Meet the Candidates
Learn more about State Senator Vin Gopal, Dr. Margie Donlon, and Luanne Peterpaul, Esq.
State Senator Vin Gopal
Vin Gopal is a lifelong resident of Monmouth County, born at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune and raised in Freehold. He is proud to be a small-business owner, having built his business from the ground up, now with 14 employees. Vin is also the Founder and President of a 501c(3) organization dedicated to helping Monmouth County charities and individuals in need. He holds a Masters in Public Administration from Rutgers University. He previously served on the Board of Directors for the then-Monmouth County Chamber of Commerce, and also served as President of the Hazlet Township Business Owners Association. He is also a past Board of Trustees Member of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Monmouth County. Vin spent many years as a volunteer first responder, serving as an EMT and certified CPR Instructor.
During his first term in the State Senate, Vin served as Senate Majority Conference Leader and Chairman of the Military and Veterans’ Affairs Committee as well as Vice-Chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee and was a member of the Health, Human Services, and Senior Citizens Committee. Vin has worked tirelessly across party-lines to champion the causes of working families in Monmouth County, small-business owners, students, and seniors. He has pushed for successful funding for Monmouth County schools, women’s healthcare facilities, mental health support along with many other key areas of funding support. He has also had a number of tax relief and shared-services bills signed into law and successfully fought party leadership from instituting a shore rental tax.
Now, in his second term, Vin is the Chair of the Senate Education Committee and will serve as a member in the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee and the State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee.
Dr. Margie Donlon
Margie Donlon is the Deputy Mayor in Ocean Township, where she has served on council since 2019. She is the Liaison to the Environmental Commission, Shade Tree commission, and the Green Team; she has worked in alliance with the Deal Lake Commission and Deal Lake Watershed Alliance on important local environmental issues. Margie also served as a member of the LD 11 Economic Recovery Advisory Council in 2020 during the Coronavirus pandemic. She was selected for Governor Murphy’s Healthcare Transition Advisory Committee in 2017.
Margie graduated from Middlebury College in 1999 with a BA in English and Film studies while completing her pre-med requirements. After graduating, she traveled to Romania and made documentary films about their health care system on a grant from the Humana Foundation. She also taught a freshman biology course at Middlebury College.
In 2002, Margie received her Masters in Public Health, specializing in Health Policy, from Yale University. She went to medical school at the University of Rochester, where she received her medical degree in 2006. Dr. Donlon then completed her residency training physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Kessler Institute through the residency program at UMDNJ (now Rutgers), in 2010. She pursued additional training in medical acupuncture and is currently board certified by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. She works as a consultant physician and cares for patients with injuries and disabilities. She is an advocate for her patients and works tirelessly to improve their quality of life.
Dr. Donlon also serves on the board of the Surfers Medical Association and has presented research at numerous medical conferences, including the American Geriatrics society, Association of Academic physiatrists, and Surfing Medical International. She is an active volunteer with the Surfers Environmental Alliance and the Best Day Foundation, teaching adaptive surfing to kids with disabilities.
In 2018, she was invited to attend the U.S. Army War College National Security Seminar, held in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, where she discussed significant national security issues with future and current leaders of the U.S. armed forces.
Margie lives in Ocean Township with her husband and daughters, Amalia and Vera.
Luanne Peterpaul, Esq.
Luanne Peterpaul is the managing partner of the Peterpaul Law, a law office located in Asbury Park, where she focuses on labor and employment law and general litigation, with a particular emphasis on training and education.
Peterpaul has been a long-time supporter of equal rights for all individuals. She was instrumental in persuading the state Legislature to enact anti-bullying legislation. She also sat on the New Jersey Commission on Bullying and served on the New Jersey Anti-Bullying Task Force.
As a former member of the board of directors of Garden State Equality, Peterpaul played a significant role in bringing marriage equality to the state. She was co-counsel in lawsuits defending challenges to the state’s law prohibiting conversion therapy.
Peterpaul has handled matters before many administrative agencies, including the state Department of Labor, the Division on Civil Rights, the Public Employment Relations Commission, and the National Labor Relations Board. She has lectured for the New Jersey Institute of Continuing Legal Education, the New Jersey State Bar Association Annual Conference, the American Conference on Diversity, the American Bar Association, The New Jersey Judicial College, Rutgers University, Kean University, and the Education Law Center, and presented numerous seminars to clients and interested parties in the area of employment and education law and litigation.
She was named in 2015 to the New Jersey Law Journal list as one of the Diverse Attorneys of the Year. Peterpaul has appeared on Court TV as a guest panelist and on other news outlets as a legal analyst.
Peterpaul began her legal career as an assistant Essex County prosecutor. While in that role, she tried cases ranging from theft to homicide. Peterpaul is a member of the American Bar Association, the New Jersey State Bar Association, and the Monmouth County Bar Association. Peterpaul is a former member of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey.
She is active in her community and serves on the Advisory Committee of the Unterberg Children’s Hospital of RWJ/Barnabas Hospital at the Monmouth Medical Center and on the board of the Thomas Peterpaul Foundation.
Luanne is AV Rated by Martindale-Hubbell and has been selected as a New Jersey Super Lawyer. Luanne and her wife Robin were finally able to marry in May 2014 following a 31-year relationship.
Luanne is a graduate of Duquesne University, and Seton Hall School of Law
