Monmouth Democrats Have Spoken And The Candidates Are...

Monmouth County Democratic Convention

There weren't many surprises tonight at the Monmouth County Democratic Convention, where the only decision that delegates needed to make was who would get to take on Republican Chris Smith in the new 4th Congressional District.

For delegates that live in the 4th district they had to choose between Red Bank Attorney Patricia Bennett or semi-retired businessman Brian Froelich, both presented themselves well and gave inspired introductions of themselves. When the votes were counted it was Brian Froelich who earned the Party nod over Bennett and will take on Chris Smith in November.

Brian Froelich

Congressman Frank Pallone was also at tonight's Convention accepting the Monmouth Democrats endorsement for himself and Senator Robert Menendez. Pallone spoke about the importance of democratic values and the differences between the proposed federal budget President Obama presented to Congress a number of weeks ago and the one that Rep Paul Ryan and the Republicans presented yesterday, he said that was a clear difference between the two. The President's budget wants to invest in things like infrastructure and education, while the Republican budget wants to cut taxes for the wealthy, decrease education spending and eliminate Medicare and Medicaid for seniors and the working poor.

Congressman Frank Pallone

 For the Monmouth County Freeholder race former Hazlet Mayor Kevin Lavan and last year's Freeholder Candidate Bill Shea, were unopposed for the Party's nod. It was announced that Kevin Lavan would be seeking to fill the unexpired term up for grabs against newly appointed Freeholder Serena Dimaso, while Bill Shea will be looking to fill the full term against current Freeholder Director John Curley.  

Kevin Lavan and Bill Shea

And rounding out the ticket it will be Rumson's Michael Steinhorn who will be running for Monmouth County Clerk for the Democrats.

Michael Steinhorn

Those that participated in tonight's Convention were enthusiastic and felted that they were putting forward an extremely strong ticket, they left feeling united behind the candidates and vowed to work hard on the behalf of each one knowing that the political landscape is shaping up on both the national and local levels, to be a big fight about values and the roll of government in our lives.