Things Are Looking Brighter

For those of you that woke up yesterday morning, feeling down and out because Middletown Democratic candidate Tricia Maguire, LD13 candidates Sean F. Byrnes, Tom Giaimo and Mariel DiDato and Monmouth County Freeholder candidates Margie Donjon and Brian Wilton did not come out victorious yesterday, cheer up. The Middletown GOP's margin of victory over the Middletown Democrats this year was shrunk by over 4% due in large part by a tremendous GOTV effort this year by numerous volunteers and candidate Tricia Maguire.

While 4% may not seem like much, it was huge! The Middletown Democrats closed the gap from previous elections and shrunk the margins of Republicans countywide​. The races in LD 13 and for Freeholder were much closer than in previous years, in large part to the Democratic turn out in Middletown. That means we are moving in the right direction and we have momentum moving forward. Next year is looking brighter already.

In Middletown, all of the Democratic candidates received a minimum of a 1000 votes more than our Governor elect Phil Murphy. This is huge! Especially when you take into consideration that Kim Guadagni received 5000 more votes in Middletown than Phil Murphy.

In hindsight, Murphy's statement about making New Jersey a "sanctuary state", which was drove home constantly by the  Guadagno campaign, not only hurt Murphy in Middletown, but also in northern Monmouth County. It lead to the local Democratic candidates having to answer questions about it, which in turn took away from their messages and caused potential supporters not to vote.

Overall I'm encouraged by Tuesday night's results. Phil Murphy, flaws and all, is the governor elect and Democrat Vin Gopal beat Jennifer Beck to become the new LD11 State Senator. When added to the results in Middletown, where the margins were shrunk even though the Democratic candidates lost, it was a good day. The resistance is strong and the future is bright!