Councilman - See

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served as mayor of Plumsted Township for 21 years before becoming a lawmaker and serving 11 terms. Speculation began almost immediately as to who would fill Dancer’s sizable shoes and that decision was made on August 11.

Three GOP Contenders

Sauickie was one of three GOP candidates who had filed to run in the special election convention for the seat. He was to have sought reelection for his second term as a councilman in Jackson in November. The other candidates were Dominick Cuozzo, a Plumsted Township Committeeman who took office earlier this year and former three term Jackson Councilman Scott Martin. Sauickie received the support of Brenda Dancer, the late assemblyman’s widow. “That was quite an honor,” he said. George Gilmore returned to his role as county GOP chairman last month in a close race against Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy. Gilmore was backing Cuozzo, who is also the pastor of the Bible Baptist Church in Plumsted. Cuozzo reportedly supported Phil Rizzo in the 2021 Republican gubernatorial primary and Mike Crispi in his challenge to incumbent 4th District Congressman Christopher Smith (R-Manchester) in this year’s Republican primary. He also backed Gilmore in his comeback in July.

No Endorsements

12th District State Senator Sam Thompson (R-Old Bridge) did not endorse a candidate in the race nor did the three other Republican County chairs in the district, Shaun Golden in Monmouth, Robert Bengivenga in Middlesex, and Sean Earlen in Burlington. According to the rules that were agreed upon by each of the four Republican County chairs, there was one ballot with no runoff in the machine vote, meaning that the ultimate victor could win with as little as 34% of the vote.

Winning The Assembly Spot

Sauickie told The Jackson Times, “This has been a surreal experience. It isn’t something I expected to do anytime soon but the circumstances in which the seat opened up were unfortunate with the passing of Assemblyman Dancer. “I viewed it as a position that I could continue to do some good for Jackson by giving Jackson more representation on the state level which I feel we’ve been severely lacking. Ocean County in general, Jackson and Plumsted is represented in the district and in general I felt there were a lot of issues that Jackson experiences that a lot of municipalities in Monmouth, Middlesex and Burlington also experience,” Sauickie added. The 12th district is divided up in a complex fashion extending from Old Bridge to New Hanover Township; Middlesex, Monmouth, and Ocean Counties each represent around 30% of the district’s population, with the remainder in Burlington County. Sauickie said, “by getting into this I can help more people in more places and the position itself was occupied by somebody who really set the bar. He really was somebody who I looked up to and admired. I admired him because I got into running for office really because it is my home town. I really felt I could do some good things for it.”

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