Adam Hochron, Patch Staff

Email: adam.hochron@patch.com Phone: (609) 433-9888

Hometown: Cranbury, New Jersey

Birthday: July 30

Bio: I have spent much of my professional life in local reporting. Having started out six years ago covering hard news at a local paper in Somerset County I followed that by spending six months working for the National Wrestling Coaches Association in Lancaster County, PA., before returning to New Jersey Newspapers. For the past four years I was the sports reporter for a local paper in Point Pleasant covering two schools and watching athletes go from high school rookies to college student athletes.

Personally for the last three years I have been married to my wonderful wife Allyson and in August of 2010 we welcomed our beautiful daughter Erin to the world. Now my hobbies include being a dad and a husband, but in my spare time I am somewhat proud to be a fan of the New York Mets while also supporting the other local New York sports teams. At the college level my loyalty lies with my Rider Broncs but I can't help but root for the Princeton Tigers when their interests don't conflict.

After covering the Gulls and the Panthers for the past four years, I'm looking forward to seeing what Rebel pride is all about and getting more familiar with the town I have lived in for the last two and a half years.

Our Beliefs At Patch, we promise always to report the facts as objectively as possible and otherwise adhere to the principles of good journalism. However, we also acknowledge that true impartiality is impossible because human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal their beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable. This disclosure is not a license for them to inject their beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that their beliefs are on the record will cause them to be ever mindful to write, report and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you ever see evidence that we failed in this mission, please let us know.

Politics How would you describe your political beliefs? Are you registered with a certain party?

As a registered Democrat I tend to lean toward those candidates, but in a climate of divisive and downright dirty politics on the national level I believe party affiliation sometimes has to be put aside in favor of picking the right candidate.

Religion How religious would you consider yourself? (casual, observant, devout, non religious)

I was raised in reformed Judaism. As time has gone by my focus on religion has centered more on the high holidays and remembering the teachings I learned from all those years at Hebrew school on Sunday mornings.

Local Hot-Button Issues What do you think are the most important issues facing the community? Where do you stand on each of these issues?

I think one of the things I'm looking forward to most with this job is really getting a chance to get into the town and see what is affecting the people of Howell on a daily basis. As I continue to learn my way around I think the biggest issue in the coming years will be the budget both on the state and local level. From there things like community services and taxes will be directly impacted so I'm looking forward to seeing how that issue shakes out.