Organization lines mostly held for both parties in six closely-watched state legislative races in Tuesday’s primary election, with incumbent State Sens. Edward R. Durr (R-Logan), Joseph Pennacchio (R-Montville), and Richard J. Codey (D-Roseland) winning outsized double-digit victories in races viewed as competitive.
The only incumbent to lose was Nia Gill (D-Montclair), who was forced into a primary against Codey, her longtime colleague, after legislative redistricting. Codey won by a 58%-42% margin.
In a heated GOP primary for an open Senate seat in the competitive 4th district, former Washington Township Councilman Chris Del Borrello beat Gloucester County Commissioner Nick DeSilvio by a 61%-39% margin. He took Gloucester County, where DeSilvio had the line, with 60%; Del Borrello had the line in Camden and Atlantic, where he won 50% and 82%, respectively.
Del Borrello will now face Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D-Washington Township) for the seat held for the last 20 years by Democrat Fred Madden (D-Washington Township).
Former Buena Council President and Operating Engineers Local 825 member Matthew Walker and public school teacher Amanda Esposito, running with Del Borrello, defeated Michael Clark and Denise Gonzalez by a wide margin to capture the GOP Assembly nomination.
The closest race came in the 24th district, where five Republicans sought two open State Assembly seats, Sussex County Commissioner Dawn Fantasia (27%) and her running mate, Chester Mayor Mike Inganamort (25%), defeated Lafayette Board of Education President Josh Aikens (22%) and Warren County Commissioner Jason Sarnoski (21%). Robert Kovic finished last with 5%.
Durr, the truck driver-turned-giant killer who upset Senate President Steve Sweeney two years ago, defeated his former running mate, Assemblywoman Beth Sawyer (R-Woolwich), by a 65%-35% margin. Durr carried Gloucester County with 64%, Salem with 65%, and Cumberland with 76%.
Former Assembly Appropriations Committee Chairman John Burzichelli easily captured the Democratic nomination, defeating music teacher Mario DeSantis by a 3-1 margin. He’ll run with Gloucester County Commissioner Heather Simmons and non-profit executive Dave Bailey, who easily won their State Assembly primaries against Tanzie Youngblood and Robert Fitzpatrick.
In the 26th district, Pennacchio faced a vicious and frequently deceptive challenge from Morris County Commissioner Tom Mastrangelo (R-Montville) and demolished him by twenty percentage points. One of the most conservative members of the New Jersey Senate, Pennacchio carried Morris with 60% and Passaic with 59% to score renomination to a sixth term.
In the Assembly race, incumbents Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains) and Brian Bergen (R-Denville) scored landslide victories against former Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce (R-Parsippany) and former Parsippany Councilman Robert Peluso.
In the 27th district Assembly contest, incumbent John McKeon (D-West Orange) and Alixon Collazos-Gill, a former congressional aide from Montclair, won a 2-1 victory against former Montclair school board member Eve Robinson, with former Assemblyman Craig Stanley receiving an even bigger drubbing.
A former governor of New Jersey, Codey was first elected to the Assembly in 1973 at age 26 and to the Senate in 1981; he’s now in his 50th year as a state legislator. Gill has been in Trenton for nearly 30 years, winning an Assembly seat in 1993 and a Senate seat in 2001.
Codey won 57% in Essex County, and 61% in Clifton, the lone Passaic County municipality in the district.
In the 28th district, where Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-South Orange) is retiring after sixteen years, Deputy Essex County Clerk Garnet Hall, the Maplewood Democratic vice chair, was the top vote-getter; incumbent Cleopatra Tucker (D-Newark) finished second, defeating former Maplewood Mayor Frank McGehee by a 2-1 margin.
In the 3rd district Assembly seat, Durr’s running mates, Assemblywoman Bethanne McCarthy Patrick (R-Mannington) and Hopewell Township Committeeman Thomas Tedesco defeated Joseph Collins, the nephew of former Assembly Speaker Jack Collins, with ease. Collins had run with Sawyer.
The night’s biggest upset came in Sussex County, where 24-year-old Jack DeGroot, a farmer and graduate student, walloped two-term County Commissioner Herb Yardley (R-Stillwater) by a 53%-30% margin.
Craig Guy scored a landslide victory in the Democratic primary for Hudson County Executive, defeating Eleana Little with 78% of the vote. The Hudson County Democratic Organization held all nine county commissioner seats, but two incumbents, Yraida Aponte-Lipski (D-Jersey City) and Anthony “Skip” Romano (D-Hoboken) just narrowly held on.
In Toms River, Councilman Daniel Rodrick won the Republican nomination for mayor, ousting incumbent Mo Hill in the primary. Rodrick won 46%, defeating former Republican Club President Geri Ambrosio (28%) and Hill (21%). A slate of council candidates running with Rodrick also won, defeating three incumbents.
Morris County Commissioner Tayfun Selen (R-Chatham) held off a GOP primary challenge from Paul DeGroot, a former prosecutor. Selen won, 54%-46%. This was effectively a rematch of their 2022 congressional primary in NJ-11, where Selen narrowly carried Morris but lost the nomination to DeGroot.
In Gloucester County, off-the-line candidates for three county commissioner seats and surrogate running with Del Borrello scored narrow victories in the Republican primary.
RELATED ARTICLES
-
March 15, 2018 -
November 12, 2019 -
March 9, 2022