MORRIS COUNTY — It was a beautiful fall night at the River River Barn to celebrate Columbus Day and the candidacy for the re-election of Morris County Commissioner Director Stephen Shaw, Deputy Director Deborah Smith, and Commissioner John Krickus.

The attendees included a guest list of Morris Counties Powerful Elected Officials and local voters showing their support for the candidates.

Deborah Smith joined the board on January 3, 2016, and she is now serving her second, three-year term. She served as Director last year and was elected by her peers on January 4, 2021, to lead the board as Commissioner Deputy Director for a new year.

She also is chair of the County Budget Committee and is a voting member of the Insurance Fund Commission, and is the liaison to the County Administration and Finance departments.

Previously, Commissioner Smith served on the Denville Council for 20 years, with two years as Council President and two years as the Council’s Planning Board Member. She also served on the Denville Zoning Board prior to her Council tenure.

Commissioner Smith has long served her community, volunteering for many community activities. She was the Township Council’s liaison to the Denville Public Library, senior citizens’ organizations, the local historical society, fire department, and many other groups.

While serving on the Denville Council she cast the key vote that prevented potential development and led to the eventual acquisition and preservation of 420 pristine acres of former Jersey City watershed land, a site now named Jonathan Woods.

A graduate of Long Island University in Brooklyn, N.Y. with a BS in Mathematics and a Masters in Counseling, she received a Certified Financial Planning degree from Adelphi University, completed a Certificate in Municipal Government from Rutgers, and participated in the CTW Excellence in Public Service Series.

Commissioner Smith had careers in market and media research with AC Nielsen and Simmons Market Research Bureau, worked in financial markets as a stockbroker and commodity broker, and was an advertising director for a New Jersey rehabilitation magazine, before starting a 25-year-career with Dun & Bradstreet as a Key Accounts Manager. In November 2014, Commissioner Smith retired from D&B.

Commissioner Smith resides in Denville with her husband Steven, a small business owner in Randolph.

Stephen H. Shaw is a lifelong resident of New Jersey and has lived in Morris County for more than five decades. He is serving his first term on the board and was elected by his peers on January 4, 2021, to be Commissioner Director for 2021.

He also chairs the county’s Capital Budget and Facilities Review Committee and the Strategic Planning Advisory Committee, which has been key to Morris County retaining its AAA financial rating throughout the pandemic. He is a voting member of the County College of Morris and Morris County School of Technology Boards of School Estimate, as well as liaison to the County Public Works.

Commissioner Shaw moved back to his hometown of Mountain Lakes 22 years ago and became active in public service, was elected to the borough council for 12 years, and was selected by his peers as mayor for three of those years.

He was a member of the Mountain Lakes Planning Board for seven years and was named “Mountain Lakes Police Citizen of the Year” in 2012. He also served his community as a leader of the Vestry of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Mountain Lakes.

Commissioner Shaw was a member and Vice-Chair of the Morris County Open Space Trust Fund Committee, assisting in the preservation of the Giralda Farms Preserve at Loantaka Brook Reservation in Chatham Township with a $10 million Morris County Open Space grant.

Professionally, Commissioner Shaw owns and operates a small family contracting business and has been president of his local and state builder’s trade association.

He is a graduate of New Jersey Institute of Technology; Newark College of Engineering, with a BS in Civil Engineering; and in 2006 was named their “Outstanding Alumnus.” In addition, he is a licensed New Jersey real estate agent, a licensed private pilot, is married, and has two adult children and one grandchild.

John has served six years on the Morris County Board of Commissioners, during which time he did not vote for a tax increase and served on the budget committee which created the first 0 tax increase budgets in twenty years.

While holding the line on taxes other accomplishments include eliminating health benefits for Commissioners, doubling the miles of county roads repaved each year, providing the first increase in county aid to the County College of Morris, and sponsoring a change in the open space program which allowed for existing funding to go for trail development.

Prior to his term as Commissioner, John served as a committeeman in Washington Township, three of those years as Mayor. Key accomplishments include the third lowest municipal tax burden in the county and preservation of over 4,000 acres of farmland and open space.

John was born and raised in Madison, is a Marine Corps veteran, received a BA in economics from Drew University and an MBA from Lehigh University, and is a CPA. John has over 30 years of business experience as a product manager.

John and his wife Carolyn reside in Long Valley with their two daughters Kelly and Casey. Carolyn, Kelly, and Casey all are volunteer EMTs, and Carolyn currently serves as a captain for the Long Valley First Aid squad.

MORRIS COUNTY — Longtime Morris County Republican leader and conservative small businessman Larry Casha has launched his campaign for Congress in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District.

“It is time we stop accepting the unacceptable! I am tired of liberal politicians, like Mikie Sherrill and some weak Republicans propped up by special interests, that perpetuate a culture in Washington of accepting the unacceptable. Like everyone else, I have had enough of the riots in our streets, the lawlessness at our southern border, forced vaccinations, the cancel culture which attacks our Constitution, out-of-control spending, and the ever-growing federal debt.”

