Pennachio, Webber, Bergen victorious in competitive LD26 Republican primary

Three incumbent legislators from the 26th district – State Sen. Joe Pennacchio (R-Montville), Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains), and Assemblyman Brian Bergen (R-Denville) – have won their respective Republican primaries after an intense campaign, the New Jersey Globe projects.

All three incumbents had the county lines in Morris and Passaic Counties, but that didn’t stop Morris County Commissioner Tom Mastrangelo (R-Montville) from leading a slate against them alongside former Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce (R-Parsippany) and former Parsippany Councilman Robert Peluso. 

As of 11:26 p.m., Pennacchio has 60% of the vote to Mastrangelo’s 40%. Webber is far ahead in the Assembly primary with 34% of the vote, followed by Bergen’s 31%; DeCroce and Peluso each have 17%.

Pennacchio and Mastrangelo both have long histories in Morris County politics: the former has been a state legislator since 2001, while the latter has been a commissioner since 2011. The two also have a long history of disliking one another.

In 2022, Mastrangelo was kicked off the Morris GOP line in his commissioner re-election bid; he ran off-the-line anyways and won the primary. That campaign deepened the rift between Mastrangelo and the Morris GOP establishment – and emboldened him to run in the 26th district once again, having previously lost an Assembly bid in 2021.

Mastrangelo announced his Senate campaign in February and immediately began hitting Pennacchio for supposedly being insufficiently conservative, using Pennacchio’s yes vote on the 2019-2020 state budget as proof. Although the Passaic and Morris Republican Parties both overwhelmingly gave their lines to Pennacchio, Mastrangelo kept up his aggressive campaign.

DeCroce, on the other hand, has been running for the Assembly for nearly a year, launching her comeback campaign last June.

A five-term former assemblywoman, DeCroce was denied party support in 2021 and narrowly lost the Republican primary to now-Assemblyman Christian Barranco (R-Jefferson). Barranco was moved into another district on the state’s new legislative map in a switcheroo with Bergen, providing DeCroce with an opportunity, since Bergen currently represents very little of the new 26th district and is less well-known by the district’s voters.

The lone incumbent who always seemed to be in fine shape was Webber, who finished in first place in the 2021 primary and never came under serious fire from Team Mastrangelo. Peluso, Webber’s would-be opponent, raised next to no money and mainly seemed to be on the ballot in order to complete Mastrangelo’s slate.

With the 26th district team’s victory, only one incumbent legislator has lost renomination this year, and that comes with a major asterisk: State Sen. Nia Gill (D-Montclair) was double-bunked with State Sen./former Gov. Richard Codey (D-Roseland), so one of them was going to lose regardless. Every other incumbent facing a challenge prevailed.

Pennacchio’s win could also assuage Republican legislators who are nervous about voting for this year’s state budget. Mastrangelo attacked Pennacchio for voting for a “Phil Murphy budget” four years ago, but the attacks were evidently unsuccessful; with the fiscal year 2024 budget due at the end of this month, other Republicans may take that into account.