MORRISTOWN – You knew the question was coming, but it took until the second half of the debate to materialize. Just why is Anthony M. Bucco running for the state Assembly when he has no plans to take the seat, given his recent ascension to the Senate to replace his late father.

The moderator at Monday night’s League of Women Voters debate said there were about six audience submitted questions that raised that issue.

Bucco replied, “This is not something I chose,” an obvious reference to the death of his father, state Sen. Anthony R. Bucco last month.

And then he cited the state constitution, which sets forth how Legislative vacancies are filled.

Brian Bergen, his running-mate, took up the battle, pointing out that almost half of the 120 people in the state Legislature originally got there through the appointment process.

Bucco said the only people who seem to care about this are his Democratic opponents, Lisa Bhimani and Darcy Draeger.

That drew murmurs of disbelief from some in the crowd and an admonition from the moderator that they keep quiet.

All of the above may be true, but here’s the problem.

The issue is not the fact that the younger Bucco was selected at a GOP convention of District 25 county committee members to replace his late father. That is standard procedure.

The issue is that he has remained on the ballot as a reelection candidate to the Assembly.

Bhimani said precisely that.

And Draeger pointed out that there was certainly time, albeit with a court injunction, for Republicans to replace Bucco on the Assembly ticket. And they argued that at the very least, Bucco should say who
he wants to replace him in the Assembly.

The new Assembly person will be chosen at another Republican convention in November. Two of the likely contenders, John Barbarula and Aura Dunn, both of whom ran unsuccessfully in the June primary, were in attendance.

Bucco has not taken the bait on who he wants to replace him.  And he insisted – a bit unconvincingly – that voters are not being disenfranchised as the Dems claim. He said that no matter who is
selected at a convention, voters will make their choice in next year’s election.

Fair point. But whoever wins the convention will have the advantage of incumbency.

And as the debate ensued, Bhimani and Draeger kept referring to Bucco as “Senator Bucco.”

No, they weren’t being overly polite.

Clearly, they wanted to emphasize that Bucco is running for the Assembly, but he’s not running for the Assembly.