Ex-Parsippany councilman will run for Assembly on ticket led by Mastrangelo, DeCroce

Former Parsippany Councilman Robert Peluso will seek the Republican nomination for State Assembly in the 26th district, rounding out a ticket headed by State Senate candidate Tom Mastrangelo against incumbents in the June 6 primary election.

Mastrangelo, a Morris County commissioner from Montville, is challenging Senate Assistant Majority Leader Joseph Pennacchio (R-Montville).  Former Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce (R-Parsippany) will run with Mastrangelo and Peluso against two incumbent assemblymen, Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains) and Brian Bergen (R-Denville).

Paul DeGroot, a former prosecutor who ran for Congress in 2022, will run on the Mastrangelo line for county commissioner against incumbent Tayfun Selen (R-Chatham Township).  The line is controlled by the campaign manager for a county commissioner candidate, which means it will be up to the campaign to determine who may run on that line with him.

The off-the-line slate will not include a county clerk candidate leaving two-term incumbent Ann Grossi (R-Parsippany) potentially unopposed in the primary.

At the Morris GOP convention earlier this month, Pennacchio defeated Mastrangelo with 77%, while Bergen (200) and Webber (165) easily outdistanced DeCroce (46).

Selen beat DeGroot by a 62%-21% margin at the convention.

The primary will be the fourth time Selen and DeGroot have faced off.

Last year, Selen defeated Larry Casha for the Morris County Republican organization line to take on Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair), with DeGroot finishing in fourth place on the first ballot.   But DeGroot won the Republican primary by four percentage points after holding Selen to a 4.7-point win in the Morris County portion of the district.

DeCroce lost her seat two years ago after Christian Barranco (R-Jefferson) displaced her at the Morris GOP convention by nine votes.   In the primary, Barranco defeated DeCroce by 551 votes.

In that 2021 contest, Mastrangelo finished fourth, 687 votes behind DeCroce.  He was viewed by the DeCroce campaign as a spoiler.

Last year, Mastrangelo lost party support for re-election to a fifth term as a county commissioner at the convention.  But running off-the-line, he defeated Mendham Township Committeewoman and former mayor Sarah Neibart by 838 votes countywide.

Peluso won a Parsippany council seat in 2013, narrowly defeating incumbent Vincent Ferrara and his running mate, Michael Strumolo.  He gave up his seat in 2017 to challenge Mayor James Barbiero in the GOP primary but lost 53.5% to 46.5%.   Peluso, who has already filed a campaign account to take on Barbiero in the 2025 mayoral race, briefly ran for freeholder in 2018.