To boost Juliano, McCabe hosts fundraiser for Johnson

Middlesex and Bergen Democrats came together on Monday night to raise money for Gordon Johnson’s State Senate campaign, a move that highlights an emerging alliance between the two county chairs, Kevin McCabe and Paul Juliano.

The $500-per-person event at Il Castello’s in Woodbridge attracted a big crowd of Middlesex Democrats to help Johnson and his two Assembly running mates – Shaima Haider and Ellen Park — win the open 37th district seats in the June primary.

Johnson faces his longtime Assembly colleague, Valerie Vainieri Huttle, in a contest to replace retiring Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg.

If the coalition between McCabe and Juliano has some permanence, the two counties combined represents a block: 510,972 registered Democrats, about 20% of all Democrats statewide.  Right now, the two counties have a seven Senate seats – that number could go up to eight if Andrew Zwicker (D-South Brunswick) flips the 16th district seat in the fall – and sixteen Assembly seats.