Simon faces Amodeo-like dilemma; GOP would fall to 28 seats

Simon (second from left) campaigns with the Assembly GOP leadership hours before Election 2015.

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

Simon (second from left) campaigns with the Assembly GOP leadership hours before Election 2015.
Simon (second from left) campaigns with the Assembly GOP leadership hours before Election 2015.

Republicans are all-but certain to lose three seats after Tuesday night’s disaster, Save Jerseyans: Sam Fiocchi (R-1), Caroline Casagrande (R-11) and almost certainly Mary Pat Angelini (R-11).

It’s all anybody’s talking about today.

That grim body county will take them down to 29 Assembly seats to the Democrats’ 51, the worst GOP caucus showing since… 1979.

Sadly it’s likely to get a little bit worse, too, before all is said and done. Sorry…

The battle for second place in LD16 between Democrat plasma physicist and Rush Holt impersonator Andrew Zwicker and incumbent Assemblywoman Donna Simon (R) was too-close-to-call on Wednesday morning. Zwicker (16,213) leads Simon (16,183) by a mere 30 votes. 

Provisional ballots will now decide the race which is almost never good for the GOP candidate.

Provisional voters aren’t GOP voters, and as the 2000 Florida recount should’ve convinced you, Democrats voters just have a much harder time doing simple things like pressing buttons and dimpling chads. Recent electoral history tells the tale. In 2013, LD38’s Joe Scarpa (R) actually had a narrow lead over Tim Eustace after Election Night but ultimately lost by 35-votes after a recountMore similar to Simon’s numerical plight was the 2013 campaign of incumbent John Amodeo at the other end of the Garden State Parkway who trailed behind Vince Mazzeo (who won reelection on Tuesday) by 38 votes on Election Night and ultimately ended up losing by 39 votes after a protracted legal battle.

I’d love to give you more hope for Simon, folks. Truly and sincerely. But it’d be the false kind.

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Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8405 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.

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