Sean Kean

Democrats view Belmar Councilman Matt Doherty as their best chance to pick up a seat in the Monmouth-based eleventh district, where the GOP has not lost since 1989.  Doherty ran an aggressive and well-financed campaign for the State Assembly in 2005 against two Republican incumbents, but lost.

Senate Minority Leader Ton Kean, Jr. (R-Union), and Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon).: Politicker photo 

State Sen. Thomas Kean, Jr., (R-Union) became minority leader just as a new band of hungry Republican legislators came up from the General Assembly to assume their state Senate seats.

Another under 40 state senator with statewide aspirations might send out at least back channel messages of panic in the face of a baseball roster's worth of new GOP talent.

And indeed there have been some nose-to-nose moments in the last few months since Kean made caucus boss, notably between the patrician leader and the headstrong state Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex).

But according to his colleagues, the stoic Kean has generally met the onrush by embracing it; and has assumed a statesmanlike stance while tapping the scrappy skills honed by his freshmen senators in the lower house.

State Sen. Sean Kean (R-Monmouth) with a framed photograph of his father, Thomas J. Kean, and JFK. 

ASBURY PARK - As the son of a WWII infantryman who also served in the Korean War, state Sen. Sean Kean (D-Monmouth) found himself drawn to the presidential candidacy of U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

"You know more about a guy because of what he’s able to endure," said Kean, a member of the McCain Campaign’s New Jersey steering committee.

When McCain’s most senior supporters in the state talk about going after "Reagan Democrats," they’re describing voters with backgrounds not dissimilar from Kean’s.

ASBURY PARK - A supporter of Sen. John McCain’s since the Arizona senator’s first run for president in 2000, state Sen. Sean Kean (R-Monmouth) said he believes Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, Jr., would be a good running mate for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

"Florida’s an important state and Crist is popular," Kean told PolitickerNJ.com.

He also likes the fact that Crist is a governor, which adds an executive dimension to the candidacy of McCain, who has served in the U.S. Congress for two decades.

Kean personally likes former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, but acknowledges that Ridge’s pro choice views might alienate critical base Republican voters.

Freeholder Barbara McMorrow, left, stands with fellow Democrats, candidates Amy Mallet and Glen Mason.

In Monmouth County, registered Democrats now lead Republicans by 10,000 voters, according to the County Board of Elections’ registration report, which positions the shore county once again for a likely battle come November.

And finally it’s a battle at the county level, where gleeful Democrats see an opportunity to gain control of this traditionally GOP stronghold.

But while the Democrats want to use those Board of Elections numbers to trampoline their pair of Freeholder candidates onto the board to at last seize the majority, GOP leadership feels confident that a John McCain presidential candidacy will play to their party’s root strength here.

"Obviously a vast majority of voters are overwhelmingly unaffiliated in a county that leans Republican," said state Sen. Sean Kean (R-Monmouth), a longtime McCain supporter.