Star-Ledger
Post-race plans draw scrutiny

Sunday, October 28, 2007

BY AL FRANK

Star-Ledger Staff

The legislative race in the 26th District features a Republican seeking a Senate seat he is already thinking about giving up and a Democrat who pledges to remain for the entire four-year term.

Joseph Pennacchio, the district's assemblyman for the last seven years, is running to replace retiring Sen. Robert Martin. Meanwhile Pennacchio is exploring a potential run for U.S. Senate next year, when incumbent Frank Lautenberg's term ends.

To Wasim Khan, the Democratic nominee, that is just "unbelievable."

"It's definitely an insult to the voting public," said Khan, a medical research scientist who ran unsuccessfully for Parsippany's township council in 2005.  "I hope voters are listening and paying attention because it means he's just taking them for a ride and will use this position as a steppingstone," said Khan, 52.  Pennacchio, a dentist, said Joseph Lieberman ran for vice president on Al Gore's ticket in 2000 while also running for re-election to the Senate from Connecticut, and that Democrat Linda Stender, who is running for re-election as a Union County assemblywoman, has said she is running for Congress next year. "I don't say it's right or it's wrong," said Pennacchio, who is also 52. "It is what it is and in politics timing is everything."  The Montville resident said the issue of his U.S. Senate race is distracting from his record of service in the Legislature.  Although in the Republican minority, which has kept many of his bills from becoming laws, Pennacchio said he has been a forceful advocate in Trenton. As a member of the expected Democratic majority, Khan maintains he would be in the position to actually accomplish change.

As a medical doctor who works as a research scientist for a pharmaceutical company, Khan said he is particularly keen on providing universal health insurance for children -- an idea Pennacchio opposes. To pay for it, Kahn said he would not shy away from imposing higher taxes on tobacco and alcohol sales.  "It's just like not repairing roads, it's an essential service and it's do-able," Khan insists.

In the race for the district's two, two-year Assembly terms, the Republican candidates are: Jay Webber, 35, an attorney from Morris Plains, seeking to replace Pennacchio, and incumbent Alex DeCroce 70, a real estate agent from Parsippany who has been in the Assembly since 1989 and is now the Republican leader.  The Democratic candidates are Wayne Marek, 32, a Morris Plains residents who works for a telecommunications company, and David Modrak, 45, a physician and cancer research scientist from Montville's Towaco section.

In the 2005 election, Democrats lost the race by about 10,000 votes. Two Green Party candidates are running for the Assembly seats: Michael Spector, 68, a labor organizer from Mount Tabor who garnered 199 votes out of 14,000 cast as the party's 2005 mayoral candidate in Parsippany; and Matthew Norton, 26, a mover from the Cedar Knolls section of Hanover who is making his first try for public office.

Libertarian Kenneth Kaplan, 59, a commercial real estate broker from Parsippany, also is running for an Assembly seat. Kaplan garnered 646 votes of the almost 117,000 cast in the 2005 race. The district includes 15 towns: Bloomingdale, Butler, Chatham, East Hanover, Florham Park, Hanover, Kinnelon, Lincoln Park, Montville, Morris Plains, Parsippany, Pequannock, Pompton Lakes, Riverdale and West Milford.

Al Frank may be reached at (973) 539-7910 or afrank@starledger.com.