PRINCETON: Spadea running to fill Biondi seat

Via My Central Jersey:

Princeton Township resident Bill Spadea has tossed his hat into the ring for the vacant New Jersey Assembly seat in the newly redrawn 16th Legislative District.

He will be one of an unknown number of candidates who will compete, probably in late January, in a special convention of Republican leaders in the municipalities in the district realigned after the 2010 census.

The Princetons, South Brunswick and some Hunterdon County municipalities are now in the district with central and southern Somerset County municipalities, including Hillsborough, Montgomery and Manville.

The vacant Assembly seat was held by Peter Biondi, who passed away Nov. 10, two days after his re-election to an eighth term. Mr. Biondi was a former Hillsborough mayor.

The convention of about 400 elected county committee members will select someone to serve in the Assembly through mid-November. The seat will be open to anyone to run in the primary and general election to serve the rest of the two-year term.

Mr. Spadea will vie for the party’s nomination at the special convention, which is to happen within 35 days of the swearing in of the new Assembly on Jan. 10.

Hunterdon County Freeholder Will Mennen, who will have to move out of Tewksbury Township and into the 16th District, has also announced his candidacy as has John Saccenti of South Brunswick, president of the New Jersey State Local Boards of Health Association.

Princeton Township Committee member Sue Nemeth is seeking the Democratic nomination for the June 5 Democratic primary.

The vote at the GOP convention will determine who will fulfill a one-year term for the vacant Assembly seat.

Win or lose, Mr. Spadea said he will run in the June 5 primary to become the Republican candidate for the special election in November.

”Pete Biondi was a great legislator, public servant, community leader and patriot. So many business and political leaders asked and encouraged me to consider this run to do right by Pete’s legacy of public service. I was so honored by their request that I felt compelled to step up,” said Mr. Spadea.

Mr. Spadea has worked in New Jersey as a senior executive in the real estate industry for the past 15 years. He is an on-air political analyst and Republican strategist for several New York region television stations.

Mr. Spadea served in the Marine Corps Reserve from 1991 to 1999. He ran for Congress in New Jersey’s 12th District in 2004, and lost to incumbent Democrat Rush Holt, 59 percent to 41 percent.

Mr. Spadea is co-founder and past president of Building the New Majority, a grassroots political organization focused on helping New Jersey citizen-legislators win local campaigns.