Middletown Republican Businessman Castaldo Challenges Flynn, Scharfenberger For Statehouse

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — June 10 will be a primary election in New Jersey, and a Middletown businessman is challenging Assembly reps Vicky Flynn and Gerry Scharfenberger (R-NJ13) to represent this part of Monmouth County in Trenton. (Here's how a sample ballot will look.)

The Middletown man is Rich Castaldo, 41, who says he is a more conservative Republican than Flynn/Scharfenberger and that they aren't fighting Democrats hard enough on property taxes and school funding.

"I am running because people are losing faith in our elected leaders who seem more concerned about staying in office than actually accomplishing anything," said Castaldo this week. "There are too many lawyers in Trenton who are there to serve their interests, not the taxpayers’ interests."

Flynn got her start on the Holmdel school board and is a lawyer who owns her own practice. Scharfenberger is a former mayor of Middletown and worked in the Christie administration. Both are running with the backing of the Monmouth County Republican Party.

Castaldo and his fiancée Gina live in the Port Monmouth section of Middletown and are parents to a six-month-old girl. On his Facebook page, Castaldo said "We’re fighting TWO battles: Fake establishment Republicans and the woke radical Democrats."

"People are DONE with:
• Empty promises
• Exploding property taxes
• 20%+ hikes in utility bills
• Underfunded school districts
• Kids being indoctrinated instead of educated
• Failure to address flooding issues
• Not getting COLA for police and fire passed"

Castaldo, a tech entrepreneur, said Flynn/Scharfenberger have not done enough to fight rising property taxes. He particularly criticized them for not doing enough to solve the current NJ school funding formula, which Castaldo said "is unfair, broken and driving people into bankruptcy and out of the state."

Just this month, the Middletown school board voted to raise school property taxes 10.1 percent and will likely have to close schools in the future as it deals with reduced state aid from Trenton. Numerous school districts in this area, including Holmdel, Union Beach and Keansburg, have been grappling with year-over-year state aid cuts.

Castaldo accuses the two of flip flopping on state aid: When prior school aid figures were announced, Flynn and fellow Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger applauded relative increases. But once the Middletown school district announced it still likely had to close schools, Flynn and Scharfenberger scrambled to meet with Gov. Murphy to secure more money for their towns, which they were unable to do.

“Which is it?” said Castaldo. “The answer is that the amount of school aid that LD13 and all of Monmouth County receives from Trenton has never been adequate for our suburban districts. And Ms. Flynn should never be applauding anything coming out of Democrats in Trenton."

Castaldo said Republicans in Trenton "need to force the issue" with Democrats on the school funding formula, which he said unfairly rewards large urban school districts and penalizes the suburbs.

“Vicky and her running mate have done virtually nothing to increase state aid to our schools. The major reason homeowners throughout Monmouth County are struggling with the burden of high property taxes is the lack of equitable state school aid for middle class, suburban districts,” said Castaldo. “The connection between school aid and county taxes is not new, but no one in Trenton seems to be able to do anything about it. Maybe they are not trying hard enough."

"Fair school aid and property taxes will be my highest priority," he said. "If it means taking the state to court, I’m in."

Flynn countered that Castaldo used to be a registered Democrat. In May, she and Scharfenberger also introduced this bill in Trenton that would remove caps on state aid. That would get Monmouth County districts such as Middletown more funding. Their bill is tied to ongoing budget hearings.

"Rich Castaldo’s latest attacks on Assemblyman Scharfenberger and me are misleading and proof he hasn’t done his homework to understand the community he is trying to represent. The state aid formula does unfairly pummel suburban school districts," she said Thursday. "It's really unfortunate he is criticizing members of his own party so much and it shows how naive he is. To suggest Gerry and I have not fought for Monmouth County schools for more funding is not only false, and quite honestly, offensive. Our communities are among the most desirable in the state. But under New Jersey’s broken school funding formula, rising property values in our successful towns lead to steep cuts in state aid. That’s not fair — and we’ve been fighting to fix it. I am out here every day fighting for our communities."

Castaldo seems to be attacking Flynn more aggressively than Scharfenberger, although he is running against both. When asked why that may be, Flynn said:

"Maybe because I'm a woman? Frankly, I’m astounded he’s chosen to direct his energy at attacking me, especially after we won overwhelmingly in the last election. At a time when we desperately need more women — more moms — in the Legislature to bring firsthand perspective to education policy, it’s disappointing to see a political opportunist try to undermine that progress."

Meet Rich Castaldo

Castaldo was born in Staten Island into an Italian-American, Catholic family. He was raised by a single mom, who worked an on-call job at a nursing home, with the help of his grandparents. His grandfather was a former professional fighter and WWII veteran from Coney Island, Brooklyn.

Castaldo credits his grandfather with fostering his interest in technology after he bought him his first computer from RadioShack when he was 8 years old.

As a teen, Rich excelled at baseball. He attended St. Francis College in Brooklyn and then signed a contract in 2008 to play minor league baseball with the Atlantic City Surf, an independent professional team that is no longer in business.

When his baseball career ended, he moved to New Jersey and graduated from Rutgers University in 2021 with a degree from the school of management and labor relations.

Castaldo's first jobs were hourly work at Best Buy and Home Depot, which motivated him to start his own business. He launched his first company, a printing and graphic design firm, and never looked back.

Castaldo says one of his favorite quotes is from author Tony Gaskins: "If you don’t build your dream, someone will hire you to help build theirs."

Today, he runs his own online marketing firm that helps businesses drive website traffic and he also owns his own political campaign consulting firm that does digital ad campaigns for Republican candidates. Castaldo has been an active member of the Republican Party since the early 2000s and won the Young Republican Rising Star award in 2020, his campaign said. The award was from the New York State Young Republicans.

"Trenton needs more business people to represent New Jersey residents — and fewer career politicians. I’m going to fight the Democrats and the bureaucracy just the way President Trump and Elon Musk are doing in Washington," he said.

Castaldo wants New Jersey to cut its regulation and corporate taxes, which are among the highest in the country. He wants to make New Jersey a business-friendly state for corporate investment and entrepreneurs.

"There is a huge amount of waste and favoritism in our state budget that people don’t know about," he said. "I have gone over the state budget line by line. I have seen the waste, such as $264 million for Broadband Equity Access and Development Program; $157 million for Solar Grants and $2.5 million for Newark’s Brick City Peace Collective."

Castaldo also said changes need to be made to New Jersey's public school curriculum.

"I believe education in New Jersey needs to be focused more on preparing our children for the economy and world of the future, rather than brainwashing students with the woke curricula pushed by Democrats and their supporters," he said this week.

He said he would like to see more of the state school curriculum devoted to courses in entrepreneurism, business and technology. He also is an advocate for more trade schools and trade programs.

“Not everyone is cut out to sit at a keyboard or behind a desk.”

Castaldo's Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/profi... and campaign website is https://castaldoforassembly.com/

Here are the towns in Legislative District 13: Aberdeen, Atlantic Highlands, Hazlet, Highlands, Holmdel, Keansburg, Keyport, Little Silver, Marlboro, Middletown, Monmouth Beach, Oceanport, Rumson, Sea Bright, Union Beach and West Long Branch.

Contact this Patch reporter: Carly.baldwin@patch.com