in the Assembly. He and Kanitra received the GOP support of Monmouth County towns in the 10th District in a February vote, the New Jersey Globe reported.