Mayor James Barberio won a bitter Republican primary fight with Justin Mussella, a 33-year-old first-term councilman, and will get a chance to win a fourth, non-consecutive term as mayor of Parsippany.
Babrerio leads Mussella, 55.5%-44.5%.
In the race for township council, Barberio’s running mates, incumbent Frank Neglia and Jigar Shah have defeated two candidates running with Mussella, Casey Parikh and John Bielen.
The Morris County Republican organization backed Barberio for another term.
Barberio will face Democrat Pulkit Desai, who looks to become the township’s first South Asian American mayor.
Elected mayor in 2009 and 2013, Barberio lost his bid for a third term in 2017 by six points to Democrat Michael Soriano, but won a 2021 rematch by five points after winning a four-point victory in the Republican primary.
With a population of over 56,000 people, Parsippany is New Jersey’s 30th largest municipality and the largest in Morris County.
Decades of infighting among Parsippany Republicans led to Democratic mayors for 35 of the last 57 years in a town that once provided huge pluralities for GOP candidates running statewide and in Morris County.
Intra-party quarrels and changing demographics have made the largest municipality in Morris County a swing, ticket-splitting town. The local Republican wars go back to 1965, when voters switched from a non-partisan township manager form of government to the direct election of a strong mayor in partisan elections.
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