The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 63

Me iPfitlaklpfiiaHnqttircr a A Hes. A me feaf General Election Nov. 7, 1995. Polls open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Tuesday, October 31, 1995 Section VJ bijimiii iiiM '95 exDectec boost to give Fourth District For region in flux, a varied slate Issues: Auto insurance, a proposed turnpike connector, and whether GOP offices were used for personal gain. to mtma The Republicans should more or less maintain their Assembly ratio of 2-to-l. That would provide an affirmation of the governor's policies and agenda. By Thomas Turcot INQUIRER STAFF WRITER For the last two years, Gov. Whitman has enjoyed the good fortune to push her agenda through a virtually rubber-stamp state legislature.

With Election Day closing in, it appears that she will continue to get her way. Topping the 1995 ballot are the races for all 80 state Assembly seats, with both parties waging fierce contests in a number of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts. After two months of some of the nastiest and most expensive campaigning in recent years, the two parties seem destined to emerge from Tuesday's voting in much the same position they entered it: Fifty-three seats in the state Assembly for the Republicans and 27 B. Byrne leads Thomas Jr. state Democrats.

JB Hi iniiiiinim imhimi-'--' For The Inquirer MARK STEIN By David Kinney INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT The Fourth Assembly District, site of the most expensive Assembly race in the state two years ago, this year boasts a Democratic incumbent scorned by a powerful party rival, a Republican challenger who swapped parties to run, a law student making his first stab at public office and all the uncertainty that entails. It is a district that includes rural landscapes and booming suburbs, traditionally Democratic but becoming more competitive as Republicans make inroads in what is increasingly a middle-class region. After a 1993 bout that cost Fourth District candidates $586,982, just 761 votes separated the top three finishers. This year, both sides Assemblyman George Geist Camden) and Washington Township Mayor Gerald Luongo on the Republican ticket, Assemblyman Sean Dalton and Chris Manganello for the Democrats have mounted aggressive campaigns for the two available seats. Jockeying' ijegan as soon as last November's election ended.

Luongo, facing a bitter divide among his own local Democrats and recognizing that his odds of winning the party's backing for the Assembly seat would be better on the other side, bolted to the GOP despite having told party leaders he would run as a Democrat. He won the Republican Party's backing for the Assembly seat, but how his political suit-swapping plays with voters is still a question mark. His move, though not entirely a surprise, left the Democrats shopping for a candidate. Tony Marsella, who took over as party chairman after John Maier stepped down last winter, approached more than a dozen potential candidates. Only relative newcomer Chris Manganello, a law student at Rutgers University and a former clerk for U.S.

Rep. Robert Andrews, would risk a run. Although Manganello has some name recognition in Gloucester County, where his father, Joseph, is a county freeholder, Manganello is widely considered a long shot. Dalton already had the nod but not the party's financial backing, the fallout of a longstanding spat between powerful Camden County See FOURTH DISTRICT on VJ4 Seventh District Gov. Whitman's 30 percent cut in campaigns.

Many Democrats link the public, the cut seems popular the state income tax has been a nearly universal topic in Assembly it to a rise in local property taxes, while Republicans defend it. With as does the governor, who signed a future voter's hand in Clayton. State Senate Challenger targets both incumbent and Issues: Wayne R. Bryant's reprimand by an ethics panel; his proposal for urban redevelopment. north into Gloucester, Camden and Burlington Counties.

Other battlegrounds are in central New Jersey's populous Mercer andt Middlesex Counties, formerly Democratic strongholds that have become highly competitive this decade. The key races there are in the 15th Dis trict, which includes Trenton, and the 18th and 19th Districts. The most closely watched contest in North Jersey is in Passaic County's 35th District, where the Democrats are trying to reclaim a seat they lost in 1991. In the vast majority of districts, however, Assembly candidates are merely going through the motions with Democrats sure bets in urban areas and Republicans holding the upper hand in the suburbs. Historically, a governor's party loses legislative seats in midterm elections.

But the Whitman agenda highlighted by her 30 percent state income-tax cut has been a big hit with the voters. What's more, the state Democratic Party continues to suffer from a shortage of money, leaders and message to counter the Republican theme of lower taxes and leaner government. State Democratic Chairman B. Thomas Byrne Jr. has tried, working See WHITMAN on VJ4 his ethics well as money from the Clean Water Bond Act of 1992, the Jobs Education and Competitiveness Act of 1998, and the Water Supply Act of 1981 for business development and the construction of educational, cultural, recreational and civic facilities, he said.

