Republican State Sen. Michael J. Doherty represents the 217,000 residents of Warren and Hunterdon counties in North Jersey.

Doherty graduated from West Point in 1985. He then served four years as a U.S. Army captain in command of an artillery unit with nuclear-tipped missiles at the East German border – when Russia was still the Soviet Union in a “Cold War” with us.

After the service, Doherty went to law school and became a successful patent attorney specializing in semiconductor and medical technology. He is now 48 years old, married, with three sons who also served in the U.S. military.

In 2000, Mike Doherty took an interest in politics and was elected as a Warren County freeholder. Within a year, he advanced to freeholder director, a key position in counties that don’t have a county executive like Atlantic County does.

For three years, Republicans under Doherty cut the tax rate by 23 percent and paid down a big chunk of the debt run up by previous officials.

During that time, Warren County Community College demanded $5 million for a new building. The Republican freeholders under Doherty refused to borrow the money and raise taxes. They pointed out that the existing buildings were sufficient, and that they were empty much of the time, since the college did not hold any classes on Fridays or Saturdays.

College officials sued the county, and a Superior Court judge ordered the Republican freeholders to either borrow the $5 million or be jailed for contempt.

Doherty and the Republican freeholders defied that judge, saying that only elected officials had the constitutional authority to put county taxpayers into debt. Later the State Supreme Court ruled that Doherty was right and the judge was wrong.

In 2001 Doherty was also elected assemblyman for Warren and Hunterdon counties, where Leonard Lance was state senator. When Lance resigned to become a U.S. congressman, Doherty asked party leaders to let him replace Lance.

But state Republican Party leaders said Doherty was too independent and too conservative. They picked someone else. But Doherty defied them and ran “off the party line” in the June primary election. He won, then defeated his Democratic opponent in November of 2009, and was re-elected by a large majority last November.

During his two years as state senator, Doherty forcefully and effectively championed conservative Republican principles around the state.

Doherty explained and exposed the deliberately complicated and confusing school funding formulas that funnel two thirds of New Jersey’s income tax money into just 32 of its 567 towns. He showed that by giving more money to towns that had more kids getting free school lunches, the state encouraged fraud and corruption. He proposed a simple “Fair School Funding” formula that complies with our state Constitution, and would allocate all state income tax money to every school district equally based only on the number of students in each district.

Doherty fought crony capitalism and state taxpayer bailouts of failed private business ventures from the Xanadu Mall in the Meadowlands to the Revel Casino in Atlantic City. And he stood with Atlantic City residents when Christie Republicans and Sweeney Democrats stripped them of their right to put Revel tax abatements to a public vote.

If Chris Christie were anything like the conservative reformer he pretends to be, he would embrace someone like Mike Doherty and help him run against Democrat Bob Menendez, the lackluster U.S. senator who is up for re-election this year.

But Christie is instead using all of his money, power and influence to keep Doherty out, and make pay-to-play hack Bob Kyrillos the Republican candidate against Menendez instead.

Because Mike Doherty consistently supported and defended the basic principles of American liberty described at www.libertyandprosperity.org, he will be our guest at our annual fundraising breakfast and reception Sunday, Feb. 26 at the Carisbrooke Inn, 105 S. Little Rock Ave., Ventnor.

Seating is limited to 10, and tickets are $250. Tickets for the afternoon reception are $75 per person or $100 per couple.

Because LibertyAndProsperity.org is recognized by the IRS as a tax deductible educational charity, we do not and cannot endorse Mike Doherty or any candidates for any public office.

But we need money from events like this to truthfully inform citizens when officials like Mike Doherty effectively support and defend our principles.

We also need money from these events to teach ordinary citizens the skills they need to become effective and winning candidates – like Mike Doherty.

Somers Point attorney Seth Grossman appears on 92.1FM 8-9 a.m. Saturday. For information see www.libertyandprosperity.org, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call (609) 927-7333. Breakfast discussions are held 9:30-10:30 a.m. every Saturday at the Shore Diner on Fire and Tilton roads in Northfield.