Monmouth County Backs Steve Lonegan Over Cory Booker

In a heavily Republican county, perhaps it is no surprise that Monmouth overwhelmingly chose the GOP’s Steve Lonegan over Democrat Cory Booker to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of late Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

The ballots in Monmouth County, however, were not enough to change the outcome of the race, where Booker was declared the winner before 10 p.m. – less than two hours after polls closed on Wednesday.

In the county, Lonegan bested Booker 54 to 45 percent overall, with about 25 percent of registered voters casting ballots.

Locally, preliminary tallies in Belmar show voters chose Lonegan 56 percent to 43 percent for Booker, with Lonegan winning all five voting districts. In all, 565 voters chose Lonegan to Booker’s 437, according to the Monmouth County Board of Elections.

Manasquan voters also chose Lonegan over Booker, and by a wider margin. Lonegan took 803 votes, or 63 percent to Booker’s 464 votes, or 36 percent. Lonegan won in all four voting districts, the election board said.

Wall Township’s 19 districts all heavily went for the former Bogota mayor and Tea Party favorite over the two-term Newark mayor. Lonegan took 3,672 votes, or about 67 percent to Booker’s 1,789, or about 32 percent of the ballots cast, according to the election board.

What may be surprising about Wednesday’s polling, however, is the number of voters who cast ballots in an election predicted to have historically low turnout.

In Monmouth County, about 25 percent of registered voters overall cast ballots, although in some individual districts the turnout was much higher. The overall number still leaves a vast majority – about 75 percent -- of eligible voters who sat out the race, but it’s on par with a normal general election.

THE BOX SCORES

Belmar

District 1: Lonegan 80; Booker 74

-- Turnout: 30 percent
District 2: Lonegan 108; Booker 85

-- Turnout: 23.23 percent

District 3: Lonegan 102; Booker 90

-- Turnout: 21.32 percent

District 4:  Lonegan 145; Booker 108

-- Turnout: 24.20 percent

District 5: Lonegan 130; Booker 80

-- Turnout: 31.68 percent

Manasquan

District 1: Lonegan 191; Booker 110

-- Turnout: 27.51 percent

District 2: Lonegan 218; Boooker 141

-- Turnout: 29.94 percent

District 3: Lonegan 217; Booker 107

-- Turnout: 29.54 percent
District 4: Lonegan 177; Booker 106

-- Turnout: 30.77 percent

Wall Township
District 1: Lonegan 267; Booker 104

-- Turnout: 29.43 percent
District 2: Lonegan 220; Booker 82

-- Turnout: 26.58 percent

District 3: Lonegan 148; Booker 110

-- Turnout: 26.36 percent

District 4: Lonegan 167; Booker 90

-- Turnout: 26.58 percent

District 5: Lonegan 186; Booker 110

-- Turnout: 26.58 percent

District 6: Lonegan 168; Booker 98

-- Turnout:  24.81 percent

District 7: Lonegan 149; Booker 123

-- Turnout: 26.45 percent

District 8: Lonegan 174; Booker 77

-- Turnout: 29.77 percent

District 9: Lonegan 297; Booker 124

-- Turnout: 26.09 percent

District 10: Lonegan 236; Booker 86

-- Turnout: 34.36 percent