The Bergen County Republican Policy Committee endorsed Nick De Gregorio for Congress in New Jersey’s 5th district, giving the U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran an early edge heading into the party’s convention next week.
De Gregorio defeated investment banker Frank Pallotta, the party’s 2020 nominee against Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff), 49 to 16, 71%-23%, with four votes for businessman Fred Schneiderman and none for Sab Skenderi.
In the race for the GOP House nod in the 9th district, the policy committee – the Bergen GOP version of a screening committee – picked U.S. Air Force veteran Billy Prempeh by a vote of 47 to 15, 75%-24%, against realtor Patrick Quinn. Prempeh is seeking a rematch of his 2020 campaign against Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-Paterson).
Former Bergen County Freeholder Todd Caliguire easily won the policy committee endorsement in his bid for a political comeback as a candidate for Bergen County Executive. He defeated Linda T. Barba, a Fort Lee realtor, 56 to 6, with five votes for Tim Walsh and two votes for Paul Duggan.
The winner will take on two-term County Executive James Tedesco.
The policy committee also voted to back Saddle River GOP Municipal Chairman Doug Holden, 2021 candidate Ronald Lin for county commissioner, and Englewood GOP leader Deirdre Paul.
Holden was the top vote-getter with 63 votes, followed by Lin (47), Paul (44), former Edgewater council candidate Michelle Han (42) and Russ Doherty (8).
Caliguire had been viewed as a rising star in Bergen County politics in the 1980s when he worked for Cary Edwards as an assistant counsel to Gov. Thomas H. Kean. He considered a challenge to then-Rep. Bob Torricelli (D-Englewood) in 1984 and won 46% of the vote against State Sen. Matthew Feldman (D-Teaneck) in the 1991 anti-Florio GOP wave.
He served two terms as a freeholder.
In his 2005 bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Caliguire received 6% of the vote in Bergen and finished seventh in the primary statewide with 2%.
Caliguire defeated then-County Clerk Kathleen Donovan in the 2006 GOP county executive primary by 577 votes but went on to lose the general election by 52,524 votes (61%-39%) against Democratic incumbent Dennis McNerney. Donovan had been viewed as the more electable candidate against McNerney and she unseated him four years later.
He challenged Assemblyman Kevin O’Toole (R-Cedar Grove) in the 2007 Republican primary for State Senate in the 40th district but lost by a fourteen-point margin.
Gov. Chris Christie hired Caliguire as the executive director of the North Jersey District Water Commission. After Murphy took office, he was replaced by Assemblyman Tim Eustace (D-Maywood) and became the deputy executive director. That post carried the same salary.
Once Caliguire qualified for his state pension in 2020, he left the commission.
Duggan, who nearly captured the GOP nomination for Bergen County Executive in 2018, announced this week that he will again seek the Republican organization line. He came within 123 votes of defeating Bergenfield Mayor Norman Schmelz in the county executive primary. Duggan lost a race for Bergen County Freeholder in 2007 and a primary for State Assembly in the 37th district in 2017.
Also running is Timothy Walsh, who is making his third bid for office. He lost a Republican congressional primary to Billy Prempeh in 2020 and a run for county commissioner in in 2021. He came within 13,445 votes of ousting incumbent Tracy Silna Zur.
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