By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
ROBBINSVILLE Republican Mayor Dave Fried said Monday he is weighing a run for state Assembly in the new 14th Legislative District, which was redrawn this week to include Robbinsville for the first time in a decade.
”At this point, I would say that I’m very seriously considering it,” Mayor Fried said Monday, less than 24 hours after the Legislative Reapportionment Commission realigned all 40 legislative districts, an action that is required every 10 years to reflect population shifts documented by the U.S. Census.
”I’ve been receiving a lot of encouragement from party leaders, but it’s a big decision that I need to discuss with my family first,” said Mayor Fried, who took over as chairman of the Mercer County Republican Committee in March.
Mayor Fried said he hoped to make a final decision on whether to seek the Assembly seat by Wednesday (after The Messenger-Press went to print). Party primaries will be held June 7 for the 120 legislative seats up for grabs this year.
Mayor Fried, whose current term as mayor expires June 30, 2013, said that if he ran for state Assembly and won, he would step down as mayor in January 2012.
Gov. Chris Christie has been highly critical of dual office holding, which is the reason longtime Plumsted Mayor Ronald Dancer, who also is a state assemblyman from the 30th District, announced last year that 2011 would be his final year on the Plumsted Township Committee.
For the past 10 years, Robbinsville had been in the overwhelmingly Republican 30th District comprised of towns in mostly Monmouth, Ocean and Burlington counties, where longtime GOP incumbents had a lock on the legislative seats. The new map moves Robbinsville out of the 30th into the more competitive, but Democratic-leaning, 14th District now represented by Sen. Linda Greenstein, D-Plainsboro; and Assemblymen Wayne DeAngelo and Dan Benson, D-Hamilton.
There are nine Mercer and Middlesex communities in the new 14th District: Cranbury, East Windsor, Hightstown, Hamilton, Jamesburg, Monroe, Plainsboro, Robbinsville and Spotswood.
Robbinsville, East Windsor, Hightstown and Spotswood are all new additions to the district. South Brunswick and West Windsor are being moved out of the 14th by the new map and will be in the 16th and 15th districts, respectively.
Robbinsville’s former home, the sprawling 30th District, is significantly changed. The current District 30 communities of Allentown, Roosevelt, Upper Freehold and Plumsted all move into the 12th Legislative District effective Jan. 1.
Under the new map, District 12’s three current GOP legislators are going to have to run for re-election in different districts in November because their hometowns will no longer be part of District 12 in 2012. Sen. Jennifer Beck, of Red Bank, and Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande, of Colts Neck, will run in the 11th District and Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon, of Little Silver, will run in the 13th.
Republican Assemblyman Sam Thompson, of Old Bridge, who represents the 13th District, and GOP Assemblyman Dancer, of Plumsted, who now represents the 30th District, will become the “new” incumbents of the realigned 12th District.
However, since there is no longer an incumbent senator in the 12th District due to the impending departure of Sen. Beck, it creates the opportunity for either Assemblyman Thompson or Assemblyman Dancer to try to move up to the Senate or for someone else from the GOP to enter the fray.
Assemblyman Dancer said Tuesday he thought it was more appropriate for Assemblyman Thomas to run for the open Senate seat.
”Sam has been in the Assembly for a longer time than I have and his hometown of Old Bridge is the most populous community in the 12th District with 65,000 or so people,” Assemblyman Dancer said.
The towns in the newly realigned 12th District are: Allentown, Chesterfield, Englishtown, Jackson, Manalapan, Matawan, Millstone, New Hanover, North Hanover, Old Bridge, Plumsted, Roosevelt, Upper Freehold and Wrightstown.

