DePasquale wants to run for Monmouth freeholder
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

Joe DePasquale

MANALAPAN - He says everyone knows him as Joey D., but hopes they will want to know him as Monmouth County Freeholder Joseph DePasquale.

DePasquale, 44, of Manalapan, said he intends to run on an independent Republican ticket as a candidate for a three-year term on the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders, the governing body of the county.

Two freeholders will be elected in November.

DePasquale is presently a member of the Manal-apan-Englishtown Regional School District Board of Education. For the past six years he has owned and operated Joey D's, an exterior maintenance company. Before that, said the father of three daughters, he ran his family's retail business for 15 years.

DePasquale and his fellow Republican, Township Committeeman Joseph Locric-chio, plan to run on what they are calling an independent Republican ticket.

In the June primary they will challenge the candidates who have been endorsed by the Monmouth County Republican Organization for county and state offices. Locric-chio is seeking a four-year term in the state Senate.

Locricchio is completing his final year of a three-year term on the Township Committee. He is not seeking re-election to the Manalapan governing body.

When asked why he is running for freeholder, DePasquale said he could not define a reason beyond observing, "You can't give an agenda until you know what's on the inside." He did say that as a business owner he knows how to operate a business with an eye toward controlling costs.

First, said DePasquale, he would look to see where there is duplication of services and then work to eliminate that duplication.

"Let's look at where the money is spent and work from there," DePasquale said, adding that in the area of duplicated services he would look to see what work is done at the county level that could be performed by individual municipalities.

DePasquale also said he would look to eliminate the personal use by county staff of county vehicles "and thereby get rid of the expenses that go along with them," from insurance and ongoing maintenance costs to daily gasoline purchases.

DePasquale said he decided to join Locricchio's ticket because, "I don't like the leadership of the Republican Party in the county."

DePasquale said he would not be a part of Republican Party Chairman Adam Puharic's "little charade of qualifying and not qualifying people."

He said Puharic is controlling the county Republican organization by manipulation through "his hand-picked group of people that are making the decisions."

DePasquale and Locricchio both said they are courting Republican Freeholder Anna Little in an attempt to get her to run for re-election on their independent Republican line.

In recent weeks, Little has split with the Monmouth County Republican Party.

In previous comments, Puharic has referred to Locricchio as a "renegade" Republican.

DePasquale said, "Hopefully Anna Little will join us. It would be a privilege to run with her. She's got the qualities I admire. She's got the guts to buck the good-old-boy system."

The Monmouth County Republican Party has not yet announced the names of the candidates it will endorse for freeholder, state Assembly and state Senate seats.