Hurley: Crystal Ball Election Predictions Atlantic County, NJ

We have done this exercise every year for more than 30 years and have amassed an accurate track record for our election predictions in Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland Counties.

Here is our 2023 edition of “The Hurley Crystal Ball” predictions as follows:

Senator Vince Polistina versus Atlantic County Commissioner Caren Fitzpatrick (1 Open Seat):

NEW JERSEY STATE SENATE - DISTRICT 2 - ATLANTIC COUNTY - POLISTINA WILL WIN RE-ELECTION - HERE’S WHY!

This will not be close. Polistina will win in an electoral landslide for a combination of reasons.

First, Polistina has achieved a solid record of accomplishments during his first 2 years as State Senator.

Polistina’s record includes:

6 excellent New Jersey State Superior Court Judges confirmed.

Polistina achieved the Atlantic County Prosecutor of his choice. Before Polistina’s successful collaboration with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, this would not have been the case.

Polistina obtained a record level funding for Stockton University.

Regarding the Democrat campaign, it has been a disgrace, even by the low standards that have been set over the past 15-plus years … when outside campaign cash began to pour-in to Atlantic County to fund hyper-negative campaigns by the Democrats.

This year’s Democrat effort really takes the cake. They’ve hit a new low.

A shadowy, shady Super Political Action Committee is presently funding a very expensive television and print collateral effort to fund Libertarian candidate Shawn Peck.

The ads attack Polistina and promote Peck as the true conservative in the race.

Peck became so disgusted with this outside effort, listed with a Jamaica, New York address … that Peck dropped out of the race and has enthusiastically endorsed Polistina for re-election.

Peck will be appearing live, on-air with me on Monday, October 30, 2023 at 8:05 a.m. to discuss all of this.

Separate Democrat attack ads are accusing Polistina of being against women. It’s preposterous.

Caren Fitzpatrick lost by a wide margin in the 2021 election when she ran for the New Jersey General Assembly to Claire Swift and Don Guardian.

Fitzpatrick will lose again on this upcoming November 7, 2023.

Fitzpatrick has followed the same disturbing pattern of behavior as those Democrat Nominees before her, i.e., Jim Whelan, Vince Mazzeo and others … who simply refuse to condemn the outside money that flows-in to Atlantic County to smear Republican candidates.

NEW JERSEY GENERAL ASSEMBLY - DISTRICT 2 - ATLANTIC COUNTY (2 SEATS):

Incumbent Assembly Members Claire Swift and Don Guardian will win re-election by a very wide margin versus little known Democrat challengers Alphonso Harrell and Elizabeth Bender.

ATLANTIC COUNTY EXECUTIVE (1 OPEN SEAT):

Incumbent Dennis Levinson will defeat his little known Democrat challenger Joyce Pratt in a landslide.

Levinson’s record of accomplishment is unparalleled and Atlantic County is the finest run County in the state of New Jersey.

Former Democrat New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney agrees that Levinson is the best County Executive in the state.

ATLANTIC COUNTY SHERIFF (1 OPEN SEAT):

Democrat incumbent Eric Scheffler is looking to be the lone bright spot on the Atlantic County Democrat ballot this year. Don’t count on it.

Scheffler is facing a rematch with Joe D’Donoghue, who challenged Scheffler in the 2020 election.

Scheffler has focused on social services and not the core police functions and appears ripe to be defeated.

I’m picking O’Donoghue to defeat Scheffler and hopefully Scheffler will take the Hope One Atlantic County program with him to Atlantic County Prosecutor Will Reynolds.

Reynolds and Scheffler have been working together well on various social services efforts and should formalize their professional relationship and team-up together after the election.

ATLANTIC COUNTY COMMISSIONER AT LARGE (2 OPEN SEATS):

One of the slots is Fitzpatrick’s open seat.

Republican challenger June Byrnes will defeat Democrat Habib Rehman. It won’t be close.

Incumbent Board of Commissioners Chairman John Risley typically wins very close elections by only several hundred votes.

This appears to be the year that Risley won’t have to wait for the final mail-in and provisional ballots to be counted before declaring victory.

I see Risley winning by a comfortable margin versus his Democrat challenger Kim O’Brien.

ATLANTIC COUNTY COMMISSIONER- 3RD DISTRICT

Incumbent Andrew Parker needed a second, special election to win the seat 3 years ago.

That will not be the case this year, as I project that Parker will defeat his Democrat challenger Hector Tavarez by a comfortable margin.

NEW JERSEY STATE SENATE & NEW JERSEY GENERAL ASSEMBLY - REPRESENTING PARTS OF ATLANTIC COUNTY, ALONG WITH ALL OF CAPE MAY & CUMBERLAND COUNTIES:

New Jersey Senator Michael Testa and Assemblymen Antwan McClellan & Erik Simonsen will all win in a landslide.

Republicans will also have great success down ballot in the local races.

This will be a wave election result in Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland Counties.

That’s our 2023 “Hurley Crystal Ball.” As always we will follow-up after the election with a recap of our predictions versus actual results.