CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE — The Nov. 7 general election ballot for county residents will include a Senate seat, two Assembly seats and two openings on the Cape May County Board of Commissioners.
Seeking re-election to a second four-year term in the First Legislative District is Republican Michael L. Testa, who is facing a challenge from Democrat Charles R. Laspata, a union electrician from Millville who has largely been missing from the campaign trail.
Testa, a member of the Senate since 2019, and is a partner in the law firm of Testa Heck Testa and White.
In the Assembly race, Republican incumbents Erik Simonsen of Lower Township and Antwan McClellan of Ocean City are being challenged by Democrats Damita White-Morris and Eddie L. Bonner.
Simonsen has been in the Assembly since 2020. He is director of athletics and activities at the Lower Cape May Regional School District.
McClellan, a state assemblyman since 2020, is personnel director/confidential assistant/public information officer in the Cape May County Sheriff’s Office.
White-Morris has dedicated her work for 15 years to supporting families and students within Bridgeton Public Schools.
She has served in various leadership roles with the Bridgeton School Employee Association, Cumberland County Council of Education Association, New Jersey Education Association and the National Education Association.
She is currently an early childhood director.
Bonner retired as a police officer after 15 years of service and now serves as district manager for KD National Force Security, managing security for Cumberland Regional High School, Hopewell Crest School in Hopewell and Cumberland Christian School in Vineland.
Sheriff Robert A Nolan, a Republican, is running unchallenged to keep his position.
Former County Commissioner E. Marie Hayes, a Republican, is running against Democrat Beverly McCall for surrogate.
Hayes was nominated by Gov. Phil Murphy and confirmed by the state Senate to fill the vacancy this summer created when Dean Marcolongo became a Superior Court judge.
Hayes served as vice director of the county Board of Commissioners.
McCall has been an attorney since 1986.
She was appointed by the governor and currently is serving a second three-year position as a commissioner on the Ocean City Housing Authority.
McCall is the chair, as well as the Cape May County Trustee for the Ocean Wind Pro-NJ Grantor Trust, which administers funds to minority-owned and women-owned small businesses, as well as municipalities.
In the county Commission race, two seats are available for a three-year term. Republican County Commissioner Will Morey is seeking re-election, while newcomer Melanie Collette seeks her first term.
Commissioner Jeffrey Pierson decided not to seek re-election.
Republican Bob Barr of Ocean City is seeking to keep the County Commission seat he was appointed to when Hayes resigned to become surrogate.
Barr was an Ocean City councilman since 2016, a position he resigned in order to join the County Commission.
Morey is president and chief executive officer of Morey’s Piers, a family-owned business in Wildwood started in 1969.
Collette is director of community engagement for the First Legislative District and a former business education teacher.
Only one Democrat, Patricia O’Connor, is running for one of the two available County Commission seats.
As a mortgage banking executive, she has held senior level positions with CoreStates Bank, GMAC Mortgage, First Niagara Bank and Freedom Mortgage.
O’Connor started her career at Fannie Mae, where she specialized in low- and moderate-income lending, working with state housing financing agencies.
Cape May County skews heavily Republican in voter registration and there has not been a Democrat elected to the County Commission — formerly the Board of Chosen Freeholders — since Jeff Van Drew, who is now the Republican U.S. Representative of the Second Congressional District after multiple terms in the New Jersey State Assembly and Senate as a Democrat.
As of May, there were 32,519 registered Republicans in Cape May County, 18,463 Democrats and another 24,287 unaffiliated voters.
By JACK FICHTER/Sentinel staff
