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DENVILLE – Many attending Anthony M. Bucco’s annual golf outing Monday evening already had played 18-holes and eaten dinner when Jack Ciattarelli was called to the podium at the Rockaway River Country Club.
As the sun set on what had been a long day, Ciattarelli, a past and present Republican gubernatorial candidate, was still able to excite the crowd by talking about Bucco’s elevated status.
“If you like the sound of Minority Leader Tony Bucco,” Ciattarelli said. Just think about how great the sound of “Senate President Tony Bucco” is going to sound.
The crowd loved it.
Bucco became Senate Minority Leader about six weeks ago when the retiring Steve Oroho gave up the job.
But the Senate President?
That would necessitate Republicans flipping six seats this fall, and, of course, holding all of their seats. Democrats now have a 25-15 advantage in the upper house.
That’s going to be an awfully tough hill to climb.
Still, fundraising events such as this one are the time for optimism and confidence.
Ciattarelli said the GOP has a chance – an “outside shot,” but a shot still the same – to win control of both the Assembly and the Senate for the first time in about three decades.
Bucco can help. Ciattarelli said Bucco is “leading the charge” up and down the state by supporting and helping finance GOP candidates in key districts. Some of those battlegrounds include LD-4 in south Jersey, LD-16 in central Jersey and LD-38 in Bergen County.
When the senator spoke, he talked about his father’s legacy. It was the late Anthony R. Bucco, who began an annual golf outing 26 years ago at the Knoll Country Club in Parsippany. The elder Bucco died in 2019 and his son has carried on the tradition.
He said that this year, nearly 180 golfers signed up, which was a record.
Looking ahead to the fall, Bucco said he’s convinced Republicans have the wind at their back.
As he has done in the past, Bucco said the Murphy Administration has taken a “hard left” and that Republicans must correct it.
He spoke of increased automobile thefts, too many restrictions on police and policies that get between parents and their children when it comes to their health. Education, as all know, has become a major issue for Republicans.
Two years ago, the featured speaker at this event was Chris Christie.
The now-presidential candidate was absent this year, but Bill Palatucci, a national Republican committeeman, and a Christie confidante, was in attendance.
As was James Gannon, the Morris County Sheriff and a Bucco friend for many years.
Ciattarelli, in fact, called Gannon the best sheriff in the state, or maybe it was the nation.
Then he smiled and added that just a day before, he had said the same about the sheriff
of Hunterdon County. With stunts like this, how can you not enjoy politics?
In a more serious vein, Bucco lamented Ciattarelli’s close defeat two years ago to Phil Murphy.
But if the GOP does well in this year’s legislative races, Bucco said that can very well mean a Republican will win the governor’s race in 2025.
And that, he said, will mean a drastic, but favorable, change in how the state is run.
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