{"id":14089,"date":"2019-01-25T00:50:19","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T05:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=14089"},"modified":"2019-01-25T12:53:33","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T17:53:33","slug":"with-wolfes-retirement-gop-leaders-will-vie-for-bricks-seat-in-n-j-assembly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2019\/01\/with-wolfes-retirement-gop-leaders-will-vie-for-bricks-seat-in-n-j-assembly\/","title":{"rendered":"With Wolfe’s Retirement, GOP Leaders Will Vie for ‘Brick’s Seat’ in N.J. Assembly"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ruthanne<\/a>

Ruthanne Scaturro and John Catalano (File Photos)<\/p><\/div>\n

A day after longtime state Assemblyman David Wolfe announced he would retire<\/a> at the end of his current term, a field of Republican contenders from Brick is already emerging as frontrunners for the seat.<\/p>\n

Two former Brick Township council members \u2013 John Catalano and Ruthanne Scaturro \u2013 have announced their intentions to run. Catalano has drawn the early backing of Brick GOP chairman Brian DeLuca, who said he expects all interested candidates to go before a county screening committee soon.<\/p>\n

While there may be some intra-party competition for the seat, there is one thing that all Brick Republicans seem to agree on: the seat should be occupied by a Brick resident.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith [Sen.] Andy [Ciesla] having retired and now Dave having retired, we all feel this is a Brick seat to keep,\u201d said Catalano.<\/p>\n

DeLuca said he \u201cdefinitely\u201d believes the candidate should be from town.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a Brick seat for 45 years,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen Andy Ciesla left, Jim Holzapfel, from Toms River, moved up. Greg McGuckin, also from Toms River then came in. Toms River is well represented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the open seat has remained occupied by a Brick resident \u2013 from either party \u2013 for decades. Before Republican Wolfe won his first election, Brick Democrats John Paul Doyle and Marlene Lynch Ford held it. Before them, legendary Brick mayor and coach Warren Wolf served a term.<\/p>\n

DeLuca said he would put \u201call my resources\u201d behind Catalano\u2019s candidacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a great candidate in John Catalano,\u201d said DeLuca. \u201cHe\u2019s a former councilman, he\u2019s raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the community. He cares about the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI like Ruthanne Scaturro,\u201d DeLuca continued. \u201cShe\u2019s done great things for Brick, but I think it\u2019s John\u2019s turn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scaturro was supported by Brick Republicans when Holzapfel moved from the Assembly to the Senate after Ciesla retired, however the county Republican organization chose McGuckin, then a Toms River councilman, instead.<\/p>\n

DeLuca said party chairman George Gilmore \u201cthinks it\u2019s a good idea\u201d for Brick to be represented in the Assembly, though ultimately the candidate who receives the party\u2019s support will be chosen after a vote following a screening committee meeting that will likely be held in March.<\/p>\n

Catalano said he would focus on repairing the state\u2019s school funding formula \u2013 which led to a $22 million cut in Brick\u2019s school funding under the Democrat-led legislature this year \u2013 and reducing property taxes. He also said he would bring his experience owning a local business to the chamber. Catalano owns Country Store Jewelers in town and owned the larger Country Store eatery and general store before that.<\/p>\n

Thus far, Scaturro has emerged as the only other candidate interested in the seat, however the district also covers Toms River, Manchester, Seaside Heights, Lavallette, Mantoloking, Bay Head and Island Heights. Manchester, which is growing in population, is the third-largest town in the district behind Brick and Toms River, and Ocean County has a history of elevating Seaside Heights officials to higher offices. There was no word from anyone in those towns, or others, as to whether any officials would throw their hat into the ring.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that as a lifelong resident of this area, along with my community, business and political involvement, I can continue the legacy of good government for the people of the 10th Legislative District,\u201d said Scaturro, praising Wolfe\u2019s years of service.<\/p>\n

Scaturro was an executive at Ferguson Enterprises and served on the Brick council for eight years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would feel honored to be the next Assembly person,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As for the Democratic side, Brick Mayor John Ducey said the party\u2019s choice for a candidate will be left up to the county organization. Ocean County Democratic Chairman Wyatt Earp did not respond to a request for comment. There have been no truly competitive races for the seat in decades. The Democratic candidates who garnered the most votes in legislative elections dating back to the 1990s were Timothy E. Ryan, a well-known local figure who owns funeral homes in Toms River, Seaside Park and Lavallette, and former Ocean County Freeholder and Toms River mayor Paul C. Brush.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A day after longtime state Assemblyman David Wolfe announced he would retire at the end of his current term, a field of Republican contenders from Brick is already emerging as frontrunners for the seat. Two former Brick Township council members \u2013 John Catalano and Ruthanne Scaturro \u2013 have announced their intentions to run. Catalano has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15,2],"tags":[3589,24,3588,3585,940],"class_list":["post-14089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brick-elections","category-government","tag-10th-legislative-district","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-john-catalano","tag-new-jersey-assembly","tag-ruthanne-scaturro"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/LtUGZej0.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-3Ff","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}