Morristown councilwoman to run for freeholder

Lame duck Morristown Councilwoman Alison Deeb is running for her third office in six weeks, entering the race for a seat on the Morris County Board of Freeholders.

Deeb is the fifth Republican to enter the race for seat of Heather Darling, who is resigning from the freeholder board in two weeks to become the Morris County Surrogate.

Former Freeholder John Cesaro has been actively seeking county committee votes for a political comeback.  He lost his bid for re-election in the 2018 Republican primary.

Chatham Township Mayor Tayfun Selen and former Pompton Lakes Councilman Christian Barranco are also in the race.

Barranco, who now lives in Jefferson, is a journeyman member of IBEW Local 102.

Pequannock Councilwoman Melissa Florance-Lynch is now mulling a bid for the seat and has been encouraged to enter the race.

Another former freeholder, David Scapicchio, had been expected to run but has decided not to.

Morris County Republicans cannot call the special election convention until Darling resigns.  That will trigger a vote within 7 to 35 days of the vacancy.

Darling’s seat is up in November 2020.

Deeb lost re-election to her Ward 4 council seat last month by eight percentage points to Democrat Sandi Mayer.  Two weeks later, she won just 2.8% of the vote in a special election convention to fill Anthony M. Bucco.

Earlier this year, Deeb had announced that she would seek the open seat of retiring Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, but then dropped out of the race.  She did not file for re-election to the council, but won the GOP nomination as a write-in candidate.