Nearly three months after her departure as borough administrator, Marcia Karrow remains a popular conversation topic in Middlesex Borough political circles.
During the initial part of her three-year term, Karrow helped bring fiscal stability to municipal budgeting. She also got several Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreements under control when it appeared the town’s best-known redeveloper was on an optional remittance schedule.
Her tenure will likely be better remembered for more recent events related to her messy retirement.
More than a half-dozen staff members staged a “Marcia please don’t go” demonstration at a Borough Council meeting. Mayor John Madden revealed Karrow would not re-up unless she had “full support” of the six-member council.
Her April contract expiration date came and went. Asked at the next council meeting about her status, Karrow said she’d yet to submit a departure letter and openly hinted she’d be amenable to a buyout.
A short time later, she submitted the letter. But then Snoopgate ensued, where a chain of municipal emails revealed some council members wanted her working from home during her final days on the payroll. They were apparently concerned about the potential for funny business had she been in the office.
If you talk to those knowledgable about Middlesex Borough government’s inner-workings, you’ll hear tales of behind-the-scenes spats between Karrow and various people, organizations and departments during her final year on the job. Despite the staff support shown at the one council meeting, others were not sorry to see her go.
Karrow, a former state Senator representing Hunterdon County and longtime Republican political insider, is preparing for her next act as 2022 Flemington mayoral candidate. She won the June GOP primary and will be pitted this fall against the Democratic incumbent.
If Facebook is any indication, Karrow is gaining lightning rod status as a Flemington candidate, similar to the one she sometimes had at the Ronald S. Dobies municipal building.
In early June, Jeremy Long, the Flemington Borough Council president, attempted to join the Friends of the Middlesex NJ Taxpayers FB page. He was denied for being an out-of-towner.
Long, a Democrat, is also a 2022 candidate and will be on the general election ballot opposing Karrow’s GOP comrades. One can only imagine why Long wanted to read up on Middlesex political discontent a few days after Karrow’s primary victory.
A few days later, Flemington Polis, who bills themself as a Flemington politician, took to FB to rip the three mayoral candidates from both parties who ran in that town’s primary.
“I regret to say that all of these candidates are uniquely UNqualifed for any elected office, never mind the mayor’s seat,” Polis posted. “These three are among the nastiest people in our community as well as the most destructive.”
Polis went on to lament the candidates’ lack of support for a major business district redevelopment project. Polis was particularly harsh on Karrow.
“With a solid job gifted her by former Governor Christie and a state senator’s gig gifted her by former Congressman Leonard Lance, the Republican Party has been good to Karrow,” Polis wrote. “She repaid its generosity by supporting lawsuits against the (Flemington) Boro and endlessly attacking and humiliating its well respected Republican mayor and council. She’s a real team player, Karrow is!”
Polis added: “As I noted, she is not forthcoming and says things that are false. Nasty? You bet!”
That job Polis referred to was Christie’s 2010 appointment of Karrow as executive director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission. Her $148,000 starting salary was more than triple what she’d earned annually as a state senator. That appointment came not long after she examined state Department of Environmental Protection operations as part of Christie’s transition team.
It’s an amazing coincidence that Karrow received the Christie appointments. In 2009, Karrow donated $3,400 to Christie’s initial gubernatorial campaign, according to the state Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC). She donated another $4,800 when Christie won re-election four years later.
Karrow sometimes feigned amazement at the campaign donation misdeeds of former Middlesex Mayor Ron DiMura. But she was no stranger to the link between political money and government professional service contracts.
In 2018, Flemington attorney Carl Taylor donated $1,000 to the Hunterdon County GOP. Two years later, he was appointed as Middlesex Borough municipal prosecutor. Apparently, there were no other capable attorneys to fill the role within the 22-mile distance between those two towns.
During the DiMura years, Remington & Vernick, which served as municipal engineer, paid thousands to support the Middlesex Borough Democratic candidates. When Republicans took council control in 2019, they ousted the firm.
In 2021 R&V mysteriously appeared on an agenda for appointment to regain the Middlesex engineering post. Supposedly, Karrow downplayed the firm’s donations to the corrupt former mayor. Council Republicans put their foot down and named a different firm.
Karrow still benefited in the end. R&V had donated $1,600 to her 2005 campaign when she won a State Assembly seat.
Pundit 
Flemington Polis is the wife of the former mayor. She’s still licking her wounds over his loss four years ago. Thank you for telling Flemington Borough who the real Marcia Karrow is.
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Boy hindsight sure is 20/20 and amnesia IS a thing. I can still hear a voice from just a few months ago at a Middlesex Boro council meeting saying they thought Marcia did a great job…? All the info about Marcia was out there from the start, it wasn’t hard to find. Depending on who’s telling the story her job in Middlesex was a returned favor as well. A deep dive while she was here may have saved some time and money. Seems like no one is dirty until they’re needed as an excuse for what’s wrong.
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