New Jersey Republicans’ Assembly caucus will be 34 members strong in January, the largest its been since 2003 when Republicans had 33 members.
Republicans picked up six seats in Election 2021, two each in districts 2 (Atlantic County), 3 (Gloucester-Cumberland-Salem) and 11 (Monmouth).
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Five of the defeated Democrat Assembly candidates were incumbents: John Armato (D-2), John Burzichelli (D-3), Joanne Downey (D-11), Eric Houghtaling (D-11), and John Taliaferro (D-3).
The new GOP Assembly members are Don Guardian (R-2), Claire Swift (R-2), Brandon Umba (R-8), Michael Torrissi (R-8), Beth Sawyer (R-3), Patrick McCarthy (R-3), Marilyn Piperno (R-11) and Kim Eulner (R-11). The LD8 wins are holds. Holmdel Board of Education President Vicky Flynn will also join the legislature as an LD13 Assemblywoman; she is taking over the seat of fellow Republican Serena DiMaso whom she defeated in the June primary. The sames goes for Christian Barranco (R-26) who retired Betty Lou DeCroce in a fierce multi-candidate spring contest.
Republicans can get to a majority for the first time since Election 1999 if they flip seven more seats in 2023 when the entire Assembly is once again on the ballot. The ease (or difficulty) of this task will in large part be determined by the ongoing legislative redistricting process.
Republicans picked up a net of one State Senate seat; the upper chamber is now 24-16 Democrat, the small Democrat majority since Governor Murphy took office.
The biggest prize was obviously the upset victory of Edward “Ed” Durr, a truck driver who defeated Senate President Steve Sweeney by 2,213 votes with a shoestring budget.
Republicans also won State Senate seats in LD8 (Assemblywoman Jean Stanfield, a Republican, defeated Republican-turned-Democrat Senator Dawn Addiego by 1,222 votes) and LD2 where former Assemblyman Vince Polistina successfully defended Chris Brown’s vacated seat from soon-to-be former Democrat Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo by 2,304 votes.
Republicans only netted one seat because Democrat Andrew Zwicker defeated ex-Congressman Michael Pappas to take control of retiring Republican Chris Bateman’s Senate seat by 4,979 votes.
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