Casha continued, “I have been a leader amongst New Jersey conservatives for over twenty-five years. Mikie Sherrill and the radical California liberals who literally fund her campaigns so that they can put a nickel in her pocket every time they need a buck from New Jersey taxpayers are out of control. I am taking my activism to the next level and putting my name on the ballot to stop the madness. You can count on me to never back down.”

“If my lifelong neighbors in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District want a candidate who will run an aggressive campaign to win and a Congressman that will never forget where he came from, I am their guy,” said Casha.

For additional information click here.

New Jersey’s 11th congressional district is a suburban district in northern New Jersey. The district includes portions of Essex, Morris, Passaic, and Sussex Counties; it is centered in Morris County. It is one of the ten most affluent congressional districts in the United States.

MORRIS COUNTY — Morris County’s own Brian Bergen has been named to Insider NJ’s Power List of Top 100 Millennials.

Bergen was named #5 out of 100 prominent mover and shakers from all political parties.

According to the list, Bergen is a rising star and a young Republican to watch.

Brian Bergen (R-Denville), a conservative freshman assemblyman from Morris County, said that he would run for Assembly Minority Leader in a bid to make the GOP more aggressive as the party out of power in the lower house.

A veteran who is one of the younger members in the Assembly, Bergen has been a vocal critic of the Murphy Administration, and has thrown his hat in the ring to lead the Assembly Republican caucus. Bergen is making the case that the state Assembly Republican leadership should take a more aggressive approach in pushing back against the Democratic majority, saying ‘if we choose to be winners, we will win’.

MORRIS COUNTY — Residents seeking an opportunity to help during the 2021 general election can apply to become poll workers this year.

By staffing a polling location, you can earn $14.29 per hour on in-person early voting days and $200.00 on Election Day. Poll workers can earn an additional $30.00 when you attend required training.

Requirements to become a Poll Worker are:

• Must be a U.S. citizen and resident of New Jersey
• Must be at least 16 years of age
• Must not be running as a candidate in this election

Poll workers will work from October 23 through October 31 which is the in-person voting period and Tuesday November 2. Hours and dates may vary

Apply by clicking here.

MORRIS COUNTY — Columbus Day is a federal and state holiday marked on October 11 this year and an annual celebration of Italian American heritage.

Senator Joe Pennacchio and Senator Anthony M. Bucco are dedicated to ensuring the long-standing legacy is continued and sponsor a resolution supporting the preservation of Columbus Day as a federal and state holiday. (Click here to read resolution SR-50)

“We’re talking about a holiday that Italian-Americans value very much, and it is important to preserve it for future generations,” said Pennacchio (R-26). “There are extremists who seek to revise history, to tear up the past and rewrite it to fit a new narrative. The fact is that the second Christopher Columbus stepped onto our shores, it was an existential moment in human history. It marked the end of the old world and the beginning of the new.

“Our resolution would defend Columbus Day from future attempts to bleach it out of the nation’s fabric,” said Pennacchio. “This bill was first introduced in 2017. My colleagues march in Columbus Day parades, they pursue the Italian American vote, but they have been unwilling to defend this holiday.  I don’t see any reason why this resolution has not received enthusiastic support from the Legislature.”

Recently, dozens of Columbus statues have been removed in cities across the nation, including Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, and Chester, Pa. Only a judge’s decision prevented the planned razing of a Christopher Columbus likeness that has stood for 144 years in a park in Philadelphia.

“As a proud Italian-American, I know how cherished Columbus Day is by those of us who have family roots back to Italy,” said Bucco (R-25). “The Columbus holiday and the granite busts are as much or more tributes to the contribution of Italian immigrants to American society as to Christopher Columbus the man. When Italians emigrated here, they faced a gauntlet of challenges. They were forced to endure prejudice and hatred, and to work twice as hard to prove themselves in the workplace and the community.”

Earlier this year, Bucco spearheaded a successful effort to prevent a local school district from replacing Columbus Day on the school calendar with Indigenous People’s Day. The Randolph Township board of education voted to approve the change in May, joining a half-dozen states and many municipalities.

The Senator, who represents Randolph, spoke at the board meeting in June as the school board voted to remove all holiday names from the calendar in response to an onslaught of complaints from the public. After a boisterous meeting that lasted almost four hours, the panel adopted a motion to restore the calendar to the way it was, reinstating Columbus Day.

“Their attempt to address diversity backfired, and instead created division,” said Bucco. “By trying to make everything vanilla, you lose that sense of diversity. Nobody benefits by destroying a legacy. Progress is made only when we all advance together.

“I am humbled to continue the work of my father, the late Senator Bucco, who sponsored the bill designating every October as Italian-American Heritage Month and fought to fund Italian American heritage cultural and educations programs for the state’s schoolchildren,” Bucco continued.

Pennacchio cited the history behind the holiday day, noting that the first Columbus Day was declared by President Benjamin Harrison in 1892, the year after a mob of thousands lynched 11 Italian immigrants in New Orleans and on the 400th anniversary of the explorer’s voyage in search of a direct route from Europe to Asia.

“We all need to realize there are prejudices in our society – prejudices against everybody,” said Pennacchio. “We have to be cautious not to polarize our nation by targeting one group to elevate another.

“Instead of trying to erase and re-write history, we should focus on challenging ourselves to create a better history for ourselves and our future generations,” Pennacchio emphasized.