Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial nominee was registered to vote in N.J. till 2021 – New Jersey Globe | New Jersey Politics

New Jersey is serving as an incubator for Republican candidates in Pennsylvania, with two statewide candidates being New Jersey natives and longtime residents.

Gubernatorial candidate Douglas Mastriano was a registered voter in New Jersey for 28 years till July 2021 when election officers modified his standing to inactive.

Information present that Mastriano voted from his household’s Hightstown house from 1982, when he turned 18, by the 2010 normal election.  He remained on the voter rolls till a pattern poll was returned roughly six months after the demise of his mom final yr.

Dr. Mehmet Ozlived and voted in New Jersey till 2021, when he moved to Pennsylvania to hunt a U.S. Senate seat.  He stays on New Jersey’s voter rolls as a resident of Cliffside Park and will legally vote in his house state this November if he selected to not vote in Pennsylvania.

Lt. Governor John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, has sought to make Ozs New Jersey residency a marketing campaign subject.

“It’s like Déjà vu once more.  This may begin the Jersey stuff proper again up,” mentioned Micah Rasmussen,  the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider College.  “I’m undecided whether or not it’s an even bigger headache for Mastriano or Oz.   Possibly Governor Kean would minimize an advert for them to inform Pennsylvanians that New Jersey and you’re perfect together.”

Mastriano voted in successive Republican primaries in New Jersey from 1982 by 1985 and by no means voted once more in a GOP main, though he tried in 2010 and his poll was rejected.

He voted usually elections in 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2010.   He additionally voted at school board elections in 2001 and 2002.

Throughout a lot of that point – from 1986 till his retirement in 2017, Mastriano served within the U.S. Military, together with a deployment throughout Operation Desert Storm.  A lot of his votes had been by absentee poll.

Mastriano’s mom, Janice, a registered Democrat, served three phrases on the East Windsor Regional Board of Schooling.  In 2000, she confronted requires her resignation — and almost a recall marketing campaign — after she in contrast homosexuality to pedophilia.

”I wouldn’t desire a recognized gay tenting with my boys, as a result of you understand most of them are pedophiles too,” she mentioned in an interview with the Trenton Instances.

Later, she issued a press release apologizing “for not understanding that there are life aside from my heterosexual regular one which are presumably as official as my life-style.”

“'(I apologize) for repeating a stereotype that presumably promotes concern of homosexuals, for myself and plenty of of my fellow residents who’ve the identical unknowing innocence as I do regarding individuals with sexual preferences aside from heterosexual,” she mentioned.

She was crushed when she sought re-election in 2002, ending final in a area of 5 candidates for 2 seats and receiving lower than 90 votes.

As a Pennsylvania congressional candidate in 2018, he mentioned opposed same-sex marriage.  After his election to the State Senate in a 2019 particular election, he opposed a plan to ban conversion therapy.

Mastriano’s maternal grandmother, Joan Bono, was elected to the North Brunswick faculty board in 1951 and re-elected twice earlier than shedding her seat in 1963.   She got here again in 1968 and served two extra years.

The Democratic candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, additionally has ties to New Jersey.  He was a senior coverage advisor to U.S. Senator Bob Torricelli from 1998 to 1999.

Shapiro is in New Jersey at present to attend a Democratic Governors Affiliation coverage convention in Jersey Metropolis hosted by Gov. Phil Murphy.  Jersey Metropolis Mayor Steve Fulop is internet hosting a $5,000-per-person fundraiser for Shapiro.

Ozhad been a comparatively constant voter in New Jersey’s normal elections, voting in all however 5 of the state’s 21 normal elections since 2000.   He skipped voting in 2002, 2003, 2007, 2009, and 2017.   Out of the 22 Republican primaries the state has held for the reason that flip of the millennium, nonetheless, Ozonly voted in three: the 2008 presidential main, 2009, and 2016.

Mastriano and Oznever voted in each states in the identical yr.

It seems that Mastriano by no means notified Mercer County that he had left the state completely and the U.S. Postal Service continued to ship pattern ballots to his household house in Hightstown.

After his mom died in January 2021, Mastriano’s pattern poll for final yr’s main election was returned to election officials with  a handwritten note: “Return to sender.  Moved to PA.”