District 30 Democratic Hopefuls, Including Point Boro Candidate, Working to Get Message Out

The three Democrats working to represent the newly drawn 30th legislative District are meeting constituents and getting their message out.

Democrats Steve Morlino, who is running for state Senate, and Assembly candidate running mates Howard Kleinhendler and Shaun O'Rourke know they face a difficult challenge trying to uproot sitting officials. 

Longtime Republican state Sen. Robert Singer, of Lakewood, is looking to hold on to his seat, while current Sen. Sean Kean has opted to seek a seat in the Assembly in the new district. He and Assemblyman David Rible hope to represent the 30th district after being seated in the former 11th District.

Kean and Rible both live in Wall.

Morlino, a longtime resident of Howell, said he and his running mates believe it is time for a change although that change will not be easy. "I think it's a challenge in the sense that they (the Republicans) have more face time in front of the public; you're always at a disadvantage being the opponent because the incumbent has a lot of advantages," he said. 

O'Rourke, a former councilman in Point Pleasant Borough, said the Republicans' experience may not even be an advantage.

 "The fact is, they've been there and the state is broken," he said. "It's not working. The budget is not really a budget. They're constantly setting us up to be in more and more debt."

Kleinhendler, who has lived in Lakewood for more than two decades, said both seats opening in the Assembly race means there is a "real opportunity to bring change to the way things operate in Trenton."

All three men said they believe they have the new ideas that can help to fix the problems in the state. "I look at government as a necessary evil," Morlino said. "We need to curtail some of our government spending.

"In today's society I believe you talk about shared services and reducing government overhead. There's an area that's ripe for the legislative house," Morlino said.

Morlino said he knows the idea of drastic cuts will not be popular, but he believes it is the right thing to do. "If we're talking about consolidating services lets start right in the Statehouse," he said. "It's time that we took a common sense approach to government. If we're serious about reducing government costs that's the place to start."

Kleinhendler said he is a proponent of shared services especially at the municipal level. Locally, he said combining entities such as the school districts of towns such as Howell, Brick, Jackson and Lakewood would aid residents' collective tax burdens and benefit residents and students alike.

O'Rourke said sharing services would cut down on duplicative efforts. "The fact is we don't need to pay three people to do the job of one," he said. "Cutting that back so that it's still efficient and gets the job done, that's important."

Morlino would be the first Howell resident to represent the area in the Senate. "I think if you look at the history of the 30th District it has been basically represented from a Lakewood-based perspective," he said. "The gentlemen in office all these years have been from Lakewood. That's good, but I think it's time with the new re-alignment of the district that we have people representing the entire 30th district." 

But the winning candidates also would have to collaborate with their colleagues beyond the 30th District. 

"You have to work together," he said.

"The whole goal here is to provide government services to the general taxpayers with something broad enough that everyone benefits from it, and it shouldn't be that it's a fight," he said. "Once we get into office we need to work together to come to common ground and understand the issues that affect the common folk."

That includes what he describes as "the average middle-class citizen, the working family, the senior citizen on a fixed income, who are the folks we're here to serve."

Kleinhendler said he is running because he wants to help the state in several areas. That includes helping New Jersey generate more revenue through taxing some of the higher income residents.

For residents who make between $1 and $2 million, even paying as little as $20,000 more could generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the state. 

Kleinhendler also said legislators need to work to improve the business climate in the state. "We have to bring business into the state through tax incentives and tax abatements and bring innovative ways to bring people into the state," he said.

One of his ideas on how to do that is to have special sales tax holidays to encourage not only customers to spend more money, but companies to want to open in the Garden State.

O'Rourke said the best thing the three have done is to go town to town to meet the voters ahead of the election. "This is an eyeball district," he said. "Mass mailings aren't nearly as useful as seeing people and talking to them." 

Kleinhendler said that so far on the campaign trail the Democratic ticket has seen positive results from their efforts. "I think people are very interested in the race, and I think people are very motivated," he said. "I think people are really looking for a change. We've been seeing some pretty good responses and some pretty good support."

Check back with Patch later this week for a report on the 30th District Republican candidates.