BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer
“The residents of District 12 are still seen as a collective ATMmachine for the rest of the state by the people in Trenton, and that has to stop.” – Declan O’Scanlon Little Silver Councilman Declan O’Scanlon is set to make a second run for the state Assembly. O’Scan-lon, a Republican, ran for a 12th District Assembly seat in 2005 with Jennifer Beck.
Beck won election to the Assembly, but O’Scanlon lost by 65 votes to Democrat Michael Panter, who won his second two-year term in the Assembly.
The 12th District is made up of towns in Monmouth and Mercer counties, including Colts Neck, Englishtown, Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Manalapan and Marlboro.
Beck has announced that for her second run at state office she will seek a four-year term in the state Senate.
O’Scanlon said in an interview that he believes his chances to gain the Republican nomination are good.
“I think I’ve got a really good shot,” he said. “I’ve received a lot of encouragement and support, and people who didn’t even know my name last time and who probably didn’t vote for me because of that, are now some of my biggest supporters.”
O’Scanlon said the issues he campaigned on in 2005, including property tax reform and government ethics, will remain his platform if he wins the party’s nomination to run.
“Things at the state level are as bad, if not worse, than they were in 2005,” he said. “The residents of District 12 are still seen as a collective ATM machine for the rest of the state by the people in Trenton and that has to stop.”
O’Scanlon also criticized state senators and Assembly members for failing to pass legislation during the past year to ban pay-to-play or dual office holding.
“They haven’t even been able to get the no-brainers done,” he said. “Talk about ineffectiveness.”
O’Scanlon said although he recognizes the 2006 federal mid-term elections showed a national trend toward ousting Republicans from office, he believes it was more of a mandate against ineffectiveness, over-spending and hypocrisy.
“The legislative leadership in New Jersey is just as guilty, if not more guilty, of all these things than the national legislative leadership,” he said. “I think that’s what the backlash is about. The Democrats leading the state of New Jersey are arguably, in a lot of ways worse than the Republicans leading the national government.”
O’Scanlon said the views he espoused in the 2005 campaign remain the same, and that although Beck has brought to the floor bills that were in line with GOP campaign promises, the state Legisla-ture has yet to act on them.
“There is only one way to lower property taxes,” he said, “and that is by capping state spending. You have to cut the waste from the state’s $32 billion budget, and the school funding formula has to be reformed. There is enough money in reformulating school funding to make a significant difference in people’s property taxes.”
O’Scanlon said the GOP screening committee for the 12th District candidates will meet sometime this month, but a date has not yet been chosen for the nominating convention.