Jon Hornik

In Monmouth County, every town comes intriguingly into play on some level, several more critically than others.

Republicans have owned the Freeholder Board for over 20 years, but in the last two elections Democrats picked up two seats to bring them to within one of county control.

A profusion of newly registered Democratic voters have boosted the party’s confidence heading into Nov. 4th, and now Democrats Amy Mallet and Glenn Mason are ready for that 11th hour jolt of cash from the Democratic State Committee.

State Party Chairman Joseph Cryan wants to win here.

He wants it more than he would like to pick up additional warm bodies in the Assembly next year, where his party’s already built a comfortable majority.

A victory by either Mallet or Mason would make a Democratic Party statement.  But neither is a name candidate running against incumbent Freeholder Director Lillian Burry and auto dealer vice president John Curley, an intensely focused campaigner who served as a Red Bank Councilman and has close political connections to state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth).

In 1980, a 10-year-old Jonathan Hornik stood in the recently renovated barn that had just become Marlboro’s town hall to watch his late father, Saul, get sworn in as the town’s new mayor.

Today, just over two years since his father died of lung cancer, Hornik stood in the same room, filled to the rafters with spectators to see the 37-year-old sworn in as mayor.

“Marlboro was a young community well on its way to what I call modern day Marlboro,” reminsced Hornik in his inaugural speech. “….It was a feeling of optimism in 1980, and our town leaders were eager to meet the challenges of their time. Today I feel the same sense of optimism and assure you that this next generation is ready, willing and able to move Marlboro forward to its bright future.”

Hornik is one of the Monmouth County Democrats’ rising stars, having handily defeated incumbent Mayor Robert Kleinberg in a particularly nasty battle while the full slate of his 12th district Democratic legislative counterparts –led by state Sen. Ellen Karcher, a former Marlboro councilwoman – went down in defeat.

In Marlboro, Democratic Mayoral candidate Jon Hornik is demanding that Republican Mayor Robert Kleinberg give back money he took from former Mayor Matthew Scannapieco, who admitted to taking $245,000 from developers.

"Mayor Kleinberg has taken money from felons and given Marlboro the highest property taxes in New Jersey and overdevelopment," Hornik said.