By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
Two incumbent Republican assemblymen will face a challenger in the 30th District’s GOP primary election June 2.
Avi Solomon, of Lakewood, will run as a Republican against current assemblymen and running mates Joseph R. Malone, who represents Bordentown, and Ronald S. Dancer, who represents Plumsted, for one of the party’s two spots in the General Assembly for the 30th Legislative District.
Democratic candidates John Kocubinski, of North Hanover, and William “Bill” Spedding, of Jackson, are running unopposed for their party’s two spots on the ballot to represent the area.
The 30th District covers Allentown, Bordentown City, Bordentown Township, Chesterfield, Farmingdale, Fieldsboro, Howell, Jackson, Lakewood, New Hanover, North Hanover, Plumsted, Robbinsville, Roosevelt, and Upper Freehold.
Mr. Solomon, a self-described “conservative Republican,” resides in Lakewood and writes as a political columnist for The Lakewood Shopper. Though he has a bachelor’s degree in Talmudic law, he is working toward a major in political science at Rutgers University.
Mr. Solomon has not held public office before, and said that while he has not gone through “the Republican machine,” he supports Republican ideals. If elected, he said he would encourage federal immigration officials to check regularly that businesses are employing only documented immigrants, and that doing so would help lower taxes.
”The main motive I have for running is I feel New Jersey is not doing well,” he said. “The state is bankrupt. The problem with illegal immigrants is constantly being ignored. I feel we need a change, and not many people in the 30th District have stood up to say they want to do that.”
Mr. Solomon can be found online at solomonforgeneralassembly.com.
Messers. Dancer and Malone are running together, and both said their focus in another term would be on fighting ever-increasing taxes.
As for the issues they find central, “it’s taxes, taxes, and taxes,” said Mr. Dancer, who has been in the Assembly since 2002. He also serves as the mayor of Plumsted, a position he has held since 1990.
”New Jersey is unaffordable,” he continued. “The bottom line is this: We are a voice and a vote against the out-of-control taxing, spending and borrowing. The economic policies of this administration have literally driven us from the state house to the poor house. The taxes are up, the rebates are down, the deductions are out, and the taxpayers are down and out.”
Mr. Malone has been in the Legislature since 1993. Before that, he spent 24 years as a commissioner in Bordentown City, 16 of them as mayor.
”It is really something that we need to have a real soul-searching about how we’re going to reinvent the state government, because we can’t keep going like this,” he said.
”It isn’t like anything I’ve ever seen in my entire life in government, these kinds of problems we’re going to have the next couple of years with finances in New Jersey. It’s going to take people with real strength and character and a real understanding of some of these issues.”
The two Democratic nominees, who are running together and unchallenged in the primary, both said they believe a change in leadership is in order.
Mr. Kocubinski, of North Hanover, is a manager of logistics at a major publishing company. Beginning in 1986, he has served five three-year terms on the North Hanover Township Committee, including three years as mayor. He is a member of the Soil Conservation Committee within the state Department of Agriculture, and says he wants to be a “citizen Assembly legislator.”
”With the difficult economic times we’re currently experiencing, I believe it’s important that citizens play, as I have with local politics, an active role in governance in our communities,” he said.
”With my extensive corporate business and local governmental expertise, I will bring new common-sense, cost-saving ideas, which include managing costs with increased efficiency and reduced redundancies, when representing the 30th Legislative District and state government.”
Mr. Spedding, of Jackson, said he has never held elected office before, but has twice been appointed Public Works director in the 1970s, once in Jersey City and then in Rockaway Township. He is retired after a career dealing mostly with insurance matters for New Jersey Transit.
”I think there’re a lot of problems with our tax code, but I’m not really ready to say exactly what I think should be done differently,” Mr. Spedding said. “I think there are inconsistencies in a lot of programs that work out to be unfair.
”A lot of things are quite arbitrary; they may be about right but the way it affects individual people is arbitrary, and I think an effort should be made to look at those things. Some may not have changed for decades. And having worked in government, I found it was very inefficient.”
Messers. Kocubinski and Spedding both said they would be in favor of term limits for state legislators.
”If people are in too long, some people become too loyal maybe because of favors rather than based on issues,” Mr. Spedding said.
Voting will take place on Tuesday, June 2, from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Search for your polling place online at www.njelections.org.
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