Pallone Wins Monmouth; Booker Takes Senate Race

---Keith Brown contributed to this article. Keith.Brown@Patch.com

Although the state's frontrunner for Senate won the Primary Election on Tuesday, Congressman Frank Pallone took more than half the Democratic votes in Monmouth County.
According to tallies at 9:30 p.m. from the Monmouth County Clerk, of the 424,572 registered voters in the county, 8 percent showed up to the polls. But Pallone came out on top on his home turf.
Pallone, who was a member of the Long Branch City Council in the late 1980's before becoming a Congressman, garnered 45.57 percent of the Democratic vote in Monmouth. But the Congressman lost to Newark Mayor Booker statewide.
In July, late U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg's widow endorsed Pallone to take her husband's seat, after Lautenberg died while holding office.
Pallone also faced U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-12) and state Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-34) in the Aug. 13 primary election.

Oliver garnered 1.5 percent of the vote in Monmouth County and  Holt got 16.5 percent of the vote. Steve Lonegan took the Republican vote with 77 percent in Tuesday's Primary.