Former Oakland Mayor Linda Schwager is now the endorsed candidate for Bergen County Surrogate after winning the party’s convention without opposition last night.
The longtime incumbent, Michael Dressler, died on December 4.
Schwager will turn 78 before the end of the year, and her decision to seek a five-year term comes during a national debate on whether septuagenarian and octogenarian candidates should step aside to make room for younger candidates. If Schwager wins this election – Republicans have not won in Bergen since 2013 – she would be 83 at the end of her term. Surrogates are judges, and while there is no mandatory retirement age, Schwager aged out of an appointment to the bench many years ago.
In her convention speech, Schwager tried to use humor to indirectly address her age. She said that she was running for the office of surrogate, and not seeking to become a surrogate mother.
Age is not necessarily a disqualifier: Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) was at the pinnacle of her political power as Senate Majority Leader when she retired in 2021 at age 86; few would argue that she could still do her job today with much gusto.
Republican Elton Conda had served as Burlington County Surrogate for nearly 40 years before announcing his retirement in 2006. He was the lone New Jersey elected official who lived in a nursing home; he was a resident of the Masonic Home of New Jersey, a long-term care facility. A staffer picked Conda up at the home every morning; he worked a few hours, took a nap on his office sofa, and was driven back to the nursing home in time for a late lunch. Conda died in office less than a month after a little more than six months before his eighth term was over.
A former president of the Bergen County Bar Association, Schwager won three terms as mayor of Oakland, a Republican-leaning town, before losing re-election by just 21 votes out of nearly 4,400 cast in 2023 to Republican Eric Kulmala. She lost a council race the following year.
She lost a comeback bid for a borough council seat in 2024 by 462 votes.
In 2017, Schwager was the Democratic nominee for the State Senate in the 39th district, running against 11-term Republican incumbent Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest). Cardinale won what would become his final term – he died in 2021 – by a 53%-47% margin. Schwager won eight municipalities: Closter, Demarest, Dumont, Harrington Park, Haworth, Oakland, Norwood, and Westwood.
With no county organization lines, Schwager could still face a primary challenge. The filing deadline is March 23.