Curley gets GOP nod for freeholder R.B. councilman's call for unity resonates within party BY MELISSA KARSH Staff Writer With a call for unity, Red Bank Councilman John P. Curley won the Monmouth County Republican Party endorsement to run for county freeholder March 26. Freeholder Director Lillian Burry, John Curley and GOP County Chairman Adam Puharic (r) celebrate Curley's candidacy. "Let us leave this hall tonight in unity for victory," said Curley in his convention speech at the VFW post in the Port Monmouth section of Middletown. Curley will run for one of the two open seats on the five-member Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders on the Republican Party ticket with incumbent Freeholder Director Lillian G. Burry in November. "It's wonderful," Curley said last Thursday. "It gives me the opportunity to do bigger and better things in Monmouth County. I hope I can not just represent the Republican Party but all of the people in Monmouth County." Curley defeated Holmdel Mayor Serena DiMaso for the nomination with about 168 votes to 103 votes. "John Curley is a good candidate and will be a great campaigner. He'll work hard to retain the Republican seat on the Freeholder Board," said DiMaso last week. Curley is running to fill the seat that will be vacated by Republican William C. Barham, who announced that he will not seek re-election to the board. Barham, Burry, who is seeking reelection this year, and Robert Clifton are the three Republicans on the board. The Board of Chosen Freeholders currently has two Democrats: Barbara McMorrow and John D'Amico Jr. Curley and his running mate Burry will run against Democratic candidates Glenn Mason, a retired Hazlet police officer, and Amy Mallet, a Fair Haven small-business owner, for the two threeyear terms. Curley has served on the Red Bank Borough Council since 2002 and is one of two Republicans on the six-member council. He previously ran and lost a bid for mayor in 2006, and as he did during that campaign, he continues to emphasize honest, transparent, approachable and efficient government. Monmouth County Republican Committee Chairman Adam Puharic said this year's Republican Convention brought unity to the party. "I thought it was a great process that brought forward Serena [DiMaso] and John [Curley], and the convention was a tremendously positive experience for the whole party," said Puharic. "It was a really unifying convention where in the last three years these conventions have been really divisive affairs, so that was a great thing for all Republicans." Puharic said the next step for Curley is to get on the ballot by the filing deadline, April 7. Curley, who is known for his door-todoor campaigning, said he will start his campaign for a seat on the Freeholder board immediately and will be attending the Freeholder meetings. "I plan to campaign door to door in each town and meet with all the public officials to find out specifically what problems they are facing that the county can be of assistance," said Curley. He added, "By getting out and talking to people … you get a real good pulse rate for what the situations are in the towns." In his speech, Curley said he had knocked on 20,000 doors in Red Bank over the past six years. "We must not be meek in our approach but roll up our sleeves and fight door to door, person to person for every vote," he said in his speech. Curley is currently the Red Bank council liaison to the Parks and Recreation Committee and the Human Relations Committee and is a member of the Code Enforcement Committee. He is a former chairman of the Finance Committee and previously was a member of the Planning Board and the Historic Preservation Committee. Curley, who works in business development for a family-owned business, is also the president of the Red Bank Republican Club and serves on the Monmouth County Republican Committee. "I went out and stopped the bulky solid waste station to be built, knocked on doors with my letter and stopped the helipad and changed the time of the council meetings by getting signatures and petitioning," said Curley of his ability to effect change in Red Bank. Curley, whose term as councilman expires this year, had previously stated that if he secured the nomination for freeholder, he would not be back for the next general election. "I think somebody like a John Tyler would be a formidable candidate. He ran previously and he knows a lot of the problems in the community. He is certainly a community activist and he is a family person that wants to see good things for the town," Curley said of a possible successor in his position as Red Bank councilman. He said his first action if elected to the Board of Chosen Freeholders would be to examine county spending. "My first action would be to look at the budget and get a grasp of the budget and see where the waste is in the county government," said Curley. "It is just a matter of having a new perspective. He said he would continue to emphasize zero-based budgeting techniques, as he does in Red Bank. "Monmouth County is a wonderful place to live and I want to remain sure our roads remain safe, our library system unparalleled, nursing home systems giving the finest quality of care, [schools] remain at the forefront of education, and the sheriff 's department is well equipped and able to aid the local community which they serve," said Curley. After Curley's five-minute speech at the convention, he said he heard a buzz ripple through the crowd and everyone was on their feet. "I answered the necessary questions that Republicans had and that is a desire for party unity, and I proved that I was that candidate. They wanted to know how we were going to raise money and I told them that Gov. Jon Corzine had handed the Republican Party a great gift and that was incompetence and greed. The party needed to be united and I repeated, when we leave this hall tonight, let us leave in unity," he said. Curley, who admitted he was an outsider coming into the situation, said it took a great deal of effort to secure the nomination. He said many people helped him, and these included New Jersey state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-12), who was a former Republican ally on the Red Bank council. "John's speech really energized the crowd. It brought everyone to their feet. It was a really unbelievable speech. He did an excellent job and just his tenacity and hard work and reaching out to all the county committee members definitely paid off. They responded to the effort that he put in, and I think that's the kind of effort we see from him in his campaign traditionally in Red Bank," said Beck. She added, "He [Curley] is really intelligent, tenacious, hardworking and he is definitely not deterred by difficult circumstance, and that is going to bode well for [him] and Lillian [Burry] in this coming campaign. I think they are going to be victorious in November." As Curley embarks on his freeholder campaign, he said he hopes to be remembered in Red Bank as a grassroots populist public official, fiscal conservative and not just another rubber-stamp official.