Another 29 mayors in 10 counties have signed on as public supporters of Gov. Chris Christie's Cap 2.5 property tax plan.
The mayors names were rather quietly added to a list of endorsing mayors kept by Christie's office, without any of the fanfare that accompanied the first 173 endorsements. UPDATED: And then about seven minutes after this was originally posted, the Governor's Office announced the full list via email (adding four more mayors, as well). Ah, timing.
The batch of late-comers includes 27 Republicans and two Democrats. One of the two Democrats is Englewood Mayor Frank Huttle III -- interesting in part because he's married to Democratic Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle. And among the Republicans is Plumsted Mayor Ronald Dancer, who is also an Ocean County assemblyman ... and whose absence from the first group of Ocean mayors endorsing the plan was conspicuous.
None of the five Democratic legislators who are also local mayors -- Assm. John Burzichelli of Paulsboro, Assm. John McKeon of West Orange, Sen. Nicholas Sacco of North Bergen, Sen. Paul Sarlo of Wood-Ridge and Sen. Brian Stack of Union City -- have endorsed the plan.
A few miscellaneous facts about the list:
- Thirty-six percent of New Jersey's mayors, 202 of 566, have been listed as endorsing the plan.
- It includes 178 Republicans, 19 Democrats and five independents.
- Bergen County is tops with 25 mayors, slightly more than Morris (23), Monmouth (22) and Ocean (22)
- Ocean County has the largest percentage of endorsing mayors, 67%. Others over 50% are Atlantic (61%), Morris (59%) and Warren (55%).
- Middlesex County has the smallest share of endorsing mayors (8%), followed by Camden (14%), Hudson (17%) and -- in what is probably the only surprise in this whole exercise -- Hunterdon (19%).
Full list of the new endorsements is below; recaps of the earlier lists the Governor's Office are listed earlier in this blog.
Atlantic County
- Mayor Philip Guenther, Brigantine (R)
- Mayor Michael Becker, Margate (R)
- Mayor John Glasser, Somers Point (R)
- Mayor Theresa Kelly, Ventnor (R)
Bergen County
- Mayor William Roseman, Carlstadt (R) * listed online, then removed; currently under indictment
- Mayor Frank Huttle III, Englewood (D)
- Mayor Max Arnowitz, Hillsdale (R)
Hunterdon County
- Mayor Linda Jacukowicz, Franklin Twp. (R)
Morris County
- Mayor Joseph Heywang, Butler (R)
- Mayor William Cogger, Chester Twp. (R)
- Mayor Scott Eveland, Florham Park (R)
- Mayor Marshall Bartlett, Harding (R)
- Mayor Glenn Sisco, Kinnelon (R)
- Mayor Jerry Aroneo, Long Hill (R)
Monmouth County
- Mayor Thomas Reynolds, Englishtown (R)
- Mayor Suzanne Castleman, Little Silver (R)
- Mayor Paul Buccellato, Matawan (R)
- Mayor Michael Skudera, Tinton Falls (R)
Ocean County
- Mayor Ray Gormley, Little Egg Harbor (R)
- Mayor Ronald Dancer, Plumsted (R)
Passaic County
- Mayor Richard Goldberg, Hawthorne (R)
- Mayor Pat Lepore, Woodland Park (D)
Salem County
- Mayor Linda DuBois, Pittsgrove (R)
Sussex County
- Mayor Paul Marino, Hamburg (R)
Union County
- Mayor Andrew Skibitsky, Westfield (R)
Warren County
- Mayor Tanya Segal, Greenwich (R)
- Mayor Brian Tipton, Harmony (R)
- Mayor John Fisher, Liberty (R)
- Mayor Jeff Herb, White (R)
