Melfi wins fifth term as Hunterdon clerk; Van Doren likely winner in county commissioner race

Republican Hunterdon County Clerk Mary Melfi won re-election to a fifth term on Tuesday, while Republican County Commissioner Shaun Van Doren appears likely to hold his seat in a close race against Democrat Jason Blazakis, potentially extending a 47-year Democratic drought in countywide elections.

The commissioner race remains too close to call, with approximately 600 provisional ballots and 500 vote-by-mail ballots still to be counted.

Hunterdon County has not elected a Democrat to countywide office since 1979, when Benjamin Kirkland won a third term as a county freeholder. Kirkland lost his bid for a fourth term in 1982, and Republicans have held every seat on the county governing body ever since.

Melfi, who was first elected county clerk in 2006 and ran unopposed in 2021, defeated Democrat Caitlin Giles-McCormick, a former Flemington councilwoman who works for the Sherrill administration, by 29,597 to 25,604, a margin of 3,993 votes.

The commissioner contest was considerably closer.

Van Doren, a former Tewksbury mayor who was first elected in 2018, won re-election in 2023 by a 57%-43% margin. His Democratic challenger, Blazakis, is a counterterrorism and sanctions expert who previously ran for Congress.

Earlier unofficial returns showed Blazakis leading Van Doren by 874 votes, 27,809 to 26,935, before later developments suggested Van Doren was positioned to win.

Blazakis benefited from a substantial advantage in mail-in and early voting. He received 8,557 mail-in votes to Van Doren’s 4,028 and led in early voting, 8,879 to 6,956.

Van Doren carried Election Day voting, 15,951 to 10,373, helping him close the gap created by Blazakis’ advantage among voters who cast their ballots before Tuesday.

The close contest reflected a significant shift in a traditionally Republican county that Donald Trump carried by seven percentage points in 2024 and Jack Ciattarelli won by five points in the 2025 gubernatorial election.

With roughly 1,100 ballots still outstanding, the final outcome remains uncertain.

A Van Doren victory would preserve Republican control of all five seats on the Hunterdon County Board of County Commissioners and extend the party’s uninterrupted countywide winning streak.