Singer Challenged For State Senate Seat In GOP Primary

The June 4 primary for the state legislature will see a contest between a longtime incumbent and a candidate who says a new voice is needed for District 30.

Harold Herskowitz of Lakewood previously ran against incumbent Sen. Robert W. Singer for the Lakewood Committee, where Singer is a committeeman.

Herskowitz, who has opened several retail businesses in Lakewood, said he is hoping to bring a new voice to represent the district.

"I was chairman of the downtown Commission in Lakewood and received no cooperation from local officials to turn our main street around.  After getting fed up witnessing the waste and corruption in Lakewood I decided to challenge our double dipping Senator for his Committee seat. I lost by a few hundred votes which stopped him from running in the general election," he said. "Now I decided that the bad influence  that Bob Singer has on Lakewood and all the other towns in our district needs to end. So I decided to challenge him one more time, this time for his senate seat."

Herskowitz's main objectives include tackling gang violence, analyzing school taxes, increasing the scope of Urban Enterprise Zones and encouraging industry for New Jersey, he said.

"Most of all I want to see 20 plus years of pay to play politics come to an end in Monmouth and Ocean County," he said. "I want voters to know that if Singer wins now, we will just have more of the same for the next four years. 
I am not a career politician. I just want to try to make all of out lives better."

He is vying for the seat occupied by longtime Republican incumbent Robert W. Singer, R-Monmouth and Ocean.

Singer, 65, has deep roots in Lakewood, where he lives with his wife. Singer has four grown children. He is a former 30-year councilman and four-time mayor of the city.

Singer, who could not be reached for this story, was first elected to the state Legislature in 1993. He currently chairs the Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens and the Higher Education committees.

Singer has raised $210,313.70 for the primary campaign and spent $183,736.54, according to the latest campaign finance reports filed with the state Election Law Enforcement Commission, which oversees political campaigns.