Suplee's run for mayor of Bell-mawr last year was his first foray into politics. Although his bid was unsuccessful, he surprised political observers in this heavily Democratic district by garnishing 39 percent of the vote. In the living room of Suplee's Bell-mawr home, portraits of his favorite See STATE SENATE on VJ3 Inside Burlington County Republican incumbents stress experience in freeholder and sheriff races; Democrats call for change. VJ5. Camden County Democrats look to continue their hold on the reins of power, which Republicans liken to a corrupt machine.

VJ5. Gloucester County Republicans hope to seize control of freeholders board. VJ5. Candidate Listings Statewide VJ6 Burlington VJ9 Camden VJ9 Gloucester VJ10 'f 1 By Shawna McCoy INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT For 31 years, Melvyn Suplee, a retired contract specialist for the federal government, was barred from participating in politics because of his job. Now free of that restriction, Suplee, a Republican, is taking on a 14-year legislative veteran in the special Fifth Senatorial District election to fill the seat long held by Democrat female recipients who have more children.

Suplee contends that Bryant's record is less than perfect. He cited a $2.86 million 1992 lease agreement between the state and a Cherry Hill office complex of which Bryant was part owner. The legislative ethics committee reprimanded Bryant for not disclosing his involvement in the deal, which was subsequently quashed. "Senator Bryant is one of the few members of the legislature ever to be reprimanded for his behavior," Suplee said. "It seems inappropriate to keep these people in power." At i mMn- for the Democrats.

The numbers could change a bit either way, but not enough to alter the huge imbalance. And that, for Whitman and the GOP, would be a victory. A disproportionate share of the competitive races are in South Jersey. There, political experts say, one or both seats could change hands in the First, Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Districts. Those districts cover a sprawling area that takes in parts of the South Jersey shore and extends For his part, Bryant said, Suplee's allegations are "old news" coming from "empty suits who don't have any change in mind." Bryant, who says he is a "leader with a vision," was born and raised in Lawnside.

His late father, I.R. Bryant, was a school board president there. His brother Mark Bryant is the borough's mayor. Among his accomplishments, Bryant points to a pending bill in the state Assembly that would create a New Jersey Redevelopment Authority. His urban redevelopment bill would use funding from $20 million in revenue from state sales tax as agement practices of the founder and longtime superintendent of the Burlington County Special Services District.

No ethical violations were uncovered, but the Democrats put DeSopo on the defensive, forcing him to continually respond to their attacks. They have also gone after Allen for her lack of support for the death penalty. See SEVENTH DISTRICT on VJ4 Ml Cash-rich campaign underscores intensity of this Assembly contest Walter Rand. Suplee's opponent, Democratic Sen. Wayne R.

Bryant, was appointed to fill out the term of the late Rand last year. Bryant's stint in the legislature has included positions as minority and majority leader of the Assembly and national prominence as primary sponsor of a New Jersey welfare law that requires job training or education for welfare recipients and restricts additional welfare monies for By Rebecca Goldsmith INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT No one said this would be a love-fest. In fact, observers knew the Seventh District Assembly race would be one of the most contentious in the state. That much was clear as soon as the Republicans fielded two strong candidates in a district that the Democrats have dominated since the 1970s. Both parties have funneled massive amounts of money and resources into the campaign, so much so that they may set a spending record in the district, which includes 14 Burlington County communities and Pennsauken in Camden County.

In the absence of a strong Democratic Party in Burlington County, the powerful Camden County Democratic organization has played a leading role in the campaign in a bid to extend its sphere of influence north. On the Republicans' part, picking up even one seat here would be a feather in the cap of the party that 1 For The Inquirer SHARON GEKOSKI-KIMMEL The GOP's Carmine DeSopo and Diane Allen enjoy widespread name recognition he as a superintendent, she as. an ex-journalist. I i XfjTJ- 1 i i ii 'i already enjoys a 53-to-27 edge in the Assembly. None of the candidates Democrats Steven M.

Petrillo and Joseph Dugan, Republicans Diane Allen and Carmine DeSopo is likely to emerge from this campaign unscathed by allegations in print and on television. First, Democrats went after DeSopo, challenging the financial man For The Inquirer SHARON GEKOSKI-KIMMEL Seventh District Democrats Steven M. Petrillo (left) and Joseph Dugan are working to, stave off a GOP attempt at expansion..