Allies of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Fulop will mount a bid for Bergen County Commissioner in next year’s Democratic primary, taking on candidates backed by the county organization in what will likely be an office block ballot without lines.
Former Palisades Park Mayor Chris Chung, former Closter Councilwoman Dolores Witko, and John Vitale, a restaurant owner from Park Ridge who ran for State Assembly in 2023, will run for county commissioner on the first of Fulop’s down-ballot slates. They could face three incumbents who have not yet announced if they will seek re-election: Mary Amoroso (D-Mahwah), Germaine Ortiz (D-Emerson), and Thomas Sullivan (D-Montville).
In Somerset County, Dr. Dhaval Amin, a U.S. Army veteran who works as a podiatrist at the U.S. Veterans Hospital in East Orange, will seek the Democratic nomination for county commissioner. The incumbent, Melonie Marano (D-Green Brook), is expected to seek re-election to a third term.
Fulop has recruited 20 candidates for the State Assembly in 2025.
“I said from the beginning that our campaign was about bringing change to New Jersey, and that means empowering candidates for office at every level,” stated Fulop. “We need people who will listen to the constituents, not the political bosses, when they make decisions about zoning, or a park or a school. We are running a campaign on leaders who respond to problems not with platitudes, but with policies, and who see barriers as something to fight against and progress as something to fight for.”
In the Bergen-based 37th district, Tamar Warburg, a Teaneck Democratic leader and general counsel of the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest NJ, and Tenafly Councilman Dan Park will take on Assemblywomen Shama Haider (D-Tenafly) and Ellen Park (D-Englewood Cliffs). He is also backing former Woodland Park Councilman Ron Arnau in the 40th district, which includes part of Bergen County.
A former school board member and council president, Chung became the first Korean American mayor of Korean-majority Palisades Park in 2018 when he ousted incumbent James Rotondo by eight votes. He was briefly the Bergen County Democratic organization candidate for State Assembly in 2021. He lost re-election in the Democratic primary in 2022 after falling out of favor with his local party.
Witko spent a decade on the Closter school board and six years on the borough council. She was a delegate to 1199J AFSCME. Vitale lost his Assembly bid in the 39th district last year against Republicans Bob Auth (R-Old Tappan) and John Azzariti, Jr. (R-Saddle River).
The county commissioner candidates help Fulop gain footholds in the Korean American community in Bergen County, along with rank-and-file AFSCME members. In Somerset, Amin could help Fulop gain support among the county’s growing South Asian population.