It’s octogenarian vs. septuagenarian in race for Bergen County Surrogate

Franklin Lakes Councilman Joseph S. Conte, a retired Superior Court judge, won the GOP nomination for surrogate on Tuesday, the New Jersey Globe projects. 

Conte faced Daniel Ng, who initially had the backing of the Bergen GOP until Conte said he would enter the race. 

As of 9:52 p.m., Conte leads Ng 10,870-3,431. 

Conte is 82, and he will face Democrat Linda Schwager, the 77-year-old former mayor of Oakland. 

Republicans have not won a countywide race in Bergen County since 2013.

Bergen County Executive James Tedesco III was unopposed in the Democratic primary for a fourth term. He will face Republican Todd Hennessey in November.

In 2014, Tedesco, a former Paramus mayor serving as a freeholder, unseated one-term Republican County Executive Kathleen Donovan.

Hennessey is a painter at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey who came within one vote of winning a Rutherford council seat in 2009. In 1995, then a Jersey City resident, Hennessey was the Republican nominee for State Assembly in the 32nd legislative district. He finished fourth, 14,298 behind Assemblyman Anthony Impreveduto (D-Secaucus).

Democrat John Hogan had no primary opposition in his bid for re-election to a fourth term.  He ousted incumbent Lisa Randall, a former assemblywoman who served in Gov. Christine Todd Whitman’s cabinet, in 2011. He’ll face Republican Timothy Walsh.

Two veteran county commissioners, Joan Voss and Rafael Marte, had no opponent in the Democratic primary. They will face Republicans John Dinice, a Mahwah school board member, and newcomer Maria Soledad Laman.