Tom Kean, Jr. won the Warren County Republican organization line, defeating Erik Peterson by a vote of 52 to 40 in a vote on Saturday morning in his bid for the Republican nomination for Congress in New Jersey’s 5th district.
That gives Kean, the former minority leader of the New Jersey State Senate, organization lines in Union, Hunterdon, Somerset, Morris and Warren, and the organization slogan in Sussex, as he seeks a rematch with two-term Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes).
Peterson, a longtime assemblyman who represents parts of Hunterdon and Warren counties, lost Hunterdon by 7 votes and now Warren by 12, which translates into a ten-point win. But now Peterson must mount off-the-line bids in a crowded Republican primary.
Other candidates — businessman John Henry Isemann, Fredon Mayor John Flora, ex-gubernatorial candidate Phil RIzzo, retired U.S. Navy officer Sterling Irwin Schwab, and public works contractor Kevin Dorlon — did not compete for the organization line in Warren County.
There are reports that an eighth candidate, Summit salon owner Robert Trugman, has dropped out of the race and has endorsed Kean. Trugman, who has been running for Congress on and off since his first bid in 1980, has never seen his name appear on a primary ballot.
The Warren vote follows a unanimous recommendation of the party’s executive committee in February.